Lyft is introducing a new feature that lets women and non-binary riders choose a preference to match with drivers of the same gender.
The ride-hailing company said it was a “highly requested feature” in a blog post Tuesday, saying the new feature allows women and non-binary people to “feel that much more confident” in using Lyft and also hopefully encourage more women to sign up to be drivers to access its “flexible earning opportunities.”
The service, called “Women+ Connect,” is rolling out in the coming months. Riders can turn on the option in the Lyft app, however the company warns that it’s not a guarantee that they’ll be matched with a women or non-binary person if one of those people aren’t nearby. Both the riders and drivers will need to opt-in to the feature for it work and riders must chose a gender for it to work.
Why not let men do the same thing?
It might have something to do with women being at a higher risk of being abused. But unless you’ve been living under a rock you already knew that. So what are you really asking?
Higher risk for woman of being abused does not mean that for man of being abused is 0.
I don’t understand why if something bad is more propably to happed to woman we make special exception in the rules just to exclude man of this protection.
Since most men are abused by other men, letting men choose to be matched with more male drivers would actually increase their risk of getting abused.
Generally there is an underlying concept of “being more evenly matched”. On average women do face more risk of being physically outmatched by men. If another woman became aggressive then their chances of coming out of the altercation would be more “fair” when matching like with like. If you’ve ever been in a good natured but honest wrestling match with the opposite sex you can usually see the power difference and the results can be pretty sobering to a female participant. These dynamics apply to social situations. If you are afraid of the outsized potential of harm someone has towards you then you are more or less forced to behave in an oppressed fashion if they choose to be a jerk because sticking up for yourself comes with the potential of a threat you are not equipped to come out on top of.
The chance of a woman being abused by another woman is also not zero but the level of threat is more on par with what they are physically and psychologically equipped to combat.
Yeah because only men can use knives and guns, or be physically strong, or choke someone.
I’m so sick of sexist bullshit like this. Women can be strong, too. Women can be capable of things, too. It’s insulting of you to insinuate otherwise.
Oh fuck off with this disingenuous bullshit. I’m a man and have never had to feel intimidated taking a taxi or Uber.
Sure they can be. Anyone can be a strong asshole. But history has shown men are most commonly the aggressor and disproportionately towards women than other men. Stop being a cry baby and correct men you see who are fucked up.
Why won’t anyone think of the straight white men!! What about our struggles???
Yea but for any normal dude trying to do this as a job this means he gets less rides and less money
Not proportionally though. If the service is less safe for women and non-binary people, then fewer of those people will make full use of the service. So either way, the male drivers probably aren’t getting their custom. The safety features increase the size of the rider pool even as they might exclude some riders from some drivers. Women and non-binary drivers might take over the additional riders, but those drivers might have previously been driving men who are now left for male drivers to pick up. The overall impact to male drivers isn’t as bad as just losing those opportunities.
Getting shot, stabbed, robbed, beaten, choked, ganged up on, sexually assaulted. Weird, the exact same list that women have to fear.
Oh except men also have to worry about being falsely accused of sexual misconduct, having their names put on the sex offender registry and the entire rest of their lives ruined because no one will believe them.
Getting shot, stabbed, robbed, beaten, choked, ganged up on, sexually assaulted. Weird, the exact same list that women have to fear.
Lmao this is just categorically false, and there’s so much fucking data to prove it. I’ve never once felt threatened that a woman would do any of these things to me, but I definitely have feltoke other men would.
Oh except men also have to worry about being falsely accused of sexual misconduct, having their names put on the sex offender registry and the entire rest of their lives ruined because no one will believe them.
While is sadly true, it’s so much less common than sexual misconduct happening to women. It’s so rare in fact that this has never been a fear of mine because I treat every person I meet with respect and I know for a fact that I’m not a creep. Same goes for all of my male friends. If you have a fear that this may happen to you, I think you need to reassess how you interact with women. I would be willing to bet that things you do to women you see as innocent flirting or something when in reality it makes those women extremely uncomfortable.
(numbers pulled out of my ass, but…)
99% of men don’t need it so won’t use it. 99% of the remainder will use it to find a target to harass. Whoever is left might miss out on a great feature, but they’re barely a rounding error.
Personally, I’d love a feature that let me pick a driver that would just shut up.
Maybe a gay man feels more comfortable with men driving… it’s not that crazy…
