Equal Rights have come a long
way. Even though us gals can rock the vote and have the same employment
opportunities as men, in most cases, we can’t deny that we have different
quality of life requirements than men do.
You want to have a child? You’re about to give birth and you demand
maternity leave and can’t work for a handful of months! That’ll show those men
we’re equal to them and that we can work just as hard – but only if our personal
choices to procreate allow us to!
Women have different medical needs than men, too – we’ve got mammograms and
gynecological issues that could pop up at any time. Sure, men have health
issues – but in every place I’ve ever worked that had its share of men and
women employees, women were the ones who had “girlie” problems.
For the most part, women are also the ones who pick their children or
grandchildren up from school. It must feel great to be a woman and have real
“girl power” in that we have to deal with a unique cluster of situations men
just don’t have to take care of or worry about.
So, why not segregate ourselves even more by creating a cab company that’s
operated for and by who else – us powerful women! When I first heard about the
proposal for a taxi company that would offer female-only service, I thought:
Wait, don’t we want the same treatment as men? Don’t we want to live in the
same world and have the same opportunities as men? Despite our shortcomings, we
want the same pay as men and we don’t want to be discriminated against.
Whether a chic-only cab service, also called “SheRides,” would provide a
safety net or “comfort zone” that a male taxi driver can’t provide, I
personally think the idea is ridiculous. I understand that, as a woman, you
want to feel “safe” while you’re traveling – but isn’t this a little overboard?
Everyone has to use some form of transportation that’s not so safe. It’s my
belief that a woman should know how to protect herself and defend herself in
unsafe situations – and common sense should tell you that it’s not the best
idea to travel in a cab alone at 2 in the morning – especially not drunk and
half passed out on a weekend night – unless it’s an absolute emergency. Just
because women who summon the service are reportedly met by a female driver
wearing a hot pink pashmina scarf, does that mean they’re going to get extra
special treatment? How about offering a free box of tampons with each ride!
What’s next, a train that only accepts female commuters at a special stop
near department stores? How about a pink bus that only makes stops at certain
streets for groups of women? Wouldn’t these measurements be
discrimination?
This new service is also supposed to open the doors of opportunity for women
who want to be taxi cab drivers. Really? What factors have stopped them from
being cab drivers in the first place? Obviously, something about driving a car
– that doesn’t belong to them – at all hours of the day and night and picking
up strangers, to take them some place they’ve never been, is not appealing. Oh!
But maybe if they’re only picking up women passengers, it’ll make a biiiiiiiiig
difference! How’s that for segregating ourselves from the rest of society when
we want to be “treated equal”? If you look at statistics, a large percentage of
male livery cab drivers have been robbed, beaten, stabbed and killed in the
city over the past five years. Other than capturing the dangerous thugs on the
cab’s surveillance, how are male drivers truly supposed to protect themselves?
Anyone who transports people from one place to another is putting themselves
at risk. You don’t know who you’re dealing with, if they’re armed or if they’re
going to threaten you.
Instead of a service that separates women from the rest of society – as if
we’re all fragile, fine china dangling off the edge of a cliff – they should
work on creating more services that teach women how to have common sense while
traveling. Stop putting on your makeup while you’re in your car at a stop sign.
Stop wearing skanky looking clothes while you’re on Mass Transit! Stop talking
to and trusting random men who could potentially follow you off the train or
attack you! Need some more advice? Use your special girl powers to summon some
common sense – or hop into a vehicle that discriminates against everyone else!
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