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I'm not sure that this is a behavior exclusive to progressive women. I delivered pizza during college in a mixed Southern town where the local black population is fairly ghetto, and the amount of whining about how dangerous delivering to the hood is (from an almost exclusively male delivery staff) was off the charts compared to how dangerous it actually is. To be clear, the amount of danger is non-zero (probably more than more people realize, though the occasional reddit talking point that delivering pizza is more dangerous than being a cop is incorrect and stupid. Cops would die in droves if they tried to do their jobs unarmed like pizza drivers do.) and I have been robbed at gunpoint on the job (Once in five years of delivering in that area.) but objectively the driving part of the job is more dangerous than the local crime threat (Birmingham, Alabama, on the other hand? Fuck that and RIP Najeh ). The real problem is that delivering to these customers is a money loser (These customers don't tip.) and often profoundly unpleasant. You're going to get harassed by the local street presence and customers are constantly trying to scam and get shit for free. You're not allowed to say that though (Hilariously, black drivers will and are highly sensitive any perception that they're getting stuck with the hood deliveries.) while you're allowed to refuse deliveries that seem unsafe, so there's a culture of hyping relatively tame but not nice places as dangerous (while we redline places that are actually dangerous). I'd imagine that dealing with the local losers on public transit is somewhat similar. You're probably not in much outright danger but you're going to be dealing with a lot of unpleasantness.
With that, in my experience women are more sensitive to danger in general, especially middle class and up white women, and they do deal with annoying behavior from customers that our male drivers don't (Porn is lying; nobody wants to fuck the pizza guy.). I've goofed as a dispatcher and sent one of those to a mid-tier hood at night and she called the office flat out terrified and hyperventilating. Lower class women complain less about this, especially lower class butch lesbians from the hood.
Having delivered Amazon Flex throughout greater Birmingham for a few years(never as far as college town proper, but Brookwood/Vance one unlucky game day night), I'd say even the sketchiest areas are "merely uncomfortable" during daytime, but I hated taking runs to particular neighborhoods after dark. If I had a 4 hour run with 1 hour going after dark, I could adjust schedule to be less efficient but finish those areas early. My dad worked the 2010 census around here and hated the idea of going to some of those places at night. Only time I had a gun directly pointed at me was in Remlap, older guy thought only a meth-head would be driving to his trailer at night while raining, a not especially wrong belief. I just wish he had held it, safety off at his side and not stood in position with it levelled at me.
The few times people people aggressively approached me when outside my car and I just said "I don't carry cash and don't get tips. I'm pretty sure what's in my car is mostly books, dog food, and diapers." and they'd laugh or mutter and do something else.
Najeh getting murdered still pisses me off because I grew up within walking distance of that Domino's and Summit apartments.
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So your coworkers were entirely correct all along and not at all "whining about how dangerous delivering to the hood is". They were correctly stating the extreme danger.
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One gunpoint robbery per 5 years makes the job incredibly unsafe and the drivers were right to complain.
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