Are Female Drivers as Bad as Some Claim?

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This is a debate older than sliced bread and every bit as sexist as the assumption that women should be slicing it. Even women flying fighter planes around the country to different air bases during World War Two didn’t put this to rest. Every other week tabloid newspapers use a celebrity crashing their car as an excuse to produce the results from an obscure study, the conditions of which are rarely revealed, on whether men make better drivers than women or vice-versa. The short answer to this headline is no.

It is a stone-age assumption that the practicalities required to move a motorised vehicle are beyond the apparently emotionally driven and irrational female brain. As with most things, it comes down to the behaviour of the individual behind the wheel. We are pre-programmed for very little that is gender specific when it comes to every day tasks. Trying to make sense of the endless number of studies on the subject is difficult. Most stories surrounding this topic talk exclusively about the act of driving rather than the knowledge of the road laws themselves, which is interesting.

Pic via turbittoherron.com

Men vs Women, Mars vs Venus, Emotion vs Logic and Other Stereotypes

The following sentences might fry your brain a little. Do stereotypes fulfil themselves because humans learn to behave as society tells them to? Or are different genders genetically predisposed to certain behaviours? Regardless of which line of thought you go down it is highly likely you won’t get a definitive answer because, as with most things in life, men and women have equal capabilities.

In their article on the battle of the sexes The Daily Mirror pool together all of the typical playground debates between men and women such as throwing, intelligence and driving. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have suggested the male brain is structured for perception and coordination and the female brain is geared for intuitive activities. This has no bearing on intelligence. As far as driving is concerned, according to data published by The Mirror, 48% of men pass their tests first time compared to 44% of women and men’s brains are better at mapping a 3D environment when parking.

Though they do acknowledge the societal line of thinking mentioned above by suggesting self-confidence may play a part. Nearly 40% of men surveyed believed they were better drivers than women, whereas only 26% of women believed themselves to be better than men. A lack of self-confidence stemming from casual sexism explain this difference in self-perception.

Again, as each response to this survey is subjective the real data has to come from insurance companies and police crash data. According to information published by the Daily Mail women were more likely to crash at junctions [perhaps backing the previously mentioned theory on spacial awareness] though crashes involving two female drivers were only 20.5% of those surveyed. Whereas, crashes involving two men accounted for 31.9%. Make of this what you will. The evidence showered all over the internet is only consistent in one regard. That it is inconsistent.