Are Women Bad Drivers?
Apr. 19th, 2010 by admin
Women and steering wheels is a never ending story; so are the arguments about gender driving skills. The myth about lousy driving skills of women apparently started about seventy years ago. Somewhere in ’40s, a woman took her car to the mechanic. He wasn’t able to diagnose the car until he noticed something. It seemed that the motorist woman was driving with her bag hung on the manual choke.
From that bag on, women are bad drivers. Or at least that’s the belief (…males’ belief). I just realized that there aren’t or I haven’t seen so far stickers about men drivers. Need I remind you about ‘beware, blond driver” or ‘woman driver’ sticky signals? Blond women have such a good reputation that they have their own joke category.
But there is one thing that stands behind the feminine part of the traffic. Studies show men are behind more accidents. Driving statistics show that reckless driving is 3.41 in a ratio male to female. Women hit the speed pedal too, but men win with 1.75. Seat belt is often forgotten by men, up to a 3.08 ratio. Signal violations have a record of 1.53 against men. Is it too soon to ask who the bad driver is here? A reason women are considered bad drivers is because they use the cell phone while driving. But this is not a gender-based habit. This is, nonetheless, equally dangerous.
Hormones might have a contribution to the myth. With less testosterone in the womb, spatial skills of women are affected. Parking and map reading may be difficult for them. Men seem to have better spatial abilities. They can keep the route in mind and find much easier the car in a big parking. Women need to use landmarks to find the way around.
Practice makes it perfect and that goes for driving as well. And statistics show that women are less likely to get into car accidents. In United States, for instance, 73% of people who died in car accidents are male. The number of women is three times lower. Risk-taking and aggressive behavior is men’s attribute. They are less patient and tend to exceed speed limit and change traffic lanes with no signals. Statistically, they cut other drivers off three times more than women. When it comes to alcohol, among men involved in fatal crashes, 27% had been drinking. The percentage of women is 12.5.
Bad driving is not necessarily a matter of gender. But women have better emotional skills and prudence is one of them.