Why do men pay more for car insurance than women?

Question

This fact is surely sexism based on pure stereotypes rather than relevant information such as the driver's history. Doesn't this just portray the stereotype that men are more irresponsible or 'risk takers' when it comes to driving? Why not base car insurance on ethnicity?

thanks for the answers everyone. But the question is more relevant to stereotypes based on statistics: is this fair? Obviously it this were to happen based on one's ethnicity, then everyone would complain about it, and why shouldn't they? It's racism: and this seems sexism to me. Input?

Answer 1

I see your point in that. It would be no different to base car insurance on ethnicity based on statistics. What are factors in the amount we pay for insurance is personal history of course, age, grades (if in school), whether or not a person has bad credit, along with many other things.
Most men are too macho anyways to actually believe women are better drivers.

8 years ago, an insurance agent told me that women get in 70% less accidents than men do.
In my opinion this doesn't mean women are "better" drivers, but we are definately safer on average. We aren't usually cocky, aggressive, and arrogant behind the wheel like men are. It's these aggressive types who get in the most accidents ruining it for all men.

Answer 2

Women get cheaper car insurance because they have fewer car accidents than men. You can argue that the companies offering those products should be forced to offer insurance to men as well - but offering cheaper insurance rates to women is sound commercial practise. It works the other way as well. If a man and women pay exactly the same amount of money into a pension plan and then retire the man will receive a higher annual pension than the women. Pension payments are claculated on the number of years the recipient is expected to live and a woman usually lives longer than a man. So the woman gets less money each year. Now get over it and try holding the door open for anyone who needs your help without worrying about whether they're a man or woman.

Answer 3

Well the problem is that men get in more accidents on average than women. So to the insurance company it's not worth the time and money to go through which men are better drivers than each other so it's easier to just make all men's rate higher.

However if the women rate of accidents and tickets were to rise then there would be a more equal amount of rates.

Answer 4

This is based on statistics, not sexism. Statistically, men do take more risks behind the wheel and are more prone to road rage.
If statistics showed that women did indeed match the stereotype of being nervous or incapable drivers and therefore encountering more accidents, then the insurance companies would charge women more.

IF the decision was based on stereotypes, then yes, it would be unfair; but it isn't. The decision is based on statistics.
Trust me, insurance companies are all about their bottom line, not cultural stereotypes. They look at the facts, the records, and charge accordingly. But gender I'm sure plays a very small part in the complex equation of insurance calculation.

Answer 5

This is an example of sex discrimination against men.

It’s interesting that most of the other answers are provided by women, who justify this discrimination against men. (I’ve never heard a female complain that women were not required to register for the military draft.)

I’m now a senior citizen, and over my lifetime, I’ve had to pay more for auto insurance than a female. I’ve been a cautious driver and have never been in an accident. I’ve never been a “cocky, aggressive, or arrogant” driver. Yet, I’ve been discriminated against because of my sex. Why is this not against the law?

Answer 6

Yep. Sexism is all I can think of it. It's stupid. I like the lower car insurance costs and the fact that it goes down further when you hit 25 (around here). But I'd like for the men (as well as women) to be able to save money up if they really need it! Like if they have a family and stuff.

I hate sexism, racism, homophob-ism lol etc.

Cruel world we live in.

Answer 7

Because they can get away with it; they have thousands of statisticians in their employ, and as we all know, statistics can be warped, manipulated, and spun to prove almost anything. It's the same reason they charge poor people more than wealthy people, both by rating you based on where you live and your credit score- neither of which have anything to do with whether or not you're a good, safe driver. Even ageism is dubious, and regressive; a kid that flips burgers for a living pays several times as much as a middle aged woman who should have a nest egg equal to several times the kid's annual salary. Yeah, the kid has less experience, but he probably has fewer toys in the car to distract him, and we're "supposed" to live in a nation where we're not punished for the actions of others.

As an example, I moved from a relatively poor area of a wealthy (mostly white) city, where I parked on the street a block from a major commercial strip, a quarter mile from a freeway, to a relatively wealthy suburban area of a poor (mostly black) zip code where I park in a locked attached garage, yet my rate jumped 20% overnight. No volume of statistics and bar-charts will prove that I'm at greater risk of a claim than I was before; I'm more likely to hit a cow that wandered onto the road than to have my car stolen or vandalized.

Oh, and since this is the LGBT section, isn't it interesting that gays and lesbians- who already subsidize the "lifestyle choice" of married heterosexuals in many other ways- take yet another hit from the insurance industry because an unmarried partner doesn't qualify as a "spouse", and a partner's child cannot be listed as a "dependent" in states like Michigan where second-parent adoption is not an option?

Answer 8

Thought that insurance companies go by age and years of experience..I did not think that women drivers pay less then the men..I get pi..ed off with the boy racers that are partly to blame with big increases each year

Answer 9

Rates are all computed by statistics. Men pay more because insurance companies have to pay out more for men in claims. Men get in more accidents and of those accidents they tend to get in the accidents that have bigger claims (involving serious injury and/or death). It's all math, has nothing to do with bias, just history.

Answer 10

Maybe it's because men are perceived as more aggressive than women, due to male hormones. But I'm not in the insurance business.

i didn't actually know that men were charged more based solely on their gender.