Uber Malaysia celebrated International Women’s Day in a casual evening with its female driver-partners aimed to celebrate women and empowerment, by appreciating their presence on the network and their contribution to the economy and culture of the country at large.
Many of the women driver-partners presented the challenges that all women entrepreneurs faced in growing their businesses. One driver-partner, Vyonna Dewi, said that she decided to drive with Uber to fund her own education degree.
“My financial situation at home was tough, and my mother could not afford to help me with the tuition fees, hence I had to find my own income. I heard about Uber and decided to sign up as a driver with the help of a guy who was an Uber driver too,” she said. The two eventually found love with each other, and will be engaged soon. (Aww!)
57-year-old Zaiton Alwi, a former musician who is now a driver-partner with Uber, expressed her excitement in being a driver. “I’m not deterred by my age. In fact, meeting people while driving keeps me young at heart, as I love talking to people,” she quipped.
Even though she’s a retiree and her kids have grown up, Zaiton sees Uber as the right fit to fill in her time. “It’s not so much about the money, even though for me that’s a plus point, but the flexibility to do it whenever I want to, and earn from that, is the reason why I chose to drive with Uber.”
Another female driver-partner, Thilagavathy Balakrishnan, 38, shared the same sentiment as Zaiton. “Driving with Uber allows me the flexibility of earning. Both my husband and I are Uber driver-partners, and we take turns to drive between day and night, and care for our three children,” she said.
Balancing the hours between her role as wife and mother, and also trying to earn using Uber can be challenging at times, but not impossible. She decided to drive to assist my husband with the household finances. With the flexibility that he enjoyed, she thought to herself, “Why not give it a try, too?”
Well, it seems like this has been a wonderful journey for the drivers thus far. We’ve always believed that women should be independent. It’s empowering to know that Uber supports this movement by providing equal opportunities for all, especially women, to help themselves while contributing to the community at the same time.
