The battle of the sexes is hitting the streets once again. Usually, women are accused of being bad drivers. However, do women really deserve this stigam? According to the Department of Transportation's National Highway Transportation Administration's Fatal Analysis Reporting System, in 1997, 16,039 people were killed in fatal accidents in the USA. Of those accidents, 10,623 men were killed and 5,336 women (81 drivers could not be identified). Additionally, in accidents were alcohol was a factor, men were involved in more than five times as many accidents! Statistically, it would seem that women are safer drivers. In fact, insurance rates for women are typically lower than men (especially for drivers under 25 years of age).Additionally, an article from the Examiner, the daily newspaper in Eastern Jackson County, Missouri, cited State troopers as saying, "...the majority of aggressive drivers are men aged 18 to 26, poorly educated, with criminal records, histories of violence and drug and alcohol problems." However, troopers were quick to add that hundreds of cases of road rage involve women and men without such characteristics.
Nevertheless, do the statistics reflect the reality of our highways? Are women really better drivers? How does society regard women drivers? To answer these and other questions, students in Dr. Leon James' Driving Psychology class explored the issue of gender differences in driving.
One student, Inkyoung Yang found that driving stereotypes differed according to gender, with women characterized as "unskillful, indecisive, and passive as opposed to men as aggressive." She also located the following newsgroup posting regarding a man being attacked by a woman enraged by his driving.
Re: Aggressive WOMEN Drivers
Posted bydavid on March 05, 1998 at 09:43:11: In Reply to: Re: Aggressive WOMEN Drivers posted by Graeme J Quinn on March 04, 1998 at 19:08:34:
I am a quiet, plain-looking professional man driving a plain gray sedan. One afternoon on the way home, I safely, legally changed lanes, with my signal on, from left to right in front of a pretty blonde co-ed in a green sporty compact car. There was plenty of room, and I did nothing abrupt or agressive. But she lost it completely: flashed her lights, "horned and fingered" me liberally, and placed herself on my bumper. As I always do, I just ignored her. A few miles later, I pulled into a parking lot. She was still there, and pulled across behind me. When I got out of my car, she ran up to me and stabbed me in the chest with a large hunting knife. I was not mortally wounded (obviously) but I did stumble and fall. An off-duty police officer witnessed this, and took her into custody. I visited her in jail, and learned that she had no prior record and had never had trouble controlling her temper before. She just lost it. She is a really nice person and I like her a lot. I am sure this was an isolated incident, and, though I feel she needs therapy to find out what triggered this behavior, I did not want to press charges. Unfortunately, the state is pressing charges, and I can't stop that. I intend to enter a deposition recommending great leniency to the courts. The bottom line is, I think women don't have the (overall, aggregate) experience that men do in dealing with their own anger and being in the midst of aggressive people. For example, I think most women don't understand that the classic middle-finger gesture is often interpreted as an invitation to fight. In our urban area there have been a number of incidents of women being beaten severely by men after having shot them the finger. Just an odd, extreme sort of communications failure. There are some women who drive very aggressively. I think it's just because they've never had to learn how to manage their feelings and avoid fights. They were taught they are "sugar, spice, and all things nice," and haven't
yet grown into the experience base they need. But a few more incidents like these, and, hopefully, they will begin to take notice. --D.Check out other student reports from the generational curriculum at Dr. James' index to student reports on gender differences among drivers.
