Why Do Some People Say Women Are Worse Drivers 🤔?

Question

Driving is just another area where you shouldn't prejudge a whole gender, although for those that still want to... Even I had the common sense to tell my mom not to drive through the alley yesterday cuz not only has it not been plowed, the city dumped a big pile at the opposite end, noone getting through there, yet A Semi Driver thought it was smart to try anyway and, two hours later:

MrOracle · Accepted Answer

This statistic doesn't seem to be weighted by how many hours/miles driven, and since men drive far more miles than women, that makes a big difference. It's incredibly easy to take a statistic out of context and use it to support a position that is provably false.

But let's get back to the original question: what does "worse driver" mean? That would need to be defined before we could give a good answer to this question.

If the definition was based on driving SKILL, then we could devise a driving course that tested various skills, and then run a bunch of men and women through this skills test and see who did better. My guess is that men will do significantly better.

If, however, the definition is "hours driven per accident", then I'd expect the numbers to be pretty even between men and women. Women get into fewer accidents in raw numbers, but women also drive far fewer hours/miles than men. Professional drivers (truck drivers, delivery drivers, heavy equipment drivers, as well as people whose job requires a lot of driving, such as service workers) are almost all men. If you use the "number of accidents per miles driven" stat, I'm guessing it would be pretty even.

When men get into accidents, it's usually because they were driving too aggressively - often, they are showing off in some way. In these situations, they're well beyond the skills needed for normal driving, and many don't have the skills or the vehicle to successfully avoid problems at that level. Because of this, accidents are often more serious and more spectacular (in a bad way).

When women get into accidents, it's usually because they are distracted (on their cell phones, putting on makeup, etc.) or because their driving skill level is pretty low. They rarely show off or intentionally try to drive beyond their skills as many men do - their accidents tend to be more routine.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. Danica Patrick did better than a lot of men driving some of the highest performance cars there are. And as someone who commutes, you don't need to tell me that there are men who are hopeless drivers, or who are easily distracted by being on their phone - I deal with them on the road pretty regularly.

pikuroy · Accepted Answer

There are lots of things to consider here.

1. The study done does not specify how many male and female driver were taken into the study. Generally there are more male drivers out there than female.

2. Women driver generally have lesser experience (total number of hours they have been before the steering).

3. Out of the group of drivers considered how many and what gender are professional drivers and how many are non professionals. Women generally are not employed in professional driving compared to men.

4. Men generally do better in motor abilities, probably an evolutionary advantage because they were involved in hunting and food gathering.

But does that mean women can't be good drivers? Absolutely No.

The difference between other creatures and human beings is that human life is unformed and boundless.
A human infant needs to be slapped in the back in order to make it breathe for the first time. Whereas other animals have that hardwired. A human life has no upper limit. You can be whatever you want to, if you put in the required effort. For countless centuries human beings have bent the natural laws, their own genetics and have done whatever they could imagine.

CrazyGirl2 · Accepted Answer

The only way to truly tell, is to look at both traffic tickets, as well as the number and severity of collisions, especially fatalities. Men receive more tickets per-capita, as well as get in more traffic collisions per-capita, and cause more traffic fatalities pre-capita. All the anecdotes about how women drive while applying makeup, not withstanding men are the majority traffic citations, traffic collisions, and cause the majority of fatal collisions. And for the record, I have never once applied makeup either while driving, or while sitting at a traffic light. Also, my phone is set to not even work while I’m driving, something that should be built into every phone, by default at the factory.

Tiffany_Taylor_Made · Accepted Answer

I never understood where "women are bad drivers" stereotype came from. According to the statistics, women are much less likely to be involved in fatal car accidents compared to men. Women are also more likely than men to get their driver's license.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9647900/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/198017/total-number-of-us-licensed-drivers-in-2009-by-gender/

Effably · Answer

Probably just depends on what metric we use. Women are safer drivers statistically. Even if we adapt for how much people drive women still win (men drive roughly 40% more but are also in about 3x more accidents according to a brief google). In that sense women are significantly better drivers.

In the sense of high performance we would instead look at something like F1. While there have historically been a few women there it is a heavily male dominated sport and the male vs female performance even when adapted to the number of participants is anything but even. In that sense men are significantly better drivers.

So well, women are safer drivers. Men are more high performing drivers. Obviously safety might be preferable to the general populace.

GoodGuyBreakingBad · Answer

I believe both genders can have moments of not being so good of a driver
you got guys who are hotheads now they are the ones who are bad at driving
then you got girls who still sneak and text while driving then they don't have
their concentration on the road and just some people in general aren't good
at driving one thing I believe that they should make elderly people take over
their driving test when they become a certain age one day me and my cousin
was driving and this elderly woman came out of High Rise, and she pulled
outright in front of us, if my cousin didn't have the break on there would been
an accident happening

Makeushiver · Answer

They aren't the worst drivers, if anything-going by statistics-they were proven to have better driving records than men. My problem- aside from one woman- is that they drive so much more carefully which to them it will seem fine, 9/10 guys are having interior monologues that go like
OMG she could have made that light with 5 minutes to spare. Great, what I thought was going to be a way to long drive is going to be worse than I imagine if she's going to stay at the speed limit
You would have plenty of room to pass this asshole we've been behind for 45 minutes
How can she possibly need to stop to take a leak, this is like the 14th time- or thereabouts.

I'll concede the better driver by narrow cop/parent standards.
It's the how much time fo we need to spend going here. I swear it was double the amount of time as I would need

Massageman · Answer

Re that truck - there is always an exception :- )

In my experience of 54 years of driving (shucks, it's been that frickin' long?) I have found that men are more predictable drivers and women are less predictable. (When driving, I really don't keep score of the sex of each driver since I'm too busy just trying not to hit either of them! but I digress )

So, I am more likely to expect a guy to make a high-speed pass and cut me off, and go weaving down the freeway than a woman. On the other hand, I also have to be wary of the woman being "kind" who gives a right of way (when it isn't hers to give) and does something like stop in the middle of the road and not at a corner.

Meldrum · Answer

Women are no worse than men. Several women are race car drivers and very good ones. Shirley Muldowney comes to mind. A woman that can handle a top fuel dragster at speeds approaching 270 mph seems pretty capable. Sara Fisher, Janet Guthrie, and Danica Patrick to name a few. The difference is how women are trained. I taught my oldest daughter how to drive and stay alive. I put her through her paces and she's a better driver than most non-professionals I know. My youngest didn't want me to teach her, so she can't drive a stick, has wrecked two cars, and now takes public transportation wherever she goes. She moved to Pittsburg because of public transit. I train young adults or did, to drive to stay alive.

TonyMetal___86 · Answer

That's what they say miss brains muffins, sometimes i do believe that it's true but when i see some young boys driving a car to their death, i start re-thinking again, i agree that road acciddents are cause by guys more then women because they drive like maniacs and they are a danger on themselves and on others...

I'm an excellent drive better then men and women 🚗 🏆

No one can drive with the presence of miss brains in the car cause she might get naughty and makes the driver lost and going crazy 🤪

Solo22 · Answer

Depends, my ex-wife was a horrible driver. She would drive slow on a main route, then fast through a neighborhood residential area. People were actually yelling at her cause they worried she could hit someone's kid. She also drove the car with no antifreeze for an hour, I have no idea how the engine wasn't totaled. One of the plastic parts failed and coolant leaked out. The car kept shutting off cause of heating, and I know the temperature gauge had to be high, she was just clueless and had no idea what to do other than try to start the car and keep driving. To make it worse, we even had free towing (AAA). My current girlfriend is a much better driver she just has a hard time at night and falls asleep behind the wheel, which is the scariest part of her driving. My mom drives slow as fuck and brakes while going uphill. Who brakes going uphill? Just take your foot off the gas.

0112358 · Answer

The data I’ve seen (which doesn’t contradict what you posted exactly though the interpretation it does) is that women get involved in more incidents but they tend to be more minor. Women’s accidents compared to men tend more often to be due to poor skill or distraction. Minor fender venders or hitting things while parking.

men are more likely to be in accidents that involve them being reckless. That type of accident tends to be worse. Rolling your car or crashing while going 100 mph plus is almost exclusively done by young men.

wkozak · Answer

Your question made me remember one of my friends, he was a step to death 3 times in car accidents, the three of them the driver was woman, one of them was at 2 AM and my friend was passing the street and suddenly a car came from no where driving at high speed was driven by a woman and when she saw my friend instant trying to control or stop the car she put her hand on her eyes, my friend in the last second jumped from her way and she crashed into a lamppost, nobody was injured but it was too dangerous.

David92506 · Answer

I believe this sentiment comes from the 1970s when more women entered the workforce so more women were driving during rush hour. Men weren't used to seeing this. Men would complain a woman driver would stick her hand out the window, to indicate she was going to make a right or left, but wouldn't do so. She was sticking her hand out the window to dry her nails.

So they put women under a microscope and anything they did wrong became magnified

EternallyCorrect · Answer

They just are skill-wise. 99% of the time when you see someone in a car park taking forever to reverse park, constantly moving backwards and forwards rather than reversing straight in, it’s a woman.

Women are more risk averse though, so they are less likely to get into crashes. It’s easy not to get into a crash when you drive 10mph under the speed limit like a grandma.

bannacookies · Answer

I've been in the car with lots of people & it is about equal. Before I had a car, a friend of the family (he is 98) offered to drive me home. He was doing great until he got into the neighborhood. He began driving on the sidewalk and hit the fire hydrant. Lol

Unit1 · Answer

They're assholes and probably also sexist and probably also incels.

There's always gonna be a source and always one more source contradicting the previous source.

Off topic but sometimes I can't believe how racist males get girlfriends. I suppose class attracts class.

rjroy3 · Answer

Because on average with all else equal, women are worse drivers. If you're taking an honest look per statistics you don't just look for accidents caused by men and accidents caused by women.

You take a look at the nature of the accidents, age of the drivers, professional or non professional drivers, gender of the driver.

An accurate sample group is someone that is in a median age range, non professional, driving under normal conditions.

Like going to and from work or running errands. Not running from cops after committing a violent crime. Or a professional truck driver that is underslept.

Both those categories are male dominated and because of that nearly all the accident will be by males. Rather than putting average level headed, every day male and female drivers and compare that.

Astarlessnightsky · Answer

Its from a time period, when women weren't allowed to drive at all. So once more and more women started to drive, they had no experience and caused most crashes, traffic jams and made lots of beginners mistakes.

RawIronhide · Answer

Ahhhhhhhhhh ur wrong, sorry, guys hold the majority population of jobs involving automobiles. Michanics, race car drivers, truck drivers. 60/40 guys are more interested in objects/machinery vs. People or interpersonal relationships. That's just how it is dawg. At least in this day and age.

IAMNathanael · Answer

Nobodys a worse driver than I am! Haha just kidding (not really).

I suppose they say it because in their experience that's the way it is. Though, people have different experiences so it varies. Personally, I haven't noticed who is worse.

Laura85 · Answer

I think I'm a great driver but my mechanic would say otherwise. I think females have more minor dings but guys just let bravado and the need for speed brake over and drive at speeds that cause bad crashes

Alexalex92 · Answer

I think it's the same. Depends on person. Kinda off topic but i hate when some people say that motorcycle is dangerous and blah blah meanwhile car drivers are dangerous because they aren't paying attention because maybe they talk on the phone, putting radio and whatever meanwhile when we drive the motorcycle we just drive.

FakeName123 · Answer

Almost all professional drivers (truckers mainly) are male. And even then the average man drives more than the average woman.

Another thing is that men tend to drive more risky. Doesn't necessarily make them worse drivers, but the outliers who mess up will cause way more serious issues than the women who keep hitting a post or fence while parking.

psychoticanimaIIover · Answer

I don’t know why this misconception still exists, given the overwhelming abundance of evidence to the contrary. I think it’s just the patriarchy again, with their fake news.

douride2 · Answer

In my opinion no one group of people have the exclusive hold on stupid. Everyone makes bad decisions on the road. As for your picture it looks more like there wasn't enough room there to get through with that rig.

Purple_Rose · Answer

I can't speak for all women, but I know I can't parallel park to save my life. And I suck at driving backwards. Lol

Anonymous · Answer

These "people" are possibly guys who try to take the spotlight off themselves by pointing out exaggerated flaws of women. It's explained very well in the free ebook: "Are Women the Stronger Sex?" Men will too often accuse women of doing something that guys actually do, not women - generally speaking.

Anonymous · Answer

I think that men are better drivers generally for whatever reason. In my experience when I’m in the car when women drive something always happens except for my mom. But I believe men are more stupid in cars usually which causes more fatal accidents. I just don’t trust when girls drive so I typically offer to drive.

Anonymous · Answer

According to the definitive book of body language I've read. Women have a better poriforal (bad spelling? 😅) vision of 45 degrees and men have better long distance vision. So maybe that factors into it?

es20490446e · Answer

Women are the kind of people that when they park, they hit the car behind three times. Men are the kind that they hit the same car only once while driving at 140Kmh, and everyone dies!!

19magic · Answer

I don't judge gender but rather car make and age though my nan fits the gender bill

humanearth · Answer

That goes the other way to. Men look better in bikinis then women. As long as I look good in one, girls can have their driving skills

A_Bell · Answer

The statistic mentioned is laughably bad. It doesn't take into account that men are the primary drivers. When normalized by road mile driven, it's close, but men are slightly better.

Also anyone who believes girls are better needs to see some of my friends from when I was a teen with their cell phones.

https://www.trafficsafetystore.com/blog/who-causes-accidents/

backdoorman · Answer

It depends on what measure you want to use. Men are worse on some ways, women worse on others. Men are more reckless drivers, but women cause more accidents.

sobg1124 · Answer

In my opinion, men are better drivers than woman. Women tend to allow their emotions to dictate their actions, resulting in a lack of attention toward basic behind-the-wheel skills and on the fly decision making, and poor overall judgment. Because of this, I much prefer to be the driver, rather than a passenger, when with a woman.

Paul09 · Answer

I have gotten into accidents when I was younger. Which I ended up learning the hard way. And the biggest lesson I have learned, was to always be a defensive driver. Drive like any of these idiots might turn into you. I always observe my surroundings. But I have bad experiences with my women cousins, driving without their seat belts! Had to tell them to buckle up.. 😑

misanthropistkev · Answer

Women are worse drivers men are more distracted drivers for instance if we see a woman with a big ass or tiddies jogging were gonna look we can’t help it and also men are more likely to be driving drunk so of course our crash numbers are higher there’s more of us on the road women can barely drive without distractions I see men do it everyday

Lliam · Answer

It's just a silly stereotype; a joke. Like blond jokes or redneck jokes. They don't reflect reality.

Jjpayne · Answer

It's the funniest thing because women actually have cheaper car insurance because they are shown to be safer drivers 😂 I honestly don't know other than focusing on too many things at once 🤔🤷

JosyJosy · Answer

Yep my father is the more reckless driver of the two

Aakash_Hangargi · Answer

Are you comparing heavy vehicles with passanger vehicles, that's not a fair comparison lol depends on weight, give me something with passenger vehicles that to with gear shifts then it would be something fair..

How many women drivers are there druving heavy vehicles transportation?

_no_one_ · Answer

I learnt how to drive like 3 years ago and my mom taught me so.

DamnSam · Answer

Because men give women wrong presumptions what 6 inches are in reality...

Andres77 · Answer

Don't muddle this up with facts... that's not fair! 😏

888theGreat · Answer

They are ok when they are not trying to put make up on while driving or talking on the phone to other females about guys and they use their peckers.

Likes2drive · Answer

Because it’s usually true as far as skills in driving, guys usually get into more accidents since they are probably driving more miles an hours on the road than most women or maybe the guys get into accidents because a woman cut him off so he got into an accident avoiding her, I drive all day long and see the stupidest things done usually by women but the most common accidents I see them get into is rear end collisions from tailgating

Peru_My_Heart · Answer

Women have 20% less peripheral vision than men which is why they are slower through intersections. That's all I'm gonna say. Lol.

C0mput3r_V1ru5 · Answer

Women were not allowed to drive when cars first were invented, so men came up with the idea that women were bad drivers because it gave them an excuse to keep women from driving.

Anonymous · Answer

I’m unsure but personally, all the men I know either hate driving or aren’t really good drivers.

Anonymous · Answer

lol because women drive slower. And we all know that everybody who drives slower than you is an 'idiot' and anybody who drives faster is a 'lunatic'

Anonymous · Answer

Dumb people with egos. There’s a reason female insurance is cheaper.

Floppy2112 · Answer

Personal experience. Wow. Women I have dated have been great in many ways, none of them could drive. I honestly don't know how they didn't wreck all the time. Their guardian angels work over time.

Mariana1097 · Answer

Some Of Women I seen some put makeup on, while trying light a cigarette and driving with her knees.

CapitalismFailed · Answer

Girl you know what boneheads the guys on here are. Is it even worth asking?

iFarted · Answer

Women in general are safer drivers and because most women are safer drives they never really push the limits of their vehicles as often as guys and they don't take risks that guys do so they don't develop as much driving "skills".
Also, the girls out there that decide to text or do their makeup while they drive doesn't help the cause... (Guys do it too.. the texting part)

Coulis · Answer

Women can hestiate too much and be overly cautious. They also tend to speed.

Tim-loves-it · Answer

I dont.. Ill probably say.. from that state, from that county, etc LOL

scooogy · Answer

Maybe because they drive less often than men, considering that men do get to work every day and women as the one's often staying at home usually don't need to get to the grocery store every day.

TOTEMPLASTER · Answer

Because, on average, they absolutely are. Men have much quicker reflexes, particularly in a suddenly-occurring event. Women tend to freeze, frequently with nasty results.

Wiredone · Answer

Other than swift drivers, most women are bad drivers because they are easily distracted. I'm not saying all women are bad drivers, just a lot of them

Hydra6544 · Answer

I would say women aren’t worse drivers it’s just that they take less risks.

Dnice1 · Answer

Maybe because experiences of driving. I know I'm not a terrible driver.

collie22 · Answer

i did learn how to drive but I know i'm not good at it. i think cause i get distracted

Why Do Some People Say Women Are Worse Drivers 🤔?

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Why Do Some People Say Women Are Worse Drivers 🤔?

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