At one time, women drivers were the butt of many a joke. The majority of drivers were men, and a woman driver was ‘obviously less capable’ than a man. Utter claptrap, of course, but a lot of inept male drivers needed some target to deflect criticism from their own inadequacies. Just how they coped with women like Pat Moss-Carlsson – I do not know! (You couldn’t get anyone with two more famous driving names.)
Women were not perfect, but neither were men. They just had their own, peculiar failings. Men tended to drive too fast, and ignored any instruction. Women tended to drive more slowly, and less aggressively. These are crude generalisations, and you should not read any more into such statements, than is strictly necessary.
That was then. This is now.
Now we have a few, new varieties of lady driver. (Men seem to be much the same, these days.)
You have the ‘Garry Girl’. Drives an Audi Cabriolet. Believes that racing across a junction at a blind corner is OK, presumably because she believes that if she can’t see another car, then speed will make all things possible. It doesn’t. Only the brakes on my car, and my more-modest speed prevented Garry Girl from testing the side-intrusion beam and the side airbags in my car. My navigation skills were also superior. We took the shorter route, and ended up in front of her. My wife made a point of ‘noticing’ her, and her Audi suddenly held back about 100 yards after that.
Another variant of Garry Girl is Gillie Girl. Drives too fast in car-parks, dashes to her destination, and when she realises the sheer impossibility of getting past the traffic she has carved up, reverts back to the blonde-bimbo ‘I’m only a woman’ toothy smile, designed to glean forgiveness from the poor deluded male. When you call her a stupid moron (I do this, or similar, when encountering stupidity of any gender), she replaces the smile with a snarl, and gesticulates in an obviously crude manner.
Not a lady, then. And not a competent driver.
It would appear that gender equality in motoring, is now with us.
Stupid, thoughtless, inconsiderate, rude and incompetent drivers now come in all varieties.
And you can swear at them if you wish. You will not offend anyone with any kind of good manners.
Save courtesy for courteous drivers.
I still hold a door open for other people. Male or female. Guess I’m just old-fashioned!