Uber Expands Women-Only Driver Matching Feature Nationwide Despite Legal Challenges

Ride-sharing giant Uber has rolled out its women-only driver matching service across the United States, allowing female passengers and drivers to connect with each other for safety reasons. The expansion comes as the company faces discrimination lawsuits from male drivers who claim the policy unfairly restricts their access to passengers.

Ride-sharing company Uber rolled out a nationwide service on Monday that connects female passengers with women drivers, despite facing legal challenges over the policy in California courts.

The expanded program addresses safety concerns on the platform by giving women riders and drivers the option to match with each other during trips. This comes even as a class action lawsuit filed by male Uber drivers in California claims the feature discriminates against men. Competitor Lyft faces similar legal action over its comparable service launched in 2024.

Through the company’s blog announcement, Uber detailed how the “Women Drivers” feature operates within its app. Female passengers can specifically request women drivers, with options to choose different rides if wait times become excessive or to book future trips with female drivers in advance. A third setting lets women users establish a general preference for female drivers, boosting their likelihood of such matches without guaranteeing them. The company has extended this option to teenage account holders as well.

Female drivers using Uber’s platform can adjust their settings to prioritize rides with women passengers and modify this preference whenever they choose.

The San Francisco-headquartered company reports that approximately 20% of its U.S. drivers are women, though this percentage fluctuates across different metropolitan areas.

Legal action emerged in November when two California Uber drivers initiated a class-action case, claiming the Women Preferences feature breaks California’s Unruh Act, which bans gender-based discrimination by businesses. Their complaint states that while female drivers maintain access to all passengers, male drivers must compete for a reduced passenger pool. The lawsuit further contends that Uber’s approach “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women.”

Uber responded by filing for mandatory arbitration, referencing agreements drivers accepted when joining the platform. The company rejected claims of Unruh Act violations, stating the feature “serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety.”

“This feature is a common sense solution to a long-standing request from both women Drivers and Riders who told Uber they would feel more comfortable and safer if they could choose to ride with another woman,” Uber stated in court documents.

Lyft confronts comparable litigation regarding its “Women+Connect” service, which matches women and nonbinary passengers with drivers sharing similar identifications.

Uber initially tested its “Women Preferences” program in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit during summer months before extending it to 26 American cities in November. The company originally introduced a version of this service in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after that nation passed legislation allowing women to drive. Similar programs now operate in 40 additional countries, including Canada and Mexico.

Both Uber and Lyft have endured ongoing scrutiny regarding safety protocols, with thousands of sexual assault reports involving passengers and drivers. A federal jury determined in February that Uber bore legal responsibility for a 2023 sexual assault incident, ordering the company to pay $8.5 million to an Arizona woman who reported being raped by her driver.

While Uber maintains it cannot be held liable for contractor misconduct since drivers are not employees, the company has implemented various safety improvements. These include partnering with Lyft in 2021 to establish a shared database tracking drivers removed from ride-hailing services due to sexual assault complaints and other criminal activities.

Uber reports declining sexual assault incidents over time. Company data shows 5,981 sexual assault cases reported during U.S. rides from 2017 to 2018, compared to 2,717 cases between 2021 and 2022 (the most recent available statistics), representing 0.0001% of total nationwide trips according to the platform.