Male drivers for Uber and Lyft have initiated lawsuits against the companies concerning a feature that allows users to request rides exclusively from female drivers.

The two class-action lawsuits contend that these features—introduced after numerous reports of sexual harassment and assault involving Uber and Lyft throughout the years—have curtailed men’s financial prospects and subjected them to gender-based discrimination.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs assert that male drivers “experience discrimination and are offered fewer and different rides than they would if the policy were not in place.” They further claim that the policy “perpetuates the gender stereotype implying men are more perilous than women.”

California possesses some of the country’s most stringent anti-discrimination legislation. The legal action accuses both Uber and Lyft of contravening the Unruh Act, a civil rights statute in California that “explicitly forbids sex discrimination by commercial entities.”

They are requesting $4,000 in compensation for each male driver in California due to the alleged violation of state law.

TIME has contacted Uber and Lyft for their responses.

While two drivers served as plaintiffs in each of the lawsuits against the two companies, the legal actions project that hundreds of thousands of male ride-sharing drivers might be included in the class-action.

The lawsuits elicited disappointment from certain users of the feature, who argue its essentiality for safety.

“I simply feel safer and more at ease with a female driver,” Celeste Juarez, 28, informed TIME. “I previously had numerous uncomfortable encounters with male drivers. Particularly when heading out for a girls’ night.”

Juarez stated that she constantly utilizes Uber’s Women Preferences option since its launch, and believes the lawsuits are “ill-conceived.”

“As a woman, it pertains to my safety and arriving at my destination free from any negative consequences or unwelcome sexual solicitations. With this choice, I experience much greater safety and lack anxiety about returning home late or concern about whether I will reach home safely,” she remarked.

The program, which permits female drivers and passengers to travel with other women, was initiated in July, and has since been deployed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Detroit during the summer.

“Throughout the U.S., female riders and drivers have expressed a desire for the choice to be paired with other women for journeys,” the company stated in its announcement. “We’ve listened to them—and are now implementing novel methods to grant them even greater authority over their riding and driving experiences.”

Uber first launched this feature in 2019 within Saudi Arabia, following a significant legal change that granted women the privilege to operate vehicles.

Lyft’s “Women+ Connect” program commenced in 2023 in the United States, providing women and nonbinary drivers with journeys alongside drivers of the same gender, with initial availability in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose.

Multiple nonprofit groups endorsed Lyft’s choice at that period, such as the Human Rights Campaign, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE), and the National Sheriffs’ Association Traffic Safety Committee.

“Lyft is launching an inclusive offering during an era when numerous companies are avoiding the explicit incorporation of transgender and non-binary individuals,” Jay Brown from the Human Rights Campaign stated when Lyft unveiled the program. “Women+ Connect was designed with deliberation to enhance rideshare for women and non-binary passengers. When rideshare improves for these individuals, it benefits everyone, and HRC fully supports that.”

Background of attacks

As per a report covering 2021 to 2022, 2,717 incidents of severe sexual assault or misconduct were documented, with drivers constituting 92% of the individuals implicated.

The most frequent allegations involved non-consensual touching and penetration. The latter charge predominantly impacted women, who constituted 89% of the victims, whereas men accounted for 8%.

In 2021, Lyft published a comparable report stating that over 1,800 instances of sexual assault occurred during Lyft journeys in 2019, and 4,000 reports of sexual assault were made during rides from 2017 to 2019.

Worker organizations have also scrutinized Uber and Lyft’s safety protocols for drivers after it was determined that 50 drivers died while working between 2017 and 2022.

In July, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, who is overseeing more than 2,300 lawsuits against Uber concerning sexually assaulted or harassed passengers, observed that the lack of a gender-matching function on the application could result in liability claims.

Impending culture conflict

The new initiative’s launch in the U.S. has already incited criticism from conservative factions, most notably the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank behind.

In early August, the think tank issued a commentary asserting that the preference model infringed upon sex discrimination statutes.

“Uber will be empowering its drivers to disregard, which means to discriminate against, male riders,” stated the article, authored by Heritage Foundation Legal Fellows Hans A. von Spakovsky and Sarah Parshall Perry. They drew a parallel between the new feature and cases of individual racial discrimination by taxi drivers .

When Lyft initially unveiled Women Connect, various other alt-right figures, including influencer Tomi Lahren, vehemently criticized the initiative.

Nonetheless, Uber and Lyft have asserted that the program was “highly sought after” by female and non-binary users of their platforms, and that its objective is to enhance the sense of safety for these individuals.