Female Cab Driver Company Is Illegal
By Amy E. Feldman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new taxi service in New York City - SheRides - is slated to launch this month, with the purpose of providing service to female riders who will take taxis driven exclusively by women taxi drivers wearing pink pashminas. How cute. Illegal, but cute.
First of all, you can imagine the uproar if cabs refused rides on the basis of other demographics, like refusing to drive minorities, for example. Beyond whether they are allowed to choose their customers on the basis of gender, federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws clearly forbid employers from failing to hire a person on the basis of gender.
Since men have a gender too, they are protected by gender discrimination laws. So while there's something attractive about the idea that if a woman is going to take a ride from a complete stranger at least she knows it will be a woman driver (go ahead. Insert a women driver joke here, I dare you), SheRide will not be able to ride roughshod over the law.