How many women drive for Uber versus Lyft exclusively?

Lyft still appeals to more female drivers, propotionally

Uber's survey highlights growing number of female Uber Partners

On December 7th, Uber released a new survey about its drivers that highlighter flexibility and convenience. If you haven't taken a look yet, it's worth at least a quick once over, and we'd love to hear what you think.

Part of the report, which was done by Benenson Strategy Group, showed a clear trend of more female drivers. According to the survey, 19% of all Uber drivers are now female, up from 14% a year ago. In addition, Uber says women make up 30% of all drivers who joined in the past 3 months.

Overall, women drivers are more likely to work less hours and be 'middle aged'

As part of our October 2015 survey we covered the top demographic trends of all on-demand workers, not just Uber drivers. In particular we pulled out two interesting trends related to female drivers: First, that more middle-aged women are drivers then would be expected. While women overall make up 19% of the on-demand workforce, they make up 22% percent of drivers between 40 and 55.

The second trend related to female drivers was that they work less hours, and therefore earn less then men in the on-demand workforce. On average, women drivers report making 34% less gross driving income per month than men, but are far more likely to drive part time.

Lyft still appeals to more female drivers, proportionally.

Nearly 30% of drivers who only drive for Lyft are female, compared with 16% of Uber-only drivers. We've documented many times in our research that 2/3rds or more of on-demand workers work for 2 or more services, and this trend continues to increase.

However, we've also observed - as Uber noted in their recent research too - that most of these workers are first-time drivers. Therefore they start with one service, and eventually decide to "diversify" with the other service. And the entry point for more of these workers seems to be Lyft, in proportion to the percent of male drivers.

This seems consistent with Lyft's persona and what we've heard from female drivers - Lyft 'feels' like an easier, safer, part-time option to dip your toes into. However, if Uber's last 3 months is an indicator of their workforce trend, Uber may very soon have a the same overall percentage of female drivers as Lyft, or higher, in their workforce.

Thanks for reading our short post in reaction to Uber's recent report. To see more of our reports and survey data, visit our Report Home. To get even more exclusive driving insights and manage all your independent work for free, try out the SherpaShare app.