Meet the women who study, raise families, run charities and drive for Uber

“I’VE had a few numbers left in my Uber guest book.” Grace Owen is a ballerina, a DJ and a part-time Uber driver — and she loves it.

Uber is looking to expand its pool of female drivers.

IT’S A bright morning at Sydney’s Woollahra Hotel and the crowd is buzzing.

About four dozen women are milling about upstairs, sipping coffee and nibbling on blueberry muffins.

But it’s not a congregation of Eastern Suburbs soccer mums.

Every one of them is an Uber driver, gathered for the company’s annual International Women’s Day celebration.

About the only thing they have in common is that all they earn money driving on the UberX platform — and are often greeted with the exclamation: “Wow! You’re the first female driver I’ve seen!”

Ballet dancer Grace Owen has been using the platform for eight months, driving a car she bought for the purpose.

“All my friends say to me: ‘Aren’t you scared?’” she said.

“But no, I haven’t had any bad experiences except one or two people who were a bit rude — but that’s their problem.”

Grace signed up for Uber to pay the bills while studying classical ballet, a $12,000 course that she had to pay for upfront.

She was struggling to balance unpaid prac teaching hours with work for the dole, which Centrelink required her to do as her course was only part time.

If you’re nice to Uber driver Grace Owen, she might put you on the guest list for her DJ gig.

“Then Uber came along,” she said.

“I can drive in the mornings and teach in the evenings. I’m a DJ on the weekends as well, and sometimes if I get along with people I’ll guest list them. I’ve had people from the car come to the club with me later that night.”

At last count in 2015, 12 per cent of Uber’s 20,000 Australian drivers were women, but the number is understood to be higher now— and the company wants to expand their ranks.

“Women typically have high [customer satisfaction] ratings”, Uber spokesman Caspar Nixon said.

Female passengers like them so much, some have expressed a desire for an option to select a driver of the same sex.

“The women say ‘I’ll pay an extra $5 to get a female driver’, but Uber says it’s discrimination,” driver Rose told news.com.au.

Just three-and-a-half months into her new career as an Uber driver, Rose has done 1200 trips and earned about $22,750.

She’s a happy camper, and said the only time she felt nervous was when she had to take a couple of drunk guys to Merrylands, a suburb in Sydney’s west that has been the scene of several drive-by shootings.

But the passengers were “fine,” she said.

Female Uber drivers are hot property.

Safety is a prime concern for women considering an Uber or taxi driving job, with the latter carrying a risk of assault carried out for the purpose of theft.

Sexual assault or harassment has been a problem in both taxis and Ubers around the world, from both a driver and passenger perspective.

In Victoria alone, research by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine suggested that there were 25 cases of taxi-related assaults against women between 2010 and 2013, the ABC reports.

Uber’s rating system is supposed to ensure that both drivers and passengers behave themselves, and the fact that the platform has a record of their identities means offenders can be tracked down. But it’s far from foolproof.

Last year, an Uber driver was charged with allegedly raping an intoxicated British tourist in the back of his car in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

And the company this week revealed that it had received 170 messages that included a “legitimate claim of sexual assault”, along with five rape allegations, in its customer feedback between December 2012 and August 2015, the BBC reports.

But if any of Australia’s female Uber drivers have been assaulted or harassed on the job, they weren’t at this morning’s event.

These ladies were gathered to celebrate the flexibility, cash and fun that the job had brought them.

THE UBER INCUBATOR

Many of the women who attended the Uber breakfast said they joined the platform to support their foray into small business.

Yoga teacher Karen Day, who signed up a year ago after a relationship breakdown, doesn’t shy away from spruiking her corporate wellness consultancy while on the road.

“A few people said ‘you’re crazy’, ‘it’s dangerous’, or ‘you shouldn’t be doing this’,” she said.

“But it’s been great. I love the randomness of Uber; you never know who you’re going to pick up or where you’re going to end up. I practised what I call my ‘accelerator pitch’, a 10-minute pitch about my business idea. This guy rocked up and the first thing he said was ‘who are you, what else do you do?’”

After explaining her concept, which brings Kundalini yoga breathing techniques into the high-stress corporate environment she used to work in, she scored her first client.

“He said: ‘We totally need this’.”

Innovation consultant Anne Marie Elias is pictured with Uber drivers Ruth Pasi and Karen Day.

Zimbabwean mother of seven Ruth Pasi used part of her Uber earnings to set up a charitable foundation to help her community back home, and recently took a group of troubled Australian teens on a healing journey to Africa.

“These kids are at the edge of their lives, but when they come back they are full of life,” she said.

And Nauru worker turned Uber driver Annalise has started Refugee Intern, an organisation that aims to match refugees with work experience opportunities.

“Uber driving has enabled me to have the time and flexibility I need to be able to start the business,” she said.

“I’ve met people who want to help out with the website and getting things up and running.”

Another driver, Ellie, said driving with Uber had helped her recover her confidence after an emotionally abusive relationship.

“It’s actually changed my life,” she said.

“I didn’t realise what a sociable person I was until I joined Uber. On Mardi Gras, I had mirror balls swinging on the ceiling and glitter everywhere, I had an absolute ball.”

In 2500 rides over 17 months, South African retiree Janice Meyer has witnessed her fair share of tears in the car, and carries a stash of tissues and treats for the purpose.

“I keep chocolate just for the girls,” she said.

“We laugh, we cry ... The tissues, the chocolates, the hugs, the sitting for 15 minutes to get through a breakup.

“I haven’t had one single bad person and I’ve really become convinced that there’s no bad people in Sydney.”

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Originally published as Meet the women who study, raise families, run charities and drive for Uber