Uber aims to create one million jobs for women

Plans to recruit one million women drivers by 2020 were recently announced by Uber.

The taxi app company, Uber, has revealed it plans to hire one million women drivers by 2020 in a collaborative effort with the United Nations (UN) sub group; UN Women. It would be a significant move towards gender equality and go a long way towards rectifying the negative publicity the firm has received during the last few months.

Uber’s plan was unveiled on the 20th anniversary of the Beijing declaration - the unprecedented plan to advance gender equality and female empowerment around the globe- which the taxi firm hopes to further with its latest effort.

“UN Women and Uber are launching a partnership to work together around the world towards a shared vision of equality and women’s empowerment,” said UN Women’s executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Uber’s chief executive officer Travis Kalanick on Uber’s blog.

“We intend to invest in long-term programmes in local communities where we live and work, as Uber commits to creating 1,000,000 jobs for women globally on the Uber platform by 2020,” they explained.

Quite how Uber will achieve this target over the next five years remains to be seen, even when taking into account the firm’s rapid expansion since it was founded in San Francisco in 2009.

Since being founded, the company has raised over $4 billion in funding and is now worth over $40 billion, becoming the world’s most valuable venture-backed start-up.

However, since 2010, the firm has only created the equivalent of around 35,000 full-time jobs in San Francisco, New York, London and Paris - its four largest markets.

Now it is promising to create one million jobs for women in what is likely a publicity driven bid to remove the tarnish from its reputation that has gathered in recent months.

But, if Uber does realise its ambitious goals, it will certainly lend help towards the acceleration of economic opportunity for women.