Male drivers for Uber and Lyft are suing the companies over a feature that allows users to only welcome female drivers.
The dual class action lawsuit alleges that the functions that followed. thousands about sexual harassment and assault trials against Uber and Lyft for many years—limiting economic opportunities for men and discriminating against them based on their gender.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argue that male drivers “are discriminated against and receive fewer and different rides than they otherwise would have if they did not adhere to this policy.” They argue that the policy “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women.”
Read more: Sexual harassment isn't just a problem for the rich and famous
California has some of the strongest anti-discrimination laws in the country. The lawsuit accuses Uber and Lyft of violating the Unruh Act, a California civil rights law that “expressly prohibits sex discrimination by business enterprises.”
They are seeking $4,000 in damages for each male driver in California for violating state law.
TIME has reached out to Uber and Lyft for comment.
Two drivers were named as plaintiffs in each lawsuit from the two companies, but the lawsuits estimate that hundreds of thousands of male ride-sharing drivers could be included in the class action.
The lawsuits have been met with alarm by some users of the feature, who argue it is vital for security.
“I just feel safer and more comfortable with a female driver,” Celeste Juarez, 28, told TIME. “I've had a lot of unpleasant situations with male drivers in the past. Especially at bachelorette parties.”
Juarez said she has been a regular user of Uber's “Women's Preference” feature since it was introduced and believes the lawsuits are “misguided.”
“As a woman, it's about my safety and being able to get to my destination without any repercussions or any unwanted sexual advances. This option makes me feel a lot safer and not worry about coming home late or not having to worry about whether I'm going to make it home,” she said.
Uber announced The program, which allowed female drivers and passengers to ride with other women in July, has since rolled out in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit over the summer.
“Across the U.S., women riders and drivers have told us they want this option to be available to other women on the road,” the company said in a statement. “We've heard them – and now we're introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive.”
The feature was first introduced by Uber in 2019 in Saudi Arabia following the passage of a landmark law giving women the right to drive.
Lyft Women+ Connect Program launched in 2023 in the US, offering women and non-binary drivers rides with same-gender drivers, with first access in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.
At the time, Lyft's decision was supported by several nonprofits, including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE), and the National Sheriffs Association's Traffic Safety Committee.
“Lyft is releasing an inclusive product at a time when many companies are shying away from explicitly including transgender and nonbinary people,” Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign said when Lyft announced the program. “Women+ Connect was created specifically to make ridesharing better for women and non-binary riders. When rideshare is better for those people, it's better for everyone, and we at HRC support that.”
History of attacks
According to Uber's latest US safety reportwhich covered 2021 to 2022, they received 2,717 reports of serious sexual harassment or misconduct, and 92% of those accused were drivers.
The most common report involved non-consensual touching and penetration. The latter charge disproportionately affected women, who made up 89% of survivors, while men made up 8%.
In 2021, Lyft released a similar report, which stated that there were more than 1,800 reports of sexual assault during Lyft rides in 2019, and 4,000 reports of sexual assault during rides from 2017 to 2019.
Labor groups also questioned Uber and Lyft driver safety rules after one report found that 50 drivers were killed on the job between 2017 and 2022.
In July, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, who is presiding over more than 2,300 lawsuits against Uber alleging passengers who were sexually assaulted or harassed, didn't give up on this idea that the lack of gender matching functionality in the app may result in liability claims.
The Coming Culture War
The introduction of the new program in the US has already caused a backlash from conservative groups, most notably the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank behind the program. Project 2025.
In early August, the think tank published a commentary arguing that the preference model violates sex discrimination laws.
“Uber will give its drivers the ability to ignore, that is, discriminate against, male drivers,” said the article, written by Heritage Foundation lawyers Hans A. von Spakovsky and Sarah Parshall Perry. They associated the new function with individual racial discrimination of taxi drivers against the black riders.
When Lyft announced Women Connect, other alt-right figures, including influencer Tomi Lahren, criticized the program.
However, Uber and Lyft say the program has been “highly sought after” by women and nonbinary users of their apps, and that the goal is to increase those users' feelings of safety.
