A woman lands at Newark Airport on a late night connecting flight and pulls out her phone to book a ride home. For the first time, she can choose to request a female driver directly from the Uber app, with the same ease she'd book any other trip. That option, previously available only in select US cities, is now rolling out nationwide.
Uber has announced the nationwide expansion of Women Preferences, first launched in five pilot cities in August 2025 and expanded to 60 US cities by year-end, with the rollout now reaching cities like New York, Washington DC, Austin, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.
The mechanics are straightforward. Women riders can request a woman driver on demand, reserve one in advance, or set a standing preference in the app, while women drivers can toggle a setting to receive trip requests only from women—including during peak earning hours. The feature was built in direct response to feedback that women would like the option to choose to match with other women on trips.
Uber first introduced Women Preferences in 2019 for women drivers in Saudi Arabia, shortly after women were granted the right to drive, and the feature has since expanded internationally with over 230 million global trips completed, now available for drivers in more than 40 countries and for riders in seven countries.
But there's a practical constraint baked into the system. Women account for about 1 in 5 Uber drivers in the US—a supply constraint that could shape how consistently the feature works across markets, though Uber said pilot wait times were "not very different" from standard UberX rides but declined to provide specific figures. Uber can't guarantee a match every time because there are fewer women drivers on the platform than men drivers, and availability may be limited and can vary by time and location.
The expansion mirrors Lyft's Women+ Connect program, which went nationwide in 2024 and lets women and nonbinary riders and drivers opt in to matching with one another. As of July 2024, women and nonbinary drivers who have signed up for Women+ Connect across the US were matched with women and nonbinary riders about 66% of the time, up from around 50% when the program launched in 2023.
The nationwide rollout does not come without friction. A class-action lawsuit filed by male drivers in California argues Uber's feature discriminates against men and limits earning opportunities, though Uber declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. The lawsuit argues that Uber's policy "reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women," though Uber has disputed this, saying the feature "serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety".
The broader context is safety. According to Uber reports, 5,981 incidents of sexual assault were reported in US rides between 2017 and 2018, compared to 2,717 between 2021 and 2022—representing 0.0001% of total trips nationwide. While statistically small, those incidents represent genuine harm to real people, and the feature reflects a market-wide acknowledgment that some riders and drivers want more choice in who they travel with.
Whether the feature actually changes behaviour—encouraging more women to drive for Uber at night, for instance—remains to be seen. Uber said it does not yet have data to share on whether the pilots boosted women driver recruitment or retention. For now, the feature is available; whether it succeeds depends partly on economics (will more women drivers join the platform?) and partly on supply (in thin markets, will matching actually be possible?).