I’ve never/ will never understand how gender inequality managed to seep into driving. Driving is a skill, and like most life skills, it can be learned or acquired, without the help of your genitals. So imagine my shock when I realized that female drivers are often discriminated against by men on the road.
It is funny how thousands of years ago, our ancestors knew nothing about cars or how to move them, nothing about driving is inherent. So how then can men claim to be better drivers naturally, and women are considered inferior drivers?
In Lagos, I have encountered several male drivers who try to bully or intimidate female drivers on the road, and when they don’t bulge they resort to calling them prostitutes and asking them to return the cars to their husbands. Not only are men condescending to female drivers, women too are condescending to female drivers as well.
The truth is, if something/ an idea or a belief is reinforced so much, we inadvertently start to believe it, and one must be careful about this, else they’ll become what they hate. I once watched a woman swear that she was sure the terrible driver who almost caused an accident was female, and when she finally overtook the driver and found out he was male, she said “Oh, he drives like a woman.”
Now, for all the times I have ever heard that some did anything “like a woman” it was never in a good context. It is condescending and an insult to the intelligence of women that society has assumed that they cannot successfully hone a simple skill such as driving, not because they are incapable truly, but because society believes that they aren’t.
I’m not sure I have ever seen a car that needed testosterone to move before, so until such cars are produced, I’ll continue to cheer all the amazing female drivers I know and encourage more women to learn how to drive.
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