Cars

4 Reasons Young Women Should Be Confident Behind the Wheel

For some reason, men have always thought that driving is their domain. They think that getting behind the wheel is a masculine activity and that women drivers are not as skilled as they are. The problem with this assumption is that there is absolutely no proof of it in any way.

In fact, the ratio of accidents that happen on the road demonstrates that men cause them nearly 70% of the time. Women are safer drivers. They get better insurance rates from auto insurance companies because of it.

This is one of the many reasons, among many, that young women should be excited and confident to get their license. If young girls feel they can drive themselves wherever they need to go, they will turn into independent, strong adult women. 

Moms who drive confidently, change tires, and bring their cars to the auto shop when they need fixing are much more common than ever before. We’ll discuss whether this trend will continue and whether men will ever accept that driving is not strictly their domain. 

Great Car Insurance Rates

One of the worst parts about being a young driver is the high rates for car insurance. Companies view teenagers and young adults as risky clients because they are inexperienced. This means they need to offset the cost of potential claims by raising the rates to compensate. 

There are different things that go into the insurance industry’s analysis of these rates. One of the best parts about being a young woman is they are seen as much safer customers for insurance companies.

This is based on years of evidence. Teenage boys get into more accidents than teenage girls. There are also some assumptions about the different gender’s personalities that go into these rates. Boys are stereotyped as rash decision-makers. They are deemed more likely to want to go faster than the speed limit, too. 

Whether this is actually sufficiently backed up by the number of tickets given out for speeding is to be determined. Whatever the case may be, women can rest assured that they will get insurance breaks easier than men.

Installing traffic safety gadgets in your car is another way that women can add even more discounts to their coverage. There are various programs from the big insurance companies that use devices that track speeding, brake time, and more driving behavior. Impressive results in these categories could save you more money on your insurance. 

More Women in Automotive Jobs

We are gradually making progress where jobs are not so strictly limited by gender. One of the reasons women are viewed as poor drivers is because there are so few of them working in the automotive industry. 

As more women are encouraged to enter into the automotive fields like mechanics, manufacturing, and car sales, they will get more respect on the road. 

Women now account for about one-fifth of automotive sales jobs in the U.S. These numbers have continued to increase since the year 2000. 

Women will see other people who look like them working with motor vehicles. They will then be encouraged to think about how they can get involved in and start loving cars and trucks. 

Think about going to the auto shop and seeing a woman working on your car instead of a man. This helps to eliminate the stereotypes about cars being a masculine field of interest. 

Many of the long-held beliefs about men being better drivers are tied to never seeing women fix cars, working in auto shops, or selling vehicles.

Parents who encourage their daughters to learn about cars from a young age. They can have the peace of mind that they have raised a woman who will be comfortable and confident when she is around motor vehicles. 

Moms Need to Drive More

Women should feel confident that they can drive safely and intelligently because they have to use these skills so often as mothers. Young women who have children are juggling a lot of different responsibilities. This ranges from trying to go to work to possibly get a college degree.

If you add being a single mother to the mix, women have a lot of places they need to be. This puts them on the road just as much or more than men. Driving to soccer practice to pick up children and going to a job during the day means that moms are on the road at all hours. 

It really makes the assumptions that women are poor drivers look really silly. Young women have such a large variety of places they need to be throughout their days compared to many men. 

Their juggling of work, school, and parenting duties give them experience driving in the dark, during rush hour, and anything in between.

There Are More Safety Features

Because women were discouraged from driving for decades, they may have started to feel scared to get behind the wheel. If you listen to society tell you negative things for long enough, you’ll start to believe them.

Fortunately, there are more safety features on modern cars than at any other time in history. Vehicles not only are required to have seat belts and airbags for every passenger, but many new cars have added safety enhancements.

These can consist of things like self-driving tools that use lane assist, to blind-spot monitors to let you know about things you would traditionally not see. This is especially important for mothers who have kids distracting them while driving. 

Drivers should never rely on the safety features available to them. They should be seen as a backup just in case something goes wrong. Often this reassurance is all that is needed for an unconfident driver, though. 

Getting behind the wheel is a very mentally draining activity. Women who haven’t been educated on the safety features that their cars have can add to the stress they feel. 

Keeping the facts straight and ignoring the negative assumptions is the best way for women to drive confidently. As with many other aspects of life, women have been made to feel inferior to men. We are getting better in these areas, but education is key. 

Trying to move on from outdated talking points about female drivers will lead to women embracing the road, once and for all.

Shawn Laib writes and researches for the auto insurance site, 4AutoInsuranceQuote.com. He wants to help female drivers understand the advantages they have on the road and with their insurance companies. 

Christopher Stern

Christopher Stern is a Washington-based reporter. Chris spent many years covering tech policy as a business reporter for renowned publications. He has extensive experience covering Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commissions. He is a graduate of Middlebury College. Email:[email protected]

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