History Main / WomenDrivers

** In VideoGame/Persona5Strikers Only Haru and Makoto licences and need to drive the crew cross country in the real world due to the plot. Makoto is the primary driver, unwilling to make Haru do it, and never causes any issues but as the stress of driving so much catches up with her they're eventually forced to let Haru drive so Makoto can recover. [[DrivesLikeCrazy Makoto doesn't consider any part of what happens next restful, along with the rest of the gang.]]

Still sometimes used in fiction, often set in the Asian parts of the world and UsefulNotes/{{California}} or [[HollywoodNewEngland Massachusetts]]; the common joke here is that every time you see a car do something incredibly stupid (as opposed to incredibly dangerous or obnoxious), chances are the driver is a woman. With a high probability of them [[AsianDrivers being Asian]].[[note]]Unless Massachusetts is used.[[/note]] It's also very popular in the comments sections of car accident videos on sites like Website/YouTube.

* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' mined this for humor more than once - Lady Penelope in particular was a frightening driver. The plot of the episode "City of Fire" began when a careless female motorist crashes her car in a parking garage and sets the entirety of the world's tallest building on fire. The end of the episode shows her alive, well, and once more driving like a maniac behind the wheel of another car.
** A later episode of the series showed that Lady Penelope's driving skills had improved since the first time she tried it.

* ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'': Major Anya Amasova is [[ActionGirl skilled at many things]], but DrivingStick is not one of them. For that scene, Barbara Bach was [[EnforcedMethodActing genuinely struggling with the transmission]], while all of Creator/RogerMoore's snarky commentary was unscripted.

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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Studies differ, but women tend to report more accidents per mile driven (in the range of 10%) than men: young men report more accidents than young women, and older women more than older men. This is inverted by auto insurance rates, especially for young drivers. Male drivers are often charged a higher premium because they're over-represented in severe crashes that are more likely to total the car or result in serious injury or death, whereas the vast majority of women's crashes are just minor brush-ups that don't cost insurance companies as much. The disparity actually got to the point where the European Parliament forced insurance companies to stop charging different premiums based on gender because they were unfairly discriminating against ''men''.
* A "joke" that still rears its head on message boards whenever a female race car driver has an embarrassing incident -- like [[UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} Danica Patrick]] hitting her pit crew at one race, then hitting someone else's crew a few races later. Considering male drivers like [[UsefulNotes/IndyCar Paul Tracy]] used to make a habit of such minor incidents the double standard is pretty tired. Interestingly when Katherine Legge had a ''huge'' crash, splitting her [[UsefulNotes/IndyCar Champ Car]] in half and emerging unharmed, there weren't any "LOL Women Drivers" comments, just a lot of compliments about her toughness. (Then again, even the most douchey person can't reasonably blame driving ability when a rear wing element ''broke off'' going into a non-banked flat-out corner. Unlike some crashes where the most skilled drivers would have a chance of saving the car, it was a matter where the best driver in the world would still have been going into that wall.)
** Tellingly, Katherine Legge is now known just as much for [[https://pics.wikifeet.com/Katherine-Legge-Feet-4439394.jpg looking extremely hot in a swimsuit]] as she is for being a racing driver. As such...regarding Danica ''specifically''...especially from many who ''despise'' the [[https://demaras.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/sddefault.jpg sexualizing]] of their chosen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzgwCql_mo drug-of-choice.]]
** Milka Duno is a standout example. At St. Petersburg, Florida, second race of the 2010 UsefulNotes/IndyCar season, she was five and a half seconds off the second slowest time...which was one and a half seconds off the ''fastest'' time. In a sport that has recently embraced several female drivers who possess quite a bit of talent, Duno is now causing the vast majority of fans to scream invectives at race control director Brian Barnhart, that he is allowing her on the track solely for Venezuelan CITGO sponsorship dollars. (As of 2011, she no longer races in UsefulNotes/IndyCar.)
* Similarly crops up in "humourous" captions on various "funny picture" websites, any time there is a ridiculous or improbable car accident in the image.
* On one episode of ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'' ([[ClueFromEd Series 5, Episode 6]]), a relative unknown by the name of Billy Baxter asked to take a power lap in the Suzuki Liana. As Jeremy Clarkson explained, many, many people have so asked, but they answered this one because the guy was literally ''totally blind'' ... but still thought he could beat Richard Whitley's lap time. Long story short: he did. In fact, he beat Terry Wogan's time as well. ...and half the places where the video is published or linked online say, "Blind Man Beats Woman Driver", despite neither of those men ''being'' women.
* [[http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/07/12/a-sexist-birthday-wish/ This sexist birthday card]] and this [[http://lh3.ggpht.com/_e109kKH12do/TJjdkL72ptI/AAAAAAAABsY/5eaOwAp01AY/becarefulwhatyouwishfor7.jpg?imgmax=800 wishing well variant]] has a woman wish for "driving skills" and transforms into a man.
* Any time there's a news report about distracted driving, they name down the usual suspects that distract drivers (talking on the phone, drinking coffee, changing the radio station) they also always explicitly mention putting on make-up, possibly because it's one of the worst offenders (with some of the others, you can at least halfway keep your eye on the road, but with make-up you ''have'' to look in the mirror to put it on,) and because it's one of the few distractions that almost solely performed by women.
* Averted with World Rally Championship driver Michèle Mouton. A real woman in a man's world in the late 80's era of Group B rallying. The swift Frenchwoman gained fame through driving for the Audi team. The Group-B cars were violent fire-breathing monsters that were able to go from 0-60 in under 3 seconds...On gravel. While she never won a championship title, she did win 4 rallies in which she went up against and defeated champions. She retired in 1986, only because the insane Group-B category folded due to tragic accidents. Since Mouton, there hasn't been any female drivers in top level rallying.
* Parallel parking in a confined space really does appear to be ''slightly'' more difficult for women than men, due to neurological differences in the sexes' processing of spatial arrangements.
* An Irish radio station had a bit of an impromptu indulgence of this trope when numerous people phoned in one day and said they had spotted a woman driving along the motorway with a mirror propped up on the dashboard, driving with one hand and using a portable hair straightener with the other. The host then recalled an incident where he had seen a driver in front of him with long blonde hair that was apparently applying lipstick while driving only to discover it was actually a man trimming his beard.
* In some places a slang term for an automobile junkyard is a "women's parking lot."
* When South Korea introduced larger and well-lit female-only parking spaces, everyone assumed this trope was in play. The actual reason was safety against assault.
* Several languages have set phrases -- often rhyming -- that encapsulate this trope.
** There's an old French saying about this: "Femme au volant, mort au tournant" ("Woman at the wheel, death at the next turn").
** Similarly, there’s an Israeli saying about women’s abilities to bring men up and ruin them, ''ishá boná, ishá horéset''[[labelnote:Hebrew]]אשה בונה, אשה הורסת[[/labelnote]] ‘a woman builds, a woman destroys’, often augmented with ''ishá khoná, ishá doréset''[[labelnote:Hebrew]]אשה חונה אשהדורסת[[/labelnote]] ‘a woman parks, a woman runs over’.
** In Italian and Portuguese the saying goes "Woman at the wheel, constant danger" (IT: ''Donna al volante, pericolo costante.'')
** Russian "Женщина за рулем - что обезьяна с гранатой" ("Female driver is like a monkey with hand grenade"). There is also an obscene phrase which translates as "a cunt behind the wheel is no driving".
** The expression in English is "Women drivers, no survivors."
** In German: "Frau am Steuer, ungeheuer" ("Woman at the wheel, not safe").
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/{{Speed}}'' plays with this with Annie, the woman who has to drive the bus against all odds when the driver is shot, had her drivers' license suspended for speeding. As it happens, she does great under the circumstances, no matter how [[DrivesLikeCrazy crazy she has to drive]] to stay alive. [[Film/Speed2CruiseControl The follow-up film]] has her dipping fully into this trope, with her [[WalkingDisasterArea utterly]] [[AttentionDeficitOhShiny disastrous]] attempts at passing her driver's test providing the film's BookEnds.

* Referenced in several WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts, usually by Bugs Bunny: "[[HadTheSillyThingInReverse I had the silly thing in reverse!]]"

* Jeremy Hardy on ''Radio/TheNewsQuiz'' and ''Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation'' sometimes takes on the persona of a patronising sexist twit, with the joke being intended to be at the expense of sexist twits (key sign: putting on a posh voice and referring to "the ''la''dies" or "women of the opposite gender"). Quite common in these routines are references to women putting on their makeup in the rear view mirror, or leaving the shopping on the car roof.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Futurama'', neither Leela nor Amy can parallel park, even though they're flying VTOL vehicles.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39qdhbkTko4&feature=related Look, Listen and Take Heed.]]

* In the first episode of ''Series/AlteredCarbon'', Takeshi Kovacs is taken by a female chauffeur in a FlyingCar to the estate of Laurens Bancroft. When she crashes the limousine trying to land it, it's revealed she's actually [[CowboyCop Detective Kristin Ortega]], who had the driver arrested on a DUI charge so [[NotMyDriver she could take his place]] in an attempt to find out what Bancroft wants with Kovacs. JustifiedTrope as she's not familiar with flying that model of car, and it's implied Ortega may have crashed it deliberately as she has her own grudge against Bancroft.

* Creator/TexAvery's ''[[http://www.trilulilu.ro/video-animatie/tex-avery-mgm-1951-09-22-car-of-tomorrow The Car of Tomorrow]]'' has a gag about a garage that lifts up so that the little woman can park without crashing into it and another gag with a car equipped with speaking turning signals; when the woman is about to turn, it goes "Turning left... no, right... no, left..." Interestingly enough, a couple of politically incorrect gags were taken out of the cartoon when it aired on Creator/CartoonNetwork, but the joke about women drivers was left in.

** In Italian and Portuguese the saying goes "Woman at the wheel, constant danger".

* Creator/TexAvery's ''[[http://www.trilulilu.ro/video-animatie/tex-avery-mgm-1951-09-22-car-of-tomorrow The Car of Tomorrow]]'' has a gag about a garage that lifts up so that the little woman can park without crashing into it and another gag with a car equipped with speaking turning signals; when the woman is about to turn, it goes "Turning left... no, right... no, left..." Interestingly enough, a couple of [[OnceAcceptableTargets politically incorrect gags]] were taken out of the cartoon when it aired on Creator/CartoonNetwork, but the joke about women drivers was left in.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' had the other characters running in terror whenever Kitty was looking for someone to take her driving. Kitty tries to convince either Scott or Jean to ride with her because she has a learner's permit. It's ''Jean'' who shoves Scott at Kitty and runs off. At some point, Professor X tricked Wolverine into riding with her. She made '''Wolverine''' fear for his life. Wolverine extracted payback by having her drive the Professor's limo. Of course, it should be pointed out that her driving is likely less because she's a woman and more because she has absolutely no concern for traffic hazards since she's a mutant who can just phase through them.

Still sometimes used in fiction, often set in the Asian parts of the world and UsefulNotes/{{California}} or [[HollywoodNewEngland Massachusetts]]; the common joke here is that every time you see a car do something incredibly stupid (as opposed to incredibly dangerous or obnoxious), chances are the driver is a woman. With a high probability of them [[AsianDrivers being Asian]][[note]]unless Massachusetts is used[[/note]]. It's also very popular in the comments sections of car accident videos on sites like Website/YouTube.

* A surprisingly early aversion is present in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ODExo7vESU Spinning Levers]], a 1936 Chevrolet advert for synchromesh transmissions. In it, a driver operates a car equipped with the new transmission while the narrator explains how the transmission works. The driver--whose driving is even more ordinary than what's seen in most of today's car advertisments--is eventually revealed to be a woman. Not once does the ad draw attention to her gender, not even a comment along the lines of "it's so simple a woman can drive it!"

* Deconstructed in the UsefulNotes/NewZealand comedy show ''Funny Girls'' [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3822534/New-Zealand-comedians-Funny-Girls-sketch-uses-fake-Holden-car-advert-mock-sexism.html in this spoof truck advert]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39qdhbkTko4&feature=related Look, Listen and Take Heed]].

*** (On the other hand, according to the ''[[AllThereInTheManual Tech Manual]],'' deorbiting a ''Galaxy''-class saucer section had never been tried before, and it was generally regarded as ''extremely risky.'' "Minimal casualties" indicates some ''exceptional'' flying.)

* Some pieces of Fan Art for ''Franchise/MassEffect'' depict Female Commander Shepard as this, such as [[http://cerviero.deviantart.com/art/ME2-Just-like-old-times-153854073 this piece]]. This is more a joke about how ''nobody'' can drive the Mako in a straight line.

* ''Webcomic/SuicideForHire'' gives us one from the mouth of Altair Anunnaki, pizza [[Literature/SnowCrash deliverator]] and "definitive source of all things meretricious, vivacious, and delicious" -- although [[http://suicideforhire.comicgenesis.com/d/20080120.html he adds the caveat "on a cell phone"]].

* Jodie from ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/3 managed to jump with her car over a [=McDonald=]'s]].

* In the first episode of the Israeli animated series ''Animation/MK22'', the (fictional) first female Israeli astronaut is interviewed before take-off. She talks about how how NASA has no room for stereotypes and women are involved in all parts of the organisation, while [[FunnyBackgroundEvent in the background]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1oam1fI5o a woman driver crashes into two parked cars while trying to park herself]]. This becomes a running gag throughout the episode.

** Tellingly, Katherine Legge is now known just as much for [[https://pics.wikifeet.com/Katherine-Legge-Feet-4439394.jpg looking extremely hot in a swimsuit]] as she is for being a racing driver. As such...regarding Danica ''specifically''...especially from many who ''despise'' the [[https://demaras.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/sddefault.jpg sexualizing]] of their chosen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzgwCql_mo drug-of-choice]].

** Within days of the casting announcement of Creator/JodieWhittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, there were already jokes online regarding how long it would take her to crash the TARDIS.
*** Which are often followed by other fans kindly pointing out all of the times the ''male'' Doctors have (nearly) crashed the TARDIS.

** In the cliffhanger ending to "Twice Upon A Time", the newly regenerated Thirteen presses a single button, causes an immediate error message and StuffBlowingUp and finds herself ThrownOutTheAirlock, watching a fire-wreathed TARDIS dematerializing before her horrified eyes as she's falling to her death. In fairness, this is entirely in keeping with what her predecessors did post-regeneration; Ten had the TARDIS bouncing around a council estate like a pinball, Eleven started out in a TARDIS that was on fire and crashing, and nearly pitched himself out mid-air over London, and Twelve got the TARDIS swallowed by a dinosaur!

A ([[UndeadHorseTrope supposedly]]) [[DiscreditedTrope long-dead comedy trope/stereotype]] which maintained that a woman behind the wheel of a car ''automatically'' became a danger to life and limb. Regardless of how intelligent and thoughtful a woman was, this trope insisted she would become a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}--or worse, TheDitz--the moment she slipped into the driver's seat: incapable of using turn signals, checking her gear shift position, or even looking where she's going. Even parking could become a major challenge.

Any problems--or worse, accidents--she caused would be dismissed with a breezy carefreeness that husbands and traffic cops inevitably found grating, women drivers as often as not blaming the car for operator errors.

Still sometimes used in fiction, often set in the Asian parts of the world and UsefulNotes/{{California}} or [[HollywoodNewEngland Massachusetts]]; the common joke here is that every time you see a car do something incredibly stupid (as opposed to incredibly dangerous or obnoxious), chances are the driver is a woman. With a high probability of them [[AsianDrivers being Asian]] [[note]] unless Massachusetts is used. [[/note]]. It's also very popular in the comments sections of car accident videos on sites like Website/YouTube.

Statistically speaking, women report more accidents to the police/insurance companies than men do. However, the accidents men report are far more serious-- women are more likely to claim for scratching a car on the parking lot, but men are more likely to drive past a red light and into a car at 100kmph. In locales where insurance companies are allowed to give different premiums for men and women, women's premiums will be ''less'' than men's as the overall cost to the insurance company of covering women is actually lower than the equivalent men.

From the late 1940s to roughly the mid 1960s, women did tend to be poorer drivers than men of the same age simply because they usually learned later in life, from poorer instructors (their husbands, rather than professionals), and until the two-car family became commonplace had less opportunity to practice, as men made more use of the car. Also, before power steering became standard, driving needed a fair amount of upper-body strength, especially large vehicles. Even during that period, though, this trope was at best a considerable exaggeration of the actuality.

--> '''Vita:''' I think I just heard a car? I wonder if it's Hayate? \\

--->'''Asian Driver Woman''' ([[FunnyBackgroundEvent after failing a test at the DMV]]): "It's not fair!! I thought that you were supposed to '''go faster''' if someone was following you!"

--> '''Q''': What are you afraid of on the road?\\
'''A''': Bikers.\\
'''Q''': What else?\\
'''A''': Soldiers.\\
'''Q''': Anything else?\\
'''A''': Drunkards.\\
'''Q''': What about women?\\
'''A''': Oooh! A woman driving is [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot a drunk soldier on a bike]]!

--> '''Owen''': Look, I've shared cars with women before and I know what'll happen. There'll be an emergency, we are all roaring to go, I jump in, what do I find? Seat's in the wrong position, the rear-view mirror's out of line, and the steering wheel's in my crotch. In the time it takes to sort it all out aliens will have taken Newport.

-->'''Cat''': Trina, maybe you should pull over if you're going to put on lip gloss.\\
'''Trina''': Maybe you should talk less.\\
'''Cat''': That's what my dad always says!

--->'''Trina''': ''(Honks horn)'' YEAH, I GOT A HORN, TOO, BUDDY! ''(Honks horn again)''

''(Tom and Crow have "Oh no he didn't!" reactions)''

-->'''Pam''': Okay, if I have to do this, based on stereotypes that are totally untrue and that I do not agree with, you would maybe... [[AsianDrivers not be a very good driver.]]\\
'''Dwight''': Aw, man! Am I a woman?

--->'''Martha:''' Blimey, do you need to take a test to fly this thing?\\

--> If you want to leave your car alive,\\

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter is blindfolded, but still drives. When Lois asks if she should drive, since she's not blindfolded, he laughs her off. HilarityEnsues.
--> [[ArtisticLicenseLaw Lois, you know it's illegal for women to drive]].

-->'''Chinese Girl:''' Dammit, Ghandi! Santa is Asian!
-->'''Indian Boy:''' How can he be Asian? Santa doesn't drive his sled 20 miles under the speed limit with his blinker on! Go back to your rice paddy, WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}!

-->'''Olive Oyl''': "Popeye, take off that silly costume right way, or I [[PunctuatedForEmphasis will, not, go!]]"

-->'''Miss Miller:''' Of all the foolishness, a streetlight right in the middle of the street! We could have been killed!
-->'''Simon:''' My thoughts exactly.

** Tellingly, Katherine Legge is now known just as much for looking [[http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.a.cnn.net/si/features/2008_swimsuit/images/sections/other_danica-patrick_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/2008_swimsuit/danica-patrick/&usg=__vELbOlKAq-6UL8Y8OiiFy-mf3XA=&h=300&w=415&sz=25&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=KHTwxqe7xDy6NM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDanica%2BPatrick%2Bswimsuit%2Bphotos%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1 extremely hot in a swimsuit]] as she is for being a racing driver. As such...regarding Danica ''specifically''...especially from many who ''despise'' the sexualizing of their chosen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzgwCql_mo drug-of-choice]].

** In Italy the saying goes "Donna al volante, pericolo costante" ("Woman at the wheel, constant danger")

** Since it's supposed to be [[IWantMyJetpack the 21st century]], one wonders why she didn't [[SocietyMarchesOn learn to drive years before]]...