Women Drivers

Last week I was maneuvering my grocery cart in the Superstore aisles when I bumped into a display. A man who was also pushing a cart looked at me, laughed and said, "Women drivers!"

Where did we get the idea that women are worse drivers than men? This idea has been around for a long time. Did you know that one of the southern states had a law that a woman could not drive a vehicle unless a man walked (or ran??!) in front of the car waving a red flag to warn other motorists and pedestrians? It's true. Maybe when cars were first invented men were better drivers. Women were thought to be unmechanical and no doubt few had the opportunity to learn to drive. That is no longer the case. Furthermore, I suspect that accident statistics would show there are more car crashes involving men than women. Yet the idea that women are bad drivers persists. So what's going on here?

Naturally, I have a theory about this! Face it, there are bad men drivers out there too! But I think the bad driving habits of women and of men are generally different from each other. Men are irritated by the bad driving habits of women, but barely notice the bad driving habits of other men, because those habits are the way they themselves drive. Any sociologist will tell you that people tend to be negative about actions and people who are different from themselves.

Unfortunately, this tendency to disparage whatever is different from ourselves is more widespread than just with driving complaints. Women have long endured criticism because they are different from men - not logical, too emotional, too talkative, too moody, too loud, too soft...!And too many women have bought into the lie that if they could only be more like men, they would be more acceptable.

Well, I'm taking a stand right here and now. I'm going to celebrate both women and men - with all their wonderful God-given differences. How boring it would be if we were more alike!