Uber has launched a nationwide feature allowing women riders and drivers to match with each other. Here is what it does, why it matters, and the legal battles surrounding it.
On 9 March 2026, Uber launched its Women Preferences feature across the United States, allowing women passengers and drivers to request matches with other women on the app. The rollout comes less than a month after a federal jury ordered the company to pay $8.5m to a woman who said she was raped by one of its drivers in 2023, and as Uber continues to face almost 3,000 similar lawsuits across the country.
Uber said the feature was built in direct response to feedback from women riders and drivers who wanted “more control over how they ride and earn.” First piloted in five US cities in August 2025, it has since expanded to 60 cities and now covers the whole country.
What the feature does and how it works
Women passengers have three options: request a ride on demand by selecting “Women Drivers” in the app; reserve a trip with a woman driver in advance; or set a standing preference to increase the likelihood of being matched with a woman driver, though Uber says this is not a guarantee. Women drivers can toggle a setting to receive trip requests from women riders. In cities where Uber Teen accounts are available, teens and their guardians can also request women drivers.
Around one in five Uber drivers in the US are women, though that proportion varies by city.
The feature already exists in more than 40 countries for drivers and seven countries for riders, including Spain, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France and Portugal, and has now completed over 230 million trips globally.
The legal context
The launch is happening against a backdrop of significant legal pressure. In February 2026, a federal jury in Arizona found Uber liable for the actions of a driver who raped 19-year-old Jaylynn Dean during a 2023 trip. It was the first of what are now almost 3,000 consolidated federal lawsuits brought by passengers who say they were sexually assaulted or harassed by Uber drivers. The next bellwether trial in the federal case is scheduled for April 2026. Uber said it intends to appeal the February verdict.
According to Uber’s own safety data, the company received 5,981 reports of serious sexual assault or misconduct in US rides between 2017 and 2018. Its most recent report, covering 2021 and 2022, recorded 2,717. Women made up 89% of survivors in those cases.
The Women Preferences launch itself is now also being challenged in court. Two California Uber drivers filed a class action lawsuit in November 2025 arguing the feature violates California’s Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by businesses. They claim it gives women drivers access to a larger pool of passengers while restricting the earning opportunities of male drivers, and that it “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women.” Uber has filed a motion to move the case to private arbitration and disputes that it violates the law, arguing the feature “serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety.” Rival app Lyft faces a similar lawsuit over its Women+ Connect feature, which launched in the US in 2024 and also includes matching options for non-binary riders.
The argument that a safety feature designed to protect women from assault constitutes discrimination against men is one that courts will now have to resolve. Whether the feature is sufficient response to the scale of what women face on these platforms is a separate question entirely.
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