Woman : A Stereotyped Bad Driver

One day in my school lab while doing a titration experiment in a group , I had turned on the knob a little more than required making the chemical gush into the beaker faster , watching that one male classmate of mine taunted me by saying “And that is why one should not let women control an accelerator ” ( insinuating that women drivers are bad and are prone to cause accident). I am literally ashamed to say that I stood there dumbfounded at that bastard who could somehow relate my driving skills to a chemical experiment and also could find that misogynist statement a joke !

Well now the statistics do wish to enunciate something credible :

~ Women tend to have fewer crashes and their car accident claims tend to cost less than men ( source : 2007 AAMI claims data )

~Men are more likely than women to be involved in serious accidents – that is , men experience more head on collisions , roll overs , loss of control crashes and collisions involving pedestrians cyclists or animals

Whereas women are more likely than men to collide with stationary objects or reverse into other cars ( source: 2007 AAMI claims data)

~Men are more likely than women to have experienced a crash – 82% versus 77% ( sources: 2007 AAMI crash index )

” Masculinity may be hazardous to health. Gender role socialization and the association of masculinity with risk – taking behaviour acceptance of risk and a disregard of pain and injury may be the factors leading to hazardous actions on the part of men. These include , for example , excessive consumption of alcohol , drug use , aggressive behaviour , to be in control of situation and risky driving ”

WHO , 2002

While statistically considered safer drivers women have often been socially stereotyped as ‘bad drivers’ . Many psychologists have thus pondered if women buy into this belief and succumb to the stereotype threat in a way that actually affects their driving and confidence .

Hence , this misconceptions about women being bad drivers must be fixed , because it has no basis at all.