Uber hasn't had the best reputation when it comes to its treatment of women. However, its new initiative with UN Women, an organization within the United Nations working toward gender equality, could change all of that.
Uber and UN Women announced today their new plan to have one million women working for Uber by 2020. This is part of an effort to promote the economic advancement of women.
"This important mission can only be accomplished when all women have direct access to safe and equitable earning opportunities. We look forward to a partnership where UN Women and Uber will drive more access to these types of opportunities around the world," UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in a joint statement.
The plan is to reach out to women where Uber and UN Women already have a presence, according to BuzzFeed News. Though not all locations overlap, Uber is currently located in 55 countries and UN Women is in 48 countries. This partnership is also commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, which was created in September 1995 to promote women's rights and female empowerment.
This is an interesting partnership because Uber has had its ups and downs in regards to its treatment of women. On the one hand, Uber is great for women, helping them enter the male-dominated world of taxi driving. Of Uber's 160,000 drivers worldwide, 14 percent of them are women. Only about 1 percent of New York's approximately 51,350 cab drivers are women.
However, Uber has also been plagued with controversy regarding its treatment of female drivers and passengers. Last month, BuzzFeed News reported that several female Uber drivers experienced harrassment from passengers using the non-deactivated anonymized phone numbers provided by Uber. There have been several reports of female Uber passengers being sexually harrassed assaulted by drivers, including the most high-profile case in India.
With all of that in mind, Uber is definitely in need of some good PR when it comes to its treatment of women. Putting such a big plan in place with such a respected organization that fights for women's rights all over the world is definitely a step in the right direction.
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