Why are men Sterotyped for car insurance rates?

After thinking about this for a while I began to wonder why it is the men who get charged more for car insurance. I know that the old excuse goes, "Because teenage boys and men drive faster and more wreckless". Suprisingly enough, over the years I have actually seen alot of women and young teenage woman drivers drive faster/or have had more wrecks than men.

Since us men get stereotyped for "driving fast and driving wreckless so lets crank up there insurance". Why dont they make it the same for women too? Were all human, and were all just as guilty right?

And I always thought women drivers were more dangerous.

All kidding aside, they use statistics, to determine such things.

The numbers say that a woman driver (in Missouri and Kansas anyway) is less likely to be involved in an accident and have fewer citations on her driving record. I have sold high risk auto insurance for 15yrs. It is a fact that women get better rates always........

Originally posted by Mechanic 32
And I always thought women drivers were more dangerous.

All kidding aside, they use statistics, to determine such things.

[edit on 15-7-2006 by ConstantlyWondering]

In the field of sociology, this would fall under the basic heading of reification.

Yes, we determine insurance rates by looking at statistics that demonstrate that men are more likely to be involved in collisions. Some people then determine that men must be worse drivers than women. I don't think this is true.

I think men are more aggressive drivers than women. Although it is a generalization, on the whole, men are more aggressive than women in many facets. We train boys from their childhood to be aggressive. Men commit more violent crimes, men are more likely to succeed at committing suicide, men are more likely to engage in aggressive competitive sports. I think that for the most part, we socialize men into aggression. Is it any wonder that such aggression might show up in the driving habits of men? I think it is only logical that it would. This aggression behind the wheel then translates into higher rates of collision.

In a cycle of reification, we push men into an aggressive role and then act as if it was just their nature all along. We teach men to be aggressive, then later punish them for it in many ways, including charging them more for driving insurance.

I think it because men tend to have their accidents at higher speed, thus causing more damage. women may or may not have more accidents, but they tend to be lower-speed "prangs".

The other factor is milage. Men often drive more, and when a couple are out, it's normally the men who drive... it's something we generally find intrinsically 'fun".

Originally posted by wellwhatnow
In the field of sociology, this would fall under the basic heading of reification.

Reification is attributing to a concept a life of its own.

When reification involves only liinguistic conveniences, it's not really much of a concern, but sociologically speaking, our attitudes toward things are often influenced by the way we articulate them.

For example, we often say that the crime in a given neighborhood is bad, when what we really mean is that criminal activity in that area is high.

Again, the former is easier to say, but from an academic perspective, it eliminates the human component of the problem and thereby makes the real issue of crime more obscure.

Politicians are very fond of reification.

www.m-w.com...

For the most part, insurance rates are actuarily derived.

The statistics are completely out-of-date. When they factor in cell-phone related collisions I expect to see the tables turn! Women have longer phone converations; all guys say is "Huh? uh-huh.. mmhm..later. *click*" So men spend less time on the phone and are less likely to be in a phone related crash. Also, women drive more SUV's "to feel safe" (not realizing they were tricked into buying gas guzzlers by big-oil..) and they are more likely to kill the other driver who is usually a male in a small sports car!

I think it is a gross injustice,I've been hit twice in the rear both time by women,I used to see them sailing down the 10 fwy about 90 putting make up on,but if you take in account my boys then you have a good argument,I got my DL in 71 only have 2 tickets,and those were in the same week in 76