Women are better drivers than men. Here's why that matters.

Gender stereotypes about women are so strong that, even when they're objectively superior at something, we treat women like they're incompetent.

Picture the stereotypical woman driver.

What did you envision?

Someone who is confused, easily harried, just a little bit incompetent?

That’s what most people, and especially most men, picture.

The problem? The reverse is true. It’s men who are the incompetent drivers—unable to avoid potholes, get their car all the way into the space, not hit people, and not kill people.

The fact that most people think otherwise reveals the intense power of stereotypes.

Women are better drivers than men, no matter what you measure

A 2020 study of road fatality data found that men cause twice as many fatal car accidents per mile driven as women do. It seems that the first step toward being good at something is not killing people while doing it, but men fail other measures, too.

Another study by Netstar found that, according to every measure of driving competence, women scored higher. Men were more likely to hit other cars, potholes, and objects in the road, to suddenly brake, and to rapidly accelerate.

In one British study, women were better parkers on every conceivable measure. They were more likely to back into a space, and could do so more competently. They maneuvered into more correct positions to get into a space, and were more accurate at positioning their cars. They received higher overall parking ratings than men when an independent evaluator watched them. They were even more effective at finding a space because men were more likely to be driving too fast to notice a space.

And in a study that will surprise no woman who has ever ridden with a stubborn man, men are less adept at navigation than women. They’re more likely to get lost, driving on average 276 more miles a year because they are lost—20 more miles per year than women waste being lost.

A 2023 paper found that men pose a much higher risk to others on the road—so high that policyholders should take it into account, such as by encouraging women to take on more jobs that require driving.

In spite of all of this data, a 2022 study found that 82% of men report being “very confident” in their driving abilities.

No wonder they make so many jokes about women drivers. They’re straight-up delusional: objectively worse on every measure, but convinced of their superiority.

As with most things, men’s ignorance and hubris disadvantage women. Women are 73% more likely than men to be injured in a car crash. Men drive badly, and women pay for it. Then they tell us we’re the bad drivers.

This stereotype undermines women’s driving, too. A 2015 study found that stereotypes about bad women drivers make women drive less well—though of course, they’re still not driving as badly as men. So not only is the stereotype false; it’s harming people by making women worse drivers than they otherwise would be.

So why do we think women are such bad drivers?

Patriarchy draws heavily on the notion of the incompetent woman. Women are not inferior, the lie goes. They’re just less good at all the stuff that matters. That’s why men need to be out in the world, and women need to be doing all the grunt work that doesn’t earn them credit, money, or social capital.

Stereotyping women as bad drivers is just one of many ways we stereotype women as incompetent. We also falsely believe that mothers are less dedicated to their jobs (they’re actually more efficient than any other group of workers), and then use this as an excuse to mistreat them or underpay them. We tell women that men are natural leaders (even though women are better managers), and so we don’t encourage them to climb the corporate ladder, and we pay them less when they do. We insist women are more emotional than men, yet men are the ones killing women because of their emotions, raping women because of their emotions, and starting wars because of their emotions, all while pretending that anger doesn’t count as an emotion. We tell women men are more creative, but that they can’t be trusted to plan a child’s birthday party or decorate for a family gathering; that men are more logical, but can’t be trusted to plan a family vacation or research the best strategies for dealing with children’s behavioral problems; that men are more scientific, but can’t be counted on to learn how periods, vaginas, clitorises, women’s sexuality, pregnancy, childbirth, or really anything at all involving women works. We insist men have better spatial reasoning, but somehow they can’t see mess in a home, and definitely can’t organize clutter. Men are better writers, but can’t manage communications with family members. Better at math, but can’t calculate anything related to the child, their partner, or their family.

It goes on and on.

The truth is, you already knew that women are better drivers before you even read this article. Somewhere deep down, you did. You know that men are reckless. That they’re behind more road rage incidents and car accidents. Everyone knows this. That’s why insurers charge adolescent boys so much more to cover their cars (and their emotions, and the car accidents they cause). Anyone who has ever spent any time with men, or in cars, or reading much of anything knows that men are worse drivers than women.

Yet they’re still willing to crack jokes about women drivers, because mocking women is a global pasttime.

Women are just cringe and embarrassing.

And the more society depicts them that way, the more messaging we get about the stupidity and incompetence of women, the less believable they seem. Whether they’re accusing their partners of rape an abuse, or telling younger women it’s a really bad idea to get married.

It’s all the same message, with a singular goal: undermine women so that you can use and abuse them.