I am not saying Uber is doing this with some underhand motivation. Not blaming Uber here. My point is broader one. That the more separation (even if optional) we introduce, the worse its impact on gender equality. What we should do is try to tackle the root causes.
I don't work at Uber, so I don't know what they are doing. But what some things Uber could do, just off of the top of my head:
- Take complaints more seriously
- When selecting drivers, have a more rigourous selection procedure regarding this topic
What we as society can do? Many things, but let me list some that just spring to mind:
- Stop objectifying women in ads, movies, porn, popular culture and other places
- Stop treating nudity as some kind of crazy thing (of both genders, but again, double standards here because male topless nudity is not a big deal, but female is)
- Providing more suport for women who have been stalked or harassed or raped by men (ideally, so that we can pre-emptively stop those activities, not after it's too late)
- Education: Include gender education early on in school, mixed gender sports classes, mixed bathrooms, etc.
It's a great list. I believe Uber has improved on both of those items although could still do better (see e.g. [0]).
The issue with the second list is that it takes a long time to encourage that sort of social progress. It's extremely difficult to undo years of conditioning, so I think we have to wait it out until that generation ages out. In the meantime providing safety options for women in limited high-risk scenarios feels very jutifiable. And we continually reassess what those scenarios are so that we're allocating those measures in an efficient and moderated way.
