Driving license inspectors will now receive training to “attenuate” certain gender stereotypes in the evaluation of young drivers, Florence Guillaume, interministerial delegate for road safety, told AFP on Thursday.
Driving training costs for the B license are on average 15% higher for women compared to men and the pass rate for the exam is “a little less than 53%” for women, compared to 61% for men, underlines Florence Guillaume.
“On the other hand, we have an accident rate which is extremely differentiated, since 80% of mortality (on the road, Editor's note) is male,” she adds.
This reality is particularly marked among young drivers (18-24 years old) who represent “90% of road deaths”.
On the other hand, “84% of those presumed responsible for fatal accidents”, and “93% of those presumed responsible for fatal accidents involving alcohol” are men, specifies Florence Guillaume.
“Better value women”
The implementation of this “awareness” module, which was notably developed with a team of sociologists, should allow new promotions of inspectors to “mitigate” certain biases by “questioning their own stereotypes”.
“Testing” operations carried out by researchers from the Gustave Eiffel University of Champs-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne) with driving schools had shown that “whether one’s name is Léa or Léo ", driving schools "offered more driving hours to women", explains the delegate.
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In the same way, “the driving instructor will more easily direct a young woman to the driving simulator by anticipating the fact that she might be less comfortable on the road.”
This system also intends to “better promote women (…) since there is a general behavior of caution which is much more asserted” among them, without however being “valued” in learning to drive because it is most often perceived “ like a lack of confidence,” she notes.
In total, 3,170 people died on the roads of mainland France in 2023, a slight decline of 3% compared to the previous year, Road Safety announced based on provisional statistics from the beginning of February.