Why do men persist in classifying women as 'Bl**dy Women Drivers' ?

Question

Statistics show that women are far safer on the road as drivers, and yet men persist in stereotyping women as bad drivers. I had an incident yesterday which has really upset me - a man accusing me of making a mistake in his opinion and then calling me a bl**dy woman driver. Luckily a witness saw the incident and said that I had done nothing wrong - and this man was just driving too fast and was out of control. How do I get this awful man out of my head and get over the upset?

From the comments so far I would like to add that I would never use my mobile phone when I'm driving and that I'm driving all over the country for my business so I'm not one of those females that doesn't drive much as someone suggested.

Answer 1

The guy's obviously an idiot. Don't beat yourself up about it. Some men have trouble getting to grips with the idea that women are every bit as capable as they are.

In my experience women are safer drivers. Near enough every time I see someone driving selfishly, like a maniac, or downright dangerously there's a bloke behind the wheel.

(Yes, I'm a man by the way).

Answer 2

Statistics can show whatever you want them to.

Women are considered safer drivers because yes, they are less likely to be involved in or cause an accident - the reason for this is quite straight forward - there are still less female drivers on the roads in the UK than men, at any given time.

You show me the solid, reliable and proven evidence that shows that woman possess higher levels of ability across all the skills of driving, and I'll concede that you're right. Likewise, if the evidence existed that men are better drivers, I'd use that to prove a point.

However, this evidence doesn't exist, no-one has ever done a study (outside of a Top Gear-easque parody) and so we can't say conclusively either way.

Still, it's a well known fact that my wife can not reverse park for toffee!!

You're letting it get to you too much. Not worth it. If he was that rubbish a driver, he'll have a crash soon enough.

Answer 3

In all the (thank God fairly minor) accidents I've ever been involved in (in my whole life, including 4 where I wasn't driving) male drivers outnumber women drivers 6 to 2.

I confess, one was my fault, I hit a fence a year or so after getting my licence (11 years ago) while driving distracted. Never made THAT mistake again.

I also NEARLY hit a guy on a scooter/moped who suddenly zipped into and then out of my blind spot while I had my flasher on to change lanes and I thought the lane was clear (I never counted that one because it wasn't actually an accident.) I'd say I was 50% in the wrong on that one, and how close a near-miss it was still makes me remember it even a few years later.

My husband says I'm not the best driver either, and yet it's HIM that's been the driver during 3 of these accidents and he's actually CAUSED the 2 most serious of them!!

Try your best to forget about it. Writing things down and talking about them with others always helps me, and you've done both of these things so you should feel better soon. :-)

Answer 4

Couple of drinks, and take a few swings at a punch bag. The drink brings the rage and confidence into you and the punch-bag means you can do exactly what you want to vent your anger without hurting anybody.

Remember not all blokes percieve women as bad drivers, just the bad drivers!!! If that makes any sense. The truth is that men are more capable of controlling a car than a woman, more control over hormones and emotions means we can concentrate on one thing harder, but our competitive streak means we push ourselves nearer the limits, so when things go wrong, while a man should deal with it better than a woman in that situation, the woman wouldn't have been daft enough to end up in that situation in the first place!!

Answer 5

Hi Resin girl. Lets think about the problem.

Its not strictly true that women are "safer" drivers. Women are involved in much more minor accidents than men. As a woman you are more likely to have a small bump where nobody is injured. You are nearly 30 times more likely to have a small accident than a male driver. But;

A man is more likely to have a big accident. He has better, spacial awareness than a woman, so has less trouble manouvring a vehicle in a confined area, but he is far more aggressive so is more likely to have a high speed incident caused by over "enthusiastic" driving.

Let me make an example for you.

Why is motor racing almost soley the domain of men? There have been a couple of exceptions, but its almost all male.
Its because, at a base level, men need to compete with each other and will take life threatening risks to do so. In the heat of competition, testosterone fuels the driver to push harder and drive faster. Obviously a woman doesnt have this, so is less likely to want, or even understand, the need to race. True?

Just to make you feel better about yourself, let me tell you this.
Its a fact that woman are way better at multi tasking than men.
In our primitive past, the female role was domestic, and as such, she developed skills to be able to do a lot of things at once. Listen for animals, car for children, prepare food and clothing etc. Thats why modern woman can do so many things at once.
Park the car, think about the day, talk to other people, listen to the radio etc, all at once.
Men have better spacial awareness. This means that men have the ability to do spacial calculations really quickly. In the past a man would see an animal running, be able to judge the distance, make a calculation as to where the animal will be in the time it takes to throw a spear at it. Throw the spear acurately, and in the right tradjectory to kill the animal!! He would be able to block out all other things to do this.

Men and women are different. Men rarely have a little bump in the car park and women rarely have a major right off.

But just so you can laugh at us a bit try this and have a giggle at us. Next time you are in a car with a man, notice that when he comes to park, or try and find an address, he'll turn the radio down. We cant think about two things at once.........true xx

Answer 6

Lol, that's men for you. We women just can't do as well. Have you ever noticed that you drive perfectly fine, no accidents, then a man get in the vehicle with you and you become a blooming idiot, who has to be told when to turn, how to stop, your to close, and when he tells you to turn here, like this, your almost in an accident, and some man is howlering out his window, Bloody women drivers, lol. Yep go figure.

Answer 7

Yep! Totally agree with almost everybody. Do not allow an insecure idiot like that to upset you. You owe yourself that much. Oh and if it's any consolation, I'm a pedestrian and could tell you a thing or two about the Bl**dy arrogant Bl**dy men who insist on riding stupid bicycles with absolutely no due care and no attention whatsoever!!

Answer 8

I'm not going to dispute your findings however, I ride a motorcycle and every time I have a close call with a car or truck it's a women driving and talking on her cell phone. I would like to say I wasn't polled in the above opinion poll.

Answer 9

You know you did nothing wrong, the witness knows you did nothing wrong, and even the man that yelled at you knows you did nothing wrong. He yelled at you, not because of what you did, but because he was in a rush for whatever reason and you were in his way. All you had to do was be in his line of vision at that point to make him mad. It wasn't you , it was him. There's a lot of a**holes out there, especially on the road. I wouldn't let them ruin your day.

Answer 10

It is and has been a male chauvinistic trait ever since the 1950s,
that the man always claims he is better on the road than a woman, but in today's world this no longer applies.