The gendered impacts of ridesharing in Brazil

Ridesharing gained popularity as a flexible and readily available job option. However, limited research has focused on the gendered impacts of this new model on a large scale. In theory, ridesharing could disproportionately attract women, as they often take flexible work to balance family responsibilities. However, the driver occupation is historically male-dominated, and women need to overcome cultural barriers to join ridesharing. This article leverages the staggered entry of Uber in Brazilian cities to examine gender variations in responses to ridesharing. Overall, the results identify important gender nuances. There was a noticeable increase in the number of female drivers, although men still dominate the occupation. Gender differences in hours of work and earnings have decreased, mainly due to reductions experienced by men. The presence of children in the household is a key determinant of which women become drivers but has less impact on men. For instance, mothers of young children (aged 0–6) were not significantly attracted to ridesharing, but mothers of older children and childless women were. Safety concerns remain a significant barrier to women, and the level of gender violence in cities is negatively associated with women's probability of being a driver.