Uber wants to empower women using … Uber

Right now, plenty of people are down on Uber for things like disregarding the safety of women, having a douche-y nightmare human as a CEO, and destroying (consensual!) taxi sex. So it’s sort of surprising that the mega-startup announced today, in partnership with U.N. Women, that it’s committed to creating 1 million Uber-driving jobs for women around the world over the next five years.

On one hand, yes: Creating opportunities for women to support themselves financially, especially in developing countries where said opportunities may be few and far between, is a really, really worthy goal. Also, having more women drivers is an excellent step toward the increased safety of female passengers. On the other hand, there have been many protests that Uber drivers can’t support themselves on what they make from the startup alone and that these types of “disruptive,” “sharing economy” startups are nothing new at all, in terms of exploitation of labor. In light of all that, this offer seems a little … lackluster.

Read Uber’s (rather sparse) announcement of its new initiative here, or watch the video below. Just like when your shitty ex-boyfriend promises that things will be totally different this time around, I might recommend a little healthy skepticism.