Report 1:Gender Differences in Driving:
Society's Effect on Our Driving
Report 1:
Generational Curriculum Reports on this Subject:Summary of Report: In this report, data collected and reported were based on these three constructs: Norms, Stereotypes and Expectations. Subjects were questioned and the results were listed, however, no substantial conclusion can be drawn from these results as the study didn't involve enough people. It was interesting what she had to say about how we perceive each other as genders and drivers, and as to why there are complications in driving differences.
Summary of Report: David believes that we (as a society) raise our children differently based on whether they are a boy or a girl. And because we raise our children based on what gender they are, they develop differences as a direct result of this. This, according to him, would be the cause of driving differences.
Summary of Report: Mr. Nakagawa states in his report that he also believes that society, mostly parents, have a lot to do with the way someone will grow up to be, what kinds of traits that person will have, including aggressive driving. He also explains how his family (parents and grandparents) have had an effect on the way he is when he drives.
Summary of Report: Ms. Carreira, too, seems to believe that society has a lot to do with the way someone drives. She believes that women were brought up to be more quiet and soft-spoken then men, which could account for certain stereotypes we have that men are more aggressive than women. However, she does bring up a good point. Women nowdays are slowly becoming more independent and outspoken, which could account for more women being aggressive on the road.
Email Postings:These are email postings on gender differences in driving written by G7 students. After each email posting is my reaction to the issues raised. In order to understand my reactions, you must read these postings. After my reactions I have written a review of my own personal beliefs on this issue.
First Email Post:
Mr. Shintani (G7) wrote: Well I dont think that gender has a lot to do with aggressive driving? as we have discussed in class the study that someone did that says that women are more aggerrsive drivers. I dont think that this study is right. it could have been biased by the way that people answered the questions. I think that term is self actulization. the males might have wanted to make themselves look better. I think that a study will just have to genderless. unless a set of questions can be developed that will account for the differenes that are afforded to each gender. because in certin areas women are more truthful then men, but in other men are more truthful. well that I just my views on the matter.
My Reaction:
I agree with Mr. Shintani's point of view that in some cases, one gender may answer questions in a more truthful way. This may account for a lot of differences stated in the study he is talking about. But how could we know for sure? And is there a such thing as a genderless study? There may not be.
Second Email Post:
Brandi Ashby (G7) wrote: As we have discussed in class, the people you don't expect to be aggressive behind the wheel are the ones you most need to be concerned about. I suppose that men are more aggressive;however, women are not the sweet non-aggressive creatures some perceive. I read in the sunday paper that women are increasingly becoming more aggressive behind the wheel.
My Reaction:
I would believe that women are becoming more aggressive on the road. This may be due to the environment itself becoming more aggressive, and people just have to adjust to those types of surroundings. I don't think that the people who don't look aggressive are the ones you really have to be worried about, because when I am on the road, the ones who look like they are aggressive usually are. I think in this case, looks is a good predictor of how someone will drive. I am not saying that is true in every case, but it is a useful tool to predict.
Third Email Post:
MaryElizabeth Pacheco (G7) wrote: As I have mentioned in an earlier reply, I have not come across much research specifying the gender behind the wheel. I only assumed that because of social norms and characteristic of the male gender, that most aggressive driving is committed by the male gender. I too am interested in the cases where women are responsible. I will start to search the web and its newsgroups. I recommend these student do the same if they haven't alreasy.
My Reaction:
I, too, haven't really come across a lot of evidence about gender differences in driving, however, in a class that I am taking now (442: Exceptional Child) we have learned that aggression is more prevalent in young boys than in young girls. I guess it is easy to make the assumption that the characteristic sticks as they grow up. I, too, would guess that men are more aggressive on the road than women.
Fourth Email Post:
Wilfred Lee (G7) wrote: Is there much of a difference between genders when referring to aggressive driving? I thought women drove as bad as men did. :) Or did I get my facts crossed? Demographics, I think are not as important as treating this problem as a whole. Instead of why men drive more aggressively than women, we should think about why people drive aggressively. By questioning the difference between men and women we are not trying to find a solution in my opinion, but instead just looking for more why's.
My Reaction:
I agree with Wilfred when he says that we should look at the problem as a whole, not who drives more aggressively, men or women? But, I do think that it is an interesting subject to study, when just curious about the outcome. Also, any findings from any study may prove people wrong, and may end up helping the problem. But in any case, I chose this topic because I was curious as to what I would find.
Fifth Email Post:
Web visitor Brisaacs wrote (November 1997): I hate to say this but it is usually the people of ethnic backgrounds, women, and older people that can not drive.
My Reaction:
What kind of reaction would anyone expect. I am surprised at this person's bluntness. He/She seems to think they know very confidently that they are correct. That his statement isn't just an opinion, but a true fact. How could this person simply just come up with a statement like that with nothing to support his theory? I think people like this say things to get people upset and purposely try to offend others. Either that or he/she is just a "know it all", and those kinds of people are hard to change.
Sixth Email Post:
Mr. Shintani (G7) wrote: I think that this person has a few deep rooted problems that he has to deal with before he can tackle the topic of road rage. Let me see what is this man's problems well I gather from his e-mail that he is a racist, a sexist and he discriminates against the elderly. Did I leave anything out? I don't think that this man can see past his own blind vision to see anything else, so it would be the case that he is a very aggersive driver that is trying to defend his way of driving. I wouldn't doubt that he cuts people off or shows that finger on a regular basis. He should really go to some anger management classes or some form of therapy.
My Reaction:
I agree with Mr. Shintani on his analysis of the "know it all". He does seem to be a racist and sexist, or at least his statement was a racist and sexist remark. And me, being of ethinic background and a female, took it rather offensively. I don't really know what his problem is, but I would guess that his visions are blinded, and they would be extremely hard to change.
Review of My Own Personal Beliefs:
As long as I can remember, there has been differences among genders. From the time I was a child, I could see similarities between sexes, as well as their differences. The differences by far out weigh the similarities. I would look at the way my grandparents acted as well as my parents. That was probably the first examples I had experience with. Also, going to school, in elementary, the girls hardly got along with the boys. They were too different at that time. They liked different things. Now, as I have grown up, what should be the difference with driving. I certainly believe that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. We are two seperate worlds. This can be applied to any aspect of life: why not driving? I don't want to make any generalizations, but in my experiences, women drive a little more safer than men do. I think this either has to do with the motherly instinct, or the fact that men have testosterone. Or both. I know media has a lot to do with they way boys grow up to drive. When someone is driving crazy in a movie, it will 90% of the time be a male. Boys grow up thinking this is either cool, or the norm. How sad. Bottom line is that there are differences in genders, and we as a people try day in and day out to get past these differences and live in "harmony". Here is an article about gender issues (if you are interested). It has to do with the way we conceptualize gender itself.
Links to other articles on Gender Differences in Driving:Here is an article about aggressive driving.
This is a page that has a statistical report about aggressive driving or road rage. There is a small section on differences in gender driving. But read the whole report, it is very short, but I particularly like the advice this page has to give to avoid injury or death by aggressive driving.
Here is another article about differences in gender driving.
This page has statistics on the Lex report...stating that women are proving to be more responsible drivers than men due to their confidence in their driving and their better attitudes. Check this one out!
References to articles on Gender Differences in DrivingAyres, Ian. Fair Driving: Gender and Race Discrimination in Retail Car Negotiations. Harvard law review, 1991, v 104 n 4, 817.
Blodgett, Mindy. The Road Rage. Cio, 1999, v 12 n 7 p 1, 36.
Brissing, Peter and Farrow, James A. Risk for DWI: A New Look at Gender Differences in Drinking and Driving Influences, Experiences and Attitudes among New Adolescent Drivers. Health education quarterly, 1990, v 17 n 2, 213.
Copeland, Laurel A., Shope, Jean T. and Waller, Patricia F. Factors in Adolescent Drinking/Driving: Binge Drinking, Cigarette Smoking, and Gender. The journal of school health, 1996, v 66 n 7, 254.
Field J., Harre, N. and Kirkwood B. Gender Differences and Areas of Common Concern in the Driving Behaviors and Attitudes of Adolescents. Journal of safety research, 1996, v 23 n 3, 163.
Gruenewald, Paul J., Johnson and Fred W., Treno, Andrew J. Age-Related Differences in Risks of Drinking and Driving in Gender and Ethnic Groups. Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research, 1998, v 22 n 9, 2013.
Hernandez A.C.R., Newcomb M.D. and Rabow J. Types of Drunk-Driving Intervention: Prevalence, Success and Gender. Journal of studies on alcohol, 1995, v 56 n 4, 408.
Keane, Carl, Maxim, Paul S. and Teevan, James J. Drinking and Driving, Self-Control, and Gender: Testing a General Theory of Crime. Journal of research in crime and delinquency, 1993, v 30 n 1, 30.
Rothe Textbook:In chapter 6 of the Rothe textbook, he talks about gender differences in driving, and in getting a license. Boys seem to be more eager to get their license than women. This seems to be because society puts more pressure on young men to get their licenses than women. Think of when it comes time
for boys to date. Usually, the boy is supposed to pick the girl up for the date. Also, in my experience in high school, if you had a car, you were "cool". This may not seem like a lot of pressure to an adult, but it can be a lot of pressure as a teenager. Society does put more pressure on young men,
and I think this also can contribute to driving differences. If you drive crazy as a teenage boy you are considered to be cool and dangerous. If you were a girl driving this way, you would be considered incompetent. Society can suck with all its double standards, but it does account for a lot of the
differences between genders.
I can remember talking in class about this subject, and the males in our class did say that they were eager to get their licenses, as the girls weren't too eager. The females felt no pressure as did the males. I don't know how much you can base on this information, though, since there is only 8 people
in our class (3 females, 5 males).
Comparison to Others:Others did their reports really well. I am actually a little jealous of a couple. I think it is really interesting to know what others have learned in this class, and see how people differ in their creative skills. I didn't realize until this class that creating a web page requires a lot of creativity. And each persons special creativity shows well through their pages. The reports itself are impressive, it seems that those who did their reports put a lot of time and effort into them, especially looking through the CSS engine and Site indexes and the journal databases to find links and references.
Suggestions for Future Generations:First of all: Do not procrastinate. This isn't too hard, but it does require a lot of work, so don't wait until last minute. Also, don't be afraid to experiment with new things, as different search methods. It can be a little intimidating at first, but after you get the hang of it, it isn't very hard. I think that is why Dr. James makes us do it. To become familiar with something that is very useful. And last, don't feel overwhelmed, just do one thing at a time.
