Uber pledges SR1m to support women’s driving in Kingdom

The Arab News published this story on March 12, 2018. A link to the story is here, and the text is below.

Uber has announced “Masaruky” (“your path” in Arabic) — a two year initiative that aims to increase women’s participation in the workforce through access to affordable transportation, in addition to increasing women’s access to flexible, part-time economic opportunities through the Uber technology.
The campaign will kick off with an initial SR1 million ($270,000) pledge to make driving schools accessible to more women who are interested in learning how to drive but may not have the resources to do so.
Anthony Khoury, Uber regional general manager, said: “With Masaruky and the announcement of the SR1 million pledge, we’re seeking to contribute to this new chapter for female mobility in the Kingdom. In the same way that our technology has brought a positive impact to more than 18 cities around the Kingdom, this will help us in further supporting women toward achieving their economic ambitions and goals — because not only do we enable more convenient ways to move around cities, but we also strive to drive change that is positive, meaningful and economically empowering”
This comes on the back of months of research to understand what transport solutions will best serve Saudi women on the road to Vision 2030. There are currently 1.3 million women in the Saudi workplace — 22 percent of the total workforce, a figure that the Kingdom’s government expects to increase to 30 percent by 2030.
The research, in collaboration with Ipsos, has found that 93 percent of Saudi women were positive about the recent lifting of the driving ban, mostly because it will allow them more flexibility to work. About 78 percent said they are likely to get a driving license post ban removal, and almost a third (31 percent) of those surveyed, indicated that they were interested in driving as an earning opportunity. An efficient way to make some extra disposable income and flexible hours were cited as some of the top reasons driving could be an earning opportunity for women in Uber.
Uber has been well received by driver-partners in the Kingdom since its launch. The company recently announced that it has already registered over 150,000 Saudi partner-drivers on the app, 65 percent of whom utilize Uber part-time.