Women are better drivers than men The age-old debate over whether men or women are the better drivers has raged across the dashboard since driving licenses were introduced in 1903. But the confusion has finally been cleared up with new research suggesting that women win in this battle of the sexes. The Confused.com research has been compiled into an interactive animation - The Gender Gap in 100 Drivers - and reveals women have been wrongly accused of being ‘bad drivers’ for many years. And this – perhaps controversially – has led to them having cheaper car insurance premiums. The latest car insurance price index from Confused.com reveals women are paying £84 less for their car insurance than men, with the average premium for women at £737. Men, meanwhile, are paying £821 in comparison. And this price gap has left some drivers scratching their heads, with one in seven (14%) finding themselves confused about why it is men are paying more than women for their car insurance.
Women less likely to offend And The Gender Gap in 100 Drivers illustrates why this might be. In fact, it proves men are almost four times more likely to commit a motoring offence than women. In total, more than 539,000 drivers in England and Wales were taken to court for breaking the law on the road in 2018, of which the majority (79%) were men – outnumbering women almost 4:1. In particular, almost one in four (24%) of these offences were men with a heavy foot slapped with a speeding ticket. While almost one in 15 (7%) were women who committed the same offence. Men also outweigh women 5:1 when it came to drink-driving offences, and 3:1 for driving without insurance. And it seems male drivers have cost insurers more money when it comes to claims payouts, suggesting they have been in more accidents than women. In 2018, two out of three (67%) insurance claims were made by men, of which 17% were fault claims.
But the microsite , created by Confused.com, proves why it is that women pay less for their car insurance and own the bragging rights when it comes to driving.
In comparison, nearly one in three (33%) claims last year came from women – 8% of which were at fault.
Visualising the UK driving population as 100 dots, the animation weighs up just how many men and women in England and Wales have committed a motoring offence, from speeding to drink-driving, to driving with no tax or insurance, with men proving to be the bigger lawbreakers. 4
Data held by Confused.com suggests that men claimed on average £5,577 per pay-out, while women’s were slightly cheaper at £5,150.
Not only do men make more claims, they also tend to be a little more expensive too.
