Personally I think this is a great idea which I hope doesn’t fall victim to transphobia. I have personal experience with a good friend who also happens to be a woman calling me in tears to come get her because her ride abandoned her she didn’t feel safe taking Uber.
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Fair enough.
Maybe he sees violence against women as a larger problem, not that violence against Uber drivers in general isn’t a problem? The issue of violence in Uber’s business model is a problem that’s going to have to be tackled from a variety of directions, if that makes sense. I don’t know what the break down of violence aimed at drivers are, but perhaps there is a higher rate of violence against women (or at least a higher instance of reporting of violence).
Drivers should all feel safe, I agree. Addressing one aspect of that doesn’t mean the other is being ignored by everyone, though.
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Just like all those closed-down women-only women’s shelters.
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Reading his account, the epiphany from that bad experience seemed to be “if this belligerent, aggressive drunk is threatening to ME then imagine how much worse it must be for all the female Uber drivers and passengers out there.”
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On top of that, if you’re a rape survivor and you’re in a difficult situation, and your only option is to call for a man you don’t know to pick you up, reputation scoring from a company as problematic as Uber can be cold comfort.
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Sure. I never said otherwise.
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Agreed. Of course, if you’re a male rape survivor, you’re out of luck. Of course, in either case, you could always take Lyft. They’re not female-only, but I never see them having all the bad press that Uber has. For some reason, though, people always act like Uber is the only ride service out there.
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That would be an interesting legal tactic but I could see a lot of ways it could backfire spectacularly.
For one thing, the Uber drivers would only have standing to sue if they applied to work for the new company and were turned away. So Uber would have to get a bunch of their own drivers to testify in court that they wanted to drop Uber and drive for Chariots for Women instead. That wouldn’t exactly help Uber’s image.
I saw another article about this that made it clear that they accept trams women.
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Riffing on what @anon61221983 said, I don’t see that Chariot’s focus on violence against women precludes others (or even Chariot) subsequently finding ways to help keep others safe. And on that note I want to say that I’m not saying Chariot must figure out their policy on transpeople right this second. I ask only that they not do what so many others have done and say or suggest that transpeople are a threat to cispeople and a distraction to real issues.
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That is great news. Could you link us in that direction? Please and thank you 
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Oh autocorrect. One of these days you’re going to create a very confusing traffic accident.
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That would be nice, if this were just the first step to making all drivers and passengers feel safe. I’m certainly not trying to imply that Chariots is a bad thing, it’s a great thing. I guess I’m just a little bitter because if I could flip my gender, I’d do so in a heartbeat, but I don’t think I can honestly call myself a trans person- just someone who would rather not be male but has accepted that that’s the only option open to me and there’s nothing I can do about it, ever, so I resignedly consider myself male.
So when something like this comes around, that would offer an advantage and protection that’s just beyond my reach, and which is specifically designed to exclude me (again, I understand WHY it’s doing this- I may have been joking about “male and therefore dangerous and evil”, but the sad fact is that most dangerous, evil, horrible people ARE men, statistically), it’s hard not to get a serious case of woman/trans envy. Part of it is wanting the actual benefits, but part of it is just wanting to be on “the right side”.
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There may end up being a procedure to document the rides and drivers are safer that’s less dependent on gender.
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I was actually thinking – all the way through here – less about the employed drivers than about offering a service that could only be used by women.
Well, I think you should be the gender identity with which you yourself feel you identify. I agree you shouldn’t flip identity because you think it confers some social advantage. However, there’s the little matter of the vicious massive systemic discrimination you’d endure in the process. This is why the central meme of transphobia, that they are a threat to cispeople, is such bullshit (if you’ll pardon my French). Being trans would be just about the hardest way to avoid driving men around that an Uber driver could choose. It’s like selling yourself into slavery to avoid taxes. No one does that.
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Yes, the legal issue is of course that obvious.
It’s not even clear that single-sex women’s shelters are legal under current reading of the FHA, actually – here’s a very sympathetic argument on that point – so, sure, gifs are great, but they don’t really get to the very interesting and important questions here:
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I’m sorry, but do you honestly think things would work out better for you if you were a woman, that you’d be safer, have better access to jobs, be taken more seriously, be less prone to violence? The reality is that the necessity of something like this speaks volumes to the actually reality of living life as a woman - even as it’s not denying that men, too are the victims of violence. In all honestly, I would love for there NOT to have to be services like this at all (or women’s shelters, etc), because they are safe for everyone - you included.
Also, life for many transwomen is often even tougher than it is for other women women. A transwoman I knew ended up in prison, was put into a men’s prison, denied medication she’d been on since she was 17 (she’s just a bit younger than me, so that is more than half her life on this stuff), was repeatedly raped, and only managed to get out via a parole deal because she got a video out, which was picked up by the SPLC. I’m not sure envy is what anyone should be feeling here, as this is not uncommon treatment for transwomen (especially black transwomen).
I understand you want to be on the right side here and am glad about that. But when you say things like this, it feels incredibly belittling of what some women face on a daily basis, whether or not that was your intent (which I don’t think ti was).
[ETA] BTW, Thanks for not descending into knee-jerk, defensive positons here. Too many people tend to do that when we get into these conversations, so it’s good of you to take criticism without taking it personally. That speaks volumes to your honesty and your desire to actually move the conversation forward rather than seeking to dismiss me (or other women) and assume your view is the only one that matters. THIS folks, is how we have a productive conversation on difficult topics! GO US!
And this is not. 
Uber should already have been doing this - but they don’t likely because it cuts into their bottom line and its cheaper to sweep this stuff under the rug.
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Let’s reframe this, shall we? “Honk is a new whites-only rideshare service.” This would not be OK. How is this different?
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