Gender war on the roads

DRIVEN UP

Women are generally perceived as bad drivers. Recent studies have proven that women are more prone to accidents on the road than their male counterparts.

This is surprising considering women spend lesser time behind the wheel compared to men. Metrolife spoke to the authorities and a few women drivers in the City to find out their reaction to this.

Malavika Bondal, who drives on a regular basis, feels that women definitely cannot be deemed as bad drivers based on their skills. She says, “I personally do not feel that this is true, at least with me or the people I know.”

But as she opines, there are various reasons which may contribute to making a woman feel insecure thus leading to the conclusion. “I believe it has got to do with the mind. Women are made to believe that they are pathetic drivers and are advised to be extra careful. Though it may be in a fun way, it is in some way ingrained in your head that you are not that good in judging the roads and turnings. I think this is the main reason why they end up denting something or meeting with an accident just because they have so much fed into their minds,” she says.

However, there are others who dare to admit that there is some level of truth in this study. Says Sucheta Verman, “Even if a woman is a bad driver, she would never say it. I feel there are good and bad women drivers unlike men who are rash most of the time.
What happens mostly with women is that we spend too much time looking into the mirror and do not concentrate on the roads. So I think there is 50 per cent truth in the study.”

However, there are cases when women tend to have an upper hand. Says Malvika, “Mostly, people readily come to your help if you skid and fall down. This doesn’t happen that often in the case of men.” But this even works to the disadvantage of women.

Says Dipannita Chatterjee, “Whenever a woman falls down on the road, there is a huge group of men surrounding her, thus causing major traffic problems. This leads many to form a general opinion that since you are a woman, you cannot drive. So whether the statistics prove it or not, we are still told condescendingly that we are disaster-prone.”

On being asked about this, a traffic authority says, “When compared to last year, we have noticed that there has been a slight rise in the number of accidents in which women drivers were involved. But the main reason for this may not be because they are not good drivers, but because there has been a steep increase in the number of women using vehicles.”