A Sydney woman has told PEDESTRIAN.TV of a gross sexist encounter she had with an Uber driver on International Women’s Day.
The passenger, who asked us to remain anonymous, said she booked an Uber after wrapping up work photographing a women’s charity event.
After mentioning to the driver how great it was to be contributing to such a meaningful project on IWD, he allegedly began questioning the gender pay gap.
“He clapped back saying he just straight-up didn’t believe that women weren’t paid the same as men,” she told us. He then went on to ask, how did women “suddenly discover this?” and whether women have been “going through men’s salaries”.
Incredibly, she claims he then ‘joked’ that women deserve to be treated equally because “without women, where would I empty myself sexually?”.
Understandably, the woman felt extremely uncomfortable and “just kind of sat there”, speechless and unsure of what to say or do.
She immediately reported the incident to Uber after arriving at her destination, and was refunded the fare in full. She was also assured by an Uber representative that she wouldn’t ever be paired with him again.
But the woman told P.TV that more needs to be done to ensure the driver isn’t allowed to make those kinds of inappropriate comments to other female users of the ridesharing service.
“I’m concerned because this means he can still pick up other women and subject them to the same kind of treatment,” she told us.
We reached out to Uber, who had this to say about the incident:
“Uber does not tolerate any form of discrimination, and we have been in contact with this rider to offer our support.”
Uber wouldn’t confirm whether the driver will be allowed to continue working for the service, but we sure as shit hope not.
Photo: Hemant Mishra / Getty.
