On March 22, 1900, Anne Rainsford French became the very first woman in America to get a driver’s license. Over 100 years later the number of women with licenses surpassed men for the first time. And the ability to get around independently has helped empower women ever since.

Today that freedom is helping to drive another wave of women’s empowerment – the opportunity to fit work around life, rather than the other way around. For women around the world, Uber offers something unique: work on demand, whenever you want it. Drivers can make money on their own terms and set their own schedules.

It’s one of the reasons Uber announced a commitment to get one 1 million women drivers on the platform by 2020. And it’s why we are so proud to launch a new partnership with the YWCA of Greater Miami-Dade to build on our progress and connect even more women with flexible work: our Drive to Thrive campaign, an effort to expand access to economic opportunity to even more South Florida women.

“As a single mom to my two kids, I don’t have a 9 to 5 life, and I need work that can fit my schedule.”

sherese kids 1Speaking at our launch event on March 8, International Women’s Day, one of our extraordinary women driver-partners, Sherese – a Jamaican immigrant and mom to two beautiful kids, Keane and Reine – put it best:

“I have had many jobs and my own business but no job or business has been more rewarding, enjoyable, and flexible than being an Uber driver. As a single mom to my two kids, I don’t have a 9 to 5 life, and I need work that can fit my schedule – not the other way around.

It is my wish that my story inspires as many of you today to keep being strong and independent as the line of strong and independent women I come from. Keep using Uber as an invaluable vehicle, pun intended, for independent business ownership.”

We celebrate Women’s History Month by thanking all of the women partners who help hundreds of thousands of riders across South Florida get from point A to point B every day. And we welcome any women interested in signing up to drive to check back here for updates about upcoming Drive to Thrive events.