Biography

This question has been posed for decades. Perhaps ever since the first person got behind the wheel of a car, or since the first automobile accident involving both a man and a woman. It’s been a variable battle of the sexes in our culture for at least fifty years. Who are the better drivers, women, or men?

I recently read an essay by Rachael Cowley titled Women Stop for Directions; it is this essay that made me ponder this question. In this article Cowley clearly sites all of the cliché habits of poor male drivers. For instance, not stopping for directions, revving engines, peeling out, and speeding are some of the habits she reports men doing. With the exception of not asking for directions, I agree that these are not good qualities of any driver. However, are they dangerous signs of poor driving, or are they merely a reflection of confidence in ones skills. Are these acts more dangerous then the acts done by women drivers? Dangerous acts like putting on make up in the rear view mirror, chattering to passengers and people on cell phones, and just not being as attentive as necessary. Men may dri




speaking, left out the fact that in the past there have been fewer females with licenses then males.

Many women will combat these statements by providing statistics to prove they are better drivers. There are more male drivers in the united states by about thirty percent so, statistically speaking, men are involved in more crashes than women every year. In addition to that, if a man and a woman must travel together, the man almost always ends up driving, sometimes, not by choice I might add. However, if we take the raw crash statistics from each sex individually and compare them, women are in as many crashes as men, and in some instances more. Female driver crashes across the board are supposed to surpass male driver crashes in the next few years according to the Insurance Information Institute. The old argument that males are worse drivers, statistically... [continues]

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