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The ride service did not provide comparable
figures for how many women drivers are on the Uber service
globally today. In the United States, about 14 percent of its
160,000 drivers are female, the company said, and the company
adds thousands more drivers each month.
"Uber does not require (minimum) hours, and it does not require
a schedule," said Salle Yoo, Uber's general counsel, in an
interview Monday about why women might find working for Uber
attractive. "It offers the chance to be entrepreneurial, the
chance to balance work and family."
Women passengers won't yet have the ability to request women
drivers, Yoo said. She stressed the app's safety features,
including the notification of who a driver is, and the ability
to share an estimated arrival time with others.
The pledge comes as the rapidly expanding company deals with
fallout over incidents of assaults by drivers from Boston and
Chicago to New Delhi.
In the highest-profile case, an Indian woman said in December
her driver raped her in Delhi, leading to outcries and a
temporary ban of Uber in that city.
The female driver initiative is timed to a United Nations
gathering in New York Tuesday evening celebrating women's
rights, where Yoo will speak.
Uber screens drivers, including using background checks that
vary from country to country, but doesn't hire them as full
employees. Instead, it lets drivers use its smartphone-based app
to connect them to passengers looking for a paid ride, and takes
a cut of the fare.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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