real life

This young female Uber driver is tired of being told she's "taking a risk".

Brisbane student and Uber driver Bridget Dominic is tired of being told she’s “brave” for driving strangers around in her car. She says the concern is misplaced, and it’s pushing women out of the industry.

“All I ask is that the next time you meet a female driver (or security guard, or soldier, or police officer) instead of asking them where they found the courage to participate in such an unsafe profession, find the courage in yourself to have a frank conversation with the men in your life about the way they treat women,” Dominic posted to Facebook.

She has recently returned to her home in Brisbane after a stint in Sydney working in advertising.

“I thought it was a really good way to make money while I was living at home, thought it would be really fun,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald. “I didn’t really think that I should be worried for my safety. And then once I started driving, every single passenger told me that I should be worried.”

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A post shared by Bridget Dominic (@jetdominic) on

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There is a bigger problem here, however. Dominic says the comments make her feel somehow responsible. As if she’s ‘asking’ for abuse, by choosing work late at night.

“I appreciate the concern these people are showing me and I know their hearts are in the right place but underpinning these comments is the idea that this is not a space for me,” her Facebook post reads.

“That if I choose to take on a job working late at night with the general public then my abuse is inevitable.”

The young woman has driven her fair share of drunk, rude and potentially-dangerous men. But she’s made a point of speaking up, and giving them a low star rating, when she’s been faced with such behaviour.

“Last night I picked up a group of men in their 30s who had been to a family friend’s 18th and were disappointed that there weren’t more ‘slutty, young girls’,” Dominic’s Facebook post reads. “They then proceeded to shout out the window at pedestrians on the street, criticising women’s appearance and at one point, yelling ‘congratulations’ at a young man who was walking home with a woman.”

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“When the rider insisted I give him a five-star rating, I calmly informed him I wouldn’t be doing that because of the way he had spoken about women (he’d also made me wait an extended period of time at pick up and had tried to get out of my car in a busy bus zone in front of police).”

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Dominic says she’s not staying silent, and she’s not quitting a job she loves, for fear of dangerous men. It should be their responsibility, not hers, to act respectfully.

“I love my job as an Uber driver and the vast majority of passengers are courteous and compassionate people with wonderful stories to tell,” she said.

“I don’t want to be forced out of this industry by a very small number of bad eggs. I know I need to be realistic, I have to keep in mind my rating, the threat of damage to my car and the possibility of psychical violence. But we, as women, too often have to stay silent in order to preserve our safety.”

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