Costa Rica News – Everybody by now knows what Uber is. But can you quickly make a mental picture of a Uber woman driver? Probably not. I can’t. And why not?
Off the top of my head it probably has to do with safety, many women feeling that it would not be safe or a good idea for a woman to be a Uber driver. Perhaps for the same reason for so very few women taxi drivers.
Or could it be more due to machismo? After all the public transport sector is dominated by men. In the majority men driving the buses, the taxis and even colliding trains into each other. Despite this an increasingly number of women behind the wheel. I can remember a time in Costa Rica when it was an oddity to see a woman behind the wheel of an automobile. Today it is the norm.
To get my answer I asked three women friends who drive. All three said safety was an issue. Their personal safety and security being the main concern, especially if having to work at night, which according to two male friends who have, one still is, a Uber driver, the best time to make money is at night. The one male friend who, although continues in the system, is no longer a Uber driver says he quit because be couldn’t make money during the day, refusing the night work, the day is just too much traffic congestion, customers upset at the cost and the profits literally burned away.
I sent Uber an email asking for numbers of women Uber drivers. I got no reply. According to my two male friends, no women attended the Uber orientation during theirs, taken at different times.
I began a search on the web on women drivers in Costa Rica, disappointing Google results. And even more disappointing for Uber in particular.
I did find two articles worth noting, the most recent (last month) on Mic.com, “Is Uber Doing Enough to Protect Women Drivers From Sexual Harassment?” and on Forbes.com (of April 2015), “Why Aren’t There More Female Uber And Lyft Drivers?“.
From QCostaRica
