Why do you think women don't make very good drivers?
Asked by
MilkyWay (
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March 1st, 2012
Okay, apart from all the sexist remarks and jokes you get, my own observation has been that a vast majority of women are really shitty drivers. Why do you think this is? Please keep it clean folks, I’m not looking for sarky comments but logical reasons here :)
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I’ve barely started taking driving lessons, and the first lesson I had my driving instructor was telling me the differences between men and women, lol !
He was being funny about it, but he said men are very direct, and have one-way thinking. And with women, he said we think way too much, and always wonder about different things.
Not sure how true this is, but it’s true for me…. My mom is a really really bad driver…
Women are more emotional and men are more logical ???
Is my only reasoning…. but I really do not know, and I am a woman….
@chyna I see the point you are making, but being good at driving is different than driving safely, if you catch my drift.
@MilkyWay – Very true…
I once knew one of my friend’s dad who drove into the wrong side of the freeway :P
Don’t ask me how he did it, don’t ask me how it happened, but he really did :)
I didn’t even know u could go to the wrong direction of the freeway…. or I mean opposite direction from everyone else ? Oh well….
Odd question. Is it just your observation? I seem to recall that the data supports the opposite.
Edit: See @chyna‘s link.
I have honestly never noticed women being any worse than men; I’ve just thought the “women are bad drivers” thing was closely connected to the “what’s a women doing out of the kitchen?” thing a year ago…
That has been proven not true for a long time, why do you think women drivers get lower rates on insurance than men in the same age group?
I don’t think men are better drivers than women. They drive differently and may be more aggressive, but this research suggests women are actually better drivers than men. Insurance companies also usually give women cheaper premiums because the statistics show women are less likely to be involved in accidents.
I do wonder how much these findings will change over time as my observations suggest younger women are becoming just as aggressive and prone to risky driving as their male counterparts.
I don’t think its all women but I have seen quite a few that are simply terrible at it. There are a lot of men who are terrible drivers too. To be frank (you can be “Joe” if you like), I think it’s flat-out idiotic to claim that one gender is better than the other.
From @chyna ‘s link : Even so, it’s hard to say women are better drivers, although they are statistically safer. Women have just as many accidents as men; however, they tend to be minor fender-benders. Men, on the other hand, tend to do the job properly when they crash, and as a result cost their insurance companies a lot more money.
As I said before, I’m not talking about just safety. I’m talking about parking, indicating, reversing etc.
It’s been my observation on a vast amount of occasions when I myself am a passenger at the front, and there’s a car in front of us which is being driven in a really bad manner… 7 out of 10 times it’s a woman. And then the male driver says “It’s a woman!” It makes me cringe and feel rather embarassed, and makes me wonder why their so incredibly bad at driving. Maybe it’s different here in the UK?
@MilkyWay: “It’s been my observation on a vast amount of occasions when I myself am a passenger at the front, and there’s a car in front of us which is being driven in a really bad manner… 7 out of 10 times it’s a woman.”
Besides confirmation bias, which we are all prone to, I’m thinking something else could be at work here…
Maybe women tend to drive – on average – different than men. So what you perceive as a “really bad manner” is just a “really different manner”.
@tom_g Different how? In what way?
I myself am a female and haven’t learnt to drive yet, and I sincerely hope I don’t turn out to be a bad driver.
@MilkyWay – Aaah. Well, I assumed you were a young male. That will teach me to assume. Anyway, maybe you drive in a more aggressive manner or something – maybe just in some way that is different than a majority of woman drivers.
I just don’t see it in my experience. If someone is driving poorly, they’re likely to be not paying attention. And from what I can see, men and women have a tendency to forget that they’re driving a lethal weapon around.
@MilkyWay, I think men are more assertive and confident drivers, I don’t think that necessarily translates into being ‘better’ or ‘safer’ drivers. The research suggests men also tend to be more aggressive and involved in more risky driving practices. I will concede that I think men seem to be better at parking than women, but that is purely my own observation and I think again, that might be about confidence.
Also, I suspect the statistics may change. Based purely on observation, I see many younger women driving way above the speed limit on the freeway on the way to work nowadays. If a car whizzes passed me, and I don’t drive below the speed limit, it is often a young woman at the wheel. I think we may see the statistics begin to show a narrowing in terms of driving standards between the genders.
@Bellatrix I get you. So now I think the question may be, is why do most men seem to be more confident drivers than most women?
Here’s my contribution to sexism. Men and women do drive and process their observations while driving differently. Men tend to be faster, more aggressive and more observant. Women tend to be more careful, slower and less observant. Either one could be safer than the other.
The only sexist remark is the original question.
@MilkyWay… that could be about differences in their ‘young’ brains. Research shows that young men especially seem to be hard-wired to be more risk prone in their youth. While their brains are still developing, they are less likely to weigh up consequences and are more likely to take more risks. That would influence the way they drive. They can be over-confident.
I suspect the confidence thing may also be connected to testosterone etc. I am not a scientist though and that doesn’t explain why it certainly appears to me that young women are becoming less risk averse.
There is also the argument that men often drive more than women. That would influence accident statistics, but also confidence. If I go out with my husband, he usually drives. It isn’t that he thinks I am a bad driver (I have never had an accident, he has had two (small accidents)). He just prefers to drive than be a passenger and I prefer to be a passenger.
They don’t. Men take more risks (as that’s how they’re raised) and get into more accidents. Some studies have shown that women and gay men (because OF COURSE those two have the same sort of brains, god I hate bs studies) drive worse than men but other ‘experts’ state it’s because women have stereotype bias…that is they’re less confident that they’re good drivers and become worse drivers, as a result…kind of like women and math…
I don’t think that, my wife is a fine driver, and has never had an accident.
My mom, who lived her life in LA, driving, never had an accident.
Can we get a button to click that’s opposite of Great Question?
Sorry but I don’t think either sex is better than the other, this is a stero-type when the primary drivers on the roads were men… say back in the 50’s women weren’t even encouraged to learn to drive. I have seen some really bad drivers and some great ones from both sexes.
Other than the fact that my wife hit and killed two dogs this week, I must say that she is a very, very good driver. Part of the reason is that she is deaf.
She isn’t trying to have a conversation with someone while driving. She isn’t playing with the radio, or singing along.
She is driving, and thinking about driving.
Your poor wife @filmfann. I am sure she is very upset by her accident.
The problem is that all women are left-handed and cars are made for right-handed people. Even right-handed women are left-handed.
I am unanimous in that.
Under the Orange Tree
Women are better at parking.
Is it really that every time there’s a bad driver, you look to see gender, and meticulously track from your own observations which gender comes out on top? Or is it that, when there’s a bad driver and you look over and see it’s a woman, you remember it and remember that she’s a woman, but when it’s a bad driver and you see it’s a man, you forget about the incident rather quickly and don’t remember his gender, so then it seems like women are worse drivers because they’re the ones you remember (confirmation bias)?
Also, @MilkyWay, will you translate this line from Brit to American for me? they are more likely to leave their vehicles in the middle of a bay – what is a bay?
You think women are bad? My mom is Asian. The effect is compounded. Lol
@Jussange Agreed. My mother is so bad that according to her, nature goes out of its way to make the experience of being a passenger when she’s driving even more horrid. Example: driving in Yosemite when there’s a mini rockslide. The only car damaged by the only rock that reached the road was hers. She has also scratched the paint off her car more times than I care to remember.
From my own limited experience, I just feel that most men are more likely to think they are better drivers. That may make them more confident.
If that is need true, it would likely be a consequence of our culture, where driving is seen as a male thing to do.
Confirmation bias, anyone? This question is offensive.
It depends. The women that are shitty drivers fall into two categories;
1) Those who treat driving like a conversation and are more interested in over-thinking, over-analyzing, and processing their feelings than in actually getting things done. While the “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey” attitude may be fine in some situations, you really don’t have time for that in a split-second, life-or-death situation.
2) Those who share the same faults that teenage boys and rich men do; a complete disregard/ignorance of the fact that the world does not revolve around them.
Most of the shitty women drivers I know fall into the latter group though, which removes gender from the equation. I only mention the former group (at great risk of being accused of misogyny) because I know a few that are actually like that; they drive with their brains instead of their instincts, and that slows their reactions more than having a BAC over three times the legal limit.
I don’t think @MilkyWay is trying to be offensive, just giving her (young) observations. There is a stereotype that women (and Asians) are bad drivers, but I definitely don’t think it’s true. Now, some women may be distracted drivers, because they often have children in the car. While you want to be especially careful when you’re driving your kiddos around, let me tell you… it’s way more distracting to have three kids in the car than it is to talk on the cell phone while you’re driving!
Your premise is horribly flawed.
“Although often presented in a humorous context, folklore concerning the behavior of women automobile drivers, and the development of a stereotype concerning them, emerged for very serious social reasons. They were attempts to both ‘keep women in their place’ and to protect them against what were believed to be corrupting influences for women in society.
In the male-dominated America of the early twentieth century, women at the wheel posed a serious threat to long-established ideas and practices. The automobile threatened to restructure the social status of women and the meaning of family life in America. As a result, defenders of the status quo sought a means by which female use of the motor car might be limited. Hence, the emergence of folklore concerning the alleged disabilities of feminine motorists, and the eventual development of the full-blown, negative ‘woman driver’ stereotype.” Science Direct
“1. Overall there are more serious crashes involving male than female car drivers. The most recent figures are shown in Table 8.1. In 1996, more male car drivers were killed, seriously injured, or injured than female car drivers. Dividing the figures in column four of Table 8.1 by 365 gives the average number of female and male car drivers killed each day on the roads in Great Britain (column five).
2. Male drivers have a higher fatality rate. The fatality rate also varies substantially with driver age, but this sex difference remains relatively stable right across the age range (McKenna et al, 1998)”
”• that women drivers were involved in fewer accidents per year than men drivers equivalent in age and experience ” The Applied Psychologist (2nd edition). J. Hartley, A. Branthwaite (Eds) Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000. Chapter 8 Are women better drivers than men? Michelle Meadows and Stephen Stradling
.
@Jussange My friend and I used to joke about his ex-girlfriend, who was Asian and admitted to driving drunk. An Asian woman driving drunk? The car would probably just explode the second she put her key in the ignition…
OT: Most guys I know speed around and drive high. They’re not good drivers. I don’t know where the stereotype comes from, but like most stereotypes, I’m sure it didn’t just materialize out of thin air…
How about drivers who constantly talk on their cell phones? Those are the worst!
Because they are so easily distracted by any one of many things….billboard for Macy’s, hunk of burning love in the seat next to them, texting for their next pedicure, trying to reach under seat for the lipstick that got away, MIL is on the cell phone giving marital advice….the list goes on!
My bad driving doesn’t really help…
The mining companies who are keeping the Australian economy healthy have very expensive monster trucks used to haul the product out. They prefer women drivers because they are safer and easier on the equipment. I know a lot of females making BIG bucks driving those trucks. It is sexism pure and simple. I am a terrific trailer backer, another art form men are theoretically perform better, but when we need to back into a tight spot, my husband jumps out and I take over. And the most compelling argument of all is that insurance premiums are lower for females, that is money talking baby, and money talks the loudest.
Don’t you just hate generalizations!
I’M AN EXCELLENT DRIVER!!!!!! Rainman’s words are so true!!!!!!
@jerv – nothing like the feel of a good drift!
In defense (sort of) the lady in the Citroen, I have a C3 and it does have the worst turning radius of any little car I have ever driven. You can turn a tractor trailer around in a smaller space (sort of). But I can go straight down the road for about 1000k on 50 l of diesel!
You are always bound to find what you are looking for. Have you ever noticed when a woman is driving really well? Probably not, because you would be looking for incidents that “prove” your point.
@chicklit Around Seattle, there is little danger of anybody driving well, regardless of gender. I suspect that the only reason I drive reasonably well is because I have only lived here for three years :p
If women were really worse drivers than men, they wouldn’t get cheaper car insurance.
Sigh. Worse is clearly being defined in terms of safety. There are other standards, such as speed. I bet that men are faster drivers than women, on average. Also, I suspect that men can do a better job with more complicated conditions, like snow, for example, on average.
Men probably take more risks so they get in more accidents. But they also gain an advantage from those risks that aren’t being accounted for here.
The Stig is not a woman. End of story.
@wundayatta – I agree that we should be aware that we’re using safety as a standard when we discuss this. Of course, there are other qualities. But how are we going to measure those? Where is the data for such things?
So, I don’t think we have enough data to extend this discussion beyond safety. And to be honest, I think there is probably little wrong with talking about safety when we’re dealing with cars. I can think of nothing that matters more.
@tom_g I suspect that, on average, women are more concerned with safety than men are. Men are more willing to take risks. There is probably a male evolutionary advantage for risk-taking; whereas women do better by being cautious, evolutionarily speaking. To measure men by the standards of women is inappropriate, although your point about the difficulties in quantifying the male standard is well taken.
I think I think men tend to just drive, while women drive AND anticipate the road ahead. But overall, I’d say 90% of the people on the road, male or female, aren’t good drivers at all. Everyone I’ve ridden with scares the livin’ shit out of me. Except my son. And I taught him how to drive.
I’ve had other people tell me I’m a good driver.
Best driver I’ve ever known: an ex-girlfriend of mine.
Worst driver I’ve ever known: my dad’s most recent girlfriend.
Most cautious driver I’ve ridden with: my mother.
Least cautious: my dad’s most recent girlfriend.
In my experience, women are better drivers on the whole. They generally have more patience with other drivers, and do a better job of obeying traffic laws.
@wundayatta Also, I suspect that men can do a better job with more complicated conditions, like snow, for example, on average.
I’d love to hear you explain this. I can only guess that since you’re kind of old, you’re thinking of women in your age group, i.e. women that might not have as much driving experience as their husbands, since in the old days it was always The Man Of The House that did the driving…?
@FutureMemory How true. You know, a person moves a little to slowly for me, I just wait. My husband cusses under his breath and calls them names. Not sure what that accomplishes.
If this premise were true, I’d say stereotype threat might have a lot to do with it. Stereotype threat is a psychological phenomenon in which simply being aware of a negative stereotype regarding a group you belong to causes you to feel stressed out when you’re performing those tasks and can actually cause you to perform worse. For instance, a study showed that women performed worse on math tests when somebody happened to make a passing remark before the test about how “girls can’t do math.” Could be the same deal with the “women are shitty drivers” stereotype.
@Mariah That also makes sense. Thanks :)
@Everyone else thank you for answering, I’ve learnt a lot. I guess this is the main reason we’re all here, to learn. Also, thanks to @augustlan for stating that I wasn’t trying to be offensive. I’m a female myself and I was just stating my honest observations; and never did I say that women as a whole were bad drivers. There will obviously be good women drivers out there. Sorry to all people who were offended regardless.
Thanks!
I wish I had the discipline some people in general have with driving. I do drive agressively (only when alone, so I potentially only hurt myself). It takes a lot of discipline to just sit behind someone when I can see nothing but clear road ahead of them and they aren’t going at least 10 over.
@Blackberry – I’m that person that’s driving you crazy. :) Sorry.
I had a brief period of insane driving when I was a teen, but have considered the following when driving ever since…
Every time I get behind the wheel, I have the real capability to kill someone’s kid, sibling, parent, or spouse. If I don’t take my job 100% seriously – with 100% focus and attention, I am essentially saying that I am willing to accept killing someone.
When I see someone driving and texting, doing their hair, not using their direction signal, or swerving, I take those actions to mean that the people in that car are ok with killing me or my kids. I have zero tolerance for this.
sorry to derail
You’re entirely correct. I have chilled out as well, I just think my phase is taking longer to subside.
@Blackberry It took me a long time to chill. I doubt I’d want to try 120 mph again, but I had my Z-28 for 10 years and I never minded pegging that 85mph speedometer.
@Blackberry I realize what you are saying about only doing it when you are alone in the car, but there are other people on the road in other cars that will suffer when you crash into them. You never only hurt yourself. Like people who get into a car and drive drunk who think it’s OK because they are by themself then crash into a car with a family in it :(
@FutureMemory Men’s physical skills are different from women’s. Men have more fast twitch muscle fiber, I think. Their reactions and reflexes are faster. They are stronger. These are all on average of course, and individuals will vary.
Men also tend to have more experience with things I shall label as physics. Men tend to be involved with mechanical stuff more often than women are. Men calculate the relationships between physical things more often. Men play games that involve these skills more often.
I think it is reasonable to think that men will instinctually do a better job driving in the snow, generations aside. And even so, if anything, women are more traditionally female now than they are in my generation. I could be wrong about that. I hope I’m wrong about that. But it is my sense that equality for women has taken a step back in the last couple of generations.
Are there more women in math and physics, now? Engineering? If there are, it probably isn’t by much, and I doubt if it would be a statistically significant change from forty years ago.
So that’s where I’m coming from when I think men can probably do a better job in more complicated driving conditions. On average. With, of course, individual women doing better than individual men in the mix.
As long as society insists on telling females they are not as good in any aspect of life, they (in general, not all because some will always ignore what society says) will not be as good. You would never tell a kid they are stupid or ugly because it would be a self fulfilling prophecy but there are no problems with telling a female she is not going to be good at something because she is female or telling a male you are going to be great at this because you are a male. This is so tiresome, it puts undue stress and expectations on both females and males.
The greatest racehorse in the world today is a mare, she is undefeated in a game that depends on size and strength. Guess her momma didn’t tell her that girls can’t beat the boys!
@rooeytoo I don’t think it is that simple. Women no longer have the old barriers to the entry of traditionally male lines of work, and yet they still don’t go into those lines of work. There is a much larger component of choice in the matter than I think we like to admit.
Women can be just as good. They choose not to enter those fields, though.
@wundayatta – so would you tell your child she/he is stupid or ugly? I am assuming you would not. I think the answer to that question has so much to do with the choices all people make.
But on the other point you make, I agree, women are not progressing into many male dominated fields, and I think they make the choice (your word) because from the minute of conception they are bombarded with pink or lavender fairy and other socially acceptable “girly” stuff. They don’t have a chance to make a decision, it is made for them. Boys have the same situation except I don’t think the blue tractors are as limiting to their life choices as the pink fairies are.
@tinyfairy – sorry I do not mean to take your name in vain
@rooeytoo All I can go on is my experience with raising my daughter and with the experiences I hear from other parents. Those things are not generalizable to the entire population.
We encourage our daughters to pursue math and science as hard as we can. We may even pressure them to do so, and yet they somehow end up with the message that it’s not for girls and they don’t want to do it. My daughter has an asshole male algebra teacher now who has been giving her bad grades (bad for her, anyway), and we’ve been working hard to find out what she needs to study or learn to do well, and he just refuses to help.
You combine this with the research showing that women choose not to go into fields and positions where they can make more money even though they are qualified for the work, and I think we have a pretty good idea of what is going on in our culture that is resulting in the disparities we see. They are much bigger than individuals can overcome, unless they are extraordinarily motivated, which most of us are not.
I’m not sure why you would think I would tell my children they are ugly. But I think you overestimate the impact that parents can have on their children. I can tell them they are smart and worthy and capable of anything, and I believe this is true, but that’s not going to be enough to get them to overcome the barriers our society puts in their ways.
@wundayatta – I know you would not tell your kids they are ugly or stupid, no sensible parent would. And you would not want a teacher to do so. But that is my point, kids hear from all sources that “girls are not good at such and such. And girls do not like whatever. I think it definitely affects their decisions. I know it did mine, although in the opposite direction, it made me want even more to prove that I can do anything, especially those things women of my day were not supposed to be able to achieve.
I was recently talking to my niece and she was telling me how her daughter is so not into the overtly girly stuff. She plays on a state team in her chosen sport. She prefers loose jeans or sweats to the skinny revealing fashions, even though she is quite beautiful and very lean and fit. Another great niece recently graduated from med school and is now specializing in internal medicine.
So there is hope, not all are brainwashed by the hype.
@rooeytoo Internal medicine? Interesting specialty. I wonder what the male/female ratio is in that specialty over there. I’m not sure here, but I think it may be more women or equal. I know that dermatology is mostly women, while most of the surgical specialties are mostly male.
Medicine, in fact, is now a predominantly female profession in the states, I believe. If not now, it soon will be. And yet, the specialties are very much divided up by sex.
I believe the legal profession is also going to be predominantly female, soon. I think that law school already is mostly women.
Business school, on the other hand, not so much.
heheh, I have an MBA. My parents never told me what I should like or what I could be good at. I grew up playing with briggs and stratton engines, I motorized anything I came across that had wheels. I didn’t learn how to cook until I was in my 50’s.
And my great nieces are in the USA.
When you were in B school, what was the male/female ratio?
More males, always more males but remember I am in my later 60’s. This says the times they are achangin though. Guess there are some other parents out there who are telling their daughters they can be anything they want to be.
55% men/ 45% women. I guess things are changing, but not as fast as I’d hoped.
@Ponderer983 Yeah, agreed. I never want to touch another car and the family inside that way. I still like throwing the car around in the corners, but only when I can see.
We’ll go a little easier.
I had a really lousy experience. I came over the crest of a hill. There was an idiot passing three cars in a no passing zone, 200 feet away and the road was two cars wide and he hadn’t cleared the first car yet. I knew I was going to die. There was no doubt. The second car made a hell of a move to save my ass. I drive much more carefully.
I’ve been in that terrifying situation twice @Andronnockwannabe. I hope you washed your underwear when you got home!
The first time I was driving a mini-van full of kids, came around a blind curve, dude was trying to pass about 5 cars that were nose-to-tail. There was no room for him to pull in in between ANY of the cars…..that section of road happened to have a wide shoulder with the bumpy turtles on it. I pulled over there without missing a beat. You know, I almost blame the other 5 cars as much for that one.
The second time Rick was driving. It was night. A long line of cars a trucks were passing us in the opposite direction. Suddenly, without warning, we were totally blinded by oncoming headlights i OUR lane. They seemed be be about10 feet away. Rick handled that one neatly, too.
I have to think that it may be a part of the reason that older people become so hesitant and timid when driving. They’ve seen some unbelievable stunts pulled by idiot drivers at 70 mph.
@Dutchess_III I had no options. One side was an earth bank, the other side a ravine. My underwear was clean. That never crossed my mind. I was apologizing to the people that were going to be pissed at me for getting killed.
Ah honey. It’s terrifying, isn’t it. You mentioned a second car making a hell of a move that saved you. What was it?
I wasn’t scared, just really really bummed at who I was going to hurt. Then the second car cut into the edge of a driveway and the SUV got back into his lane. I had so much adrenaline it was insane.
Man. Thank God the that 2nd driver was alert. I wasn’t scared at the “moment” either…but afterward, I had to pull over to stop shaking before I could continue driving. Talk about a rush.
From being a trucker for over twenty years, I have observed over the years that that the majority of women from, say early twenties to late forties are aggressive drivers, older women tend to be overly cautious , younger men are all over the place being good to really bad,elderly men most( not all) tend to be just plain bad drivers.
and that is my take from spending the last twenty some years making my living on the highway.
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