Don’t Call Us ‘Woman Driver’ Like It’s A Bad Thing, Says Women Of China

Earlier this month, somewhere around International Women’s Day, Chinese women (as in, those living in China) have called for a stop to use of the term “woman driver” in a derogatory sense.

Due to its association with referring to poor or clumsy drivers, they demand that “It’s time to stop stereotyping” since there are plenty of men that are shoddy drivers as well. Yes, on that we agree.

The sentiment came about when the Qier research and survey platform queried over 1,000 women to self-rate their driving skills. Interestingly, 28% of the respondents agreed that female drivers are generally poorer than men while 68% of them felt that driving skills were gender agnostic.

Another stat worthy of mention was that 86% of survey participants had rated their driving skills above a 5 in a 1 to 10 scale, meaning they were above average, with 24% above an 8/10. Just 18% of them felt that the term “women driver” brought about a sense of embarrassment and they were mostly born in the 1990s, if that matters.

Meanwhile, nearly 50% of participants had admitted to being teased, mistreated, or even wrongly blamed for causing an accident because of their gender.

Also on March 8th, the police there published a rather insensitive article on its official Sina Weibo account that had listed the ‘9 dangerous habits of female drivers’ to address the increasing number of woman drivers that have been reported as not looking in the rearview mirror, bringing pets in the vehicle, decorating vehicle with toys/decorations that hinder visibility, wearing high heels behind the wheel, and other bad habits that could hinder quick reaction during emergency situations.

Netizens in China reacted with scorn, as you might expect: “Not only (did you not wish us on International Women’s Day), you discriminate us on this special day. Even if the cops are merely reminding women of safe driving, it shouldn’t be on this day,” they said.

The law enforcement bureau later clarified saying that they published it to remind them of good driving measures and was not meant to discriminate against women, adding that the same content was released on other platforms before, and on other dates.