French people are being told to 'drive like a woman' to reduce traffic deaths

Historically, female drivers in the U.S. have lower insurance premiums because they’re less likely to engage in risky driving behaviors.Kathrin Ziegler/Getty Images

A French road safety group is telling people to “drive like a woman” to cut fatalities.
The campaign aims to debunk the “misogynistic” stereotype that men are better drivers than women.
The campaign notes that, in France, 84% of fatal road accidents are caused by men.

A French road safety association is urging people to “drive like a woman” to reduce the number of traffic deaths.

Victimes & Citoyens, a group dedicated to supporting the victims of road accidents, has launched a campaign to try to debunk the “misogynistic” stereotype that men are better drivers than women.

Drawing on data from France’s National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory 2022-2023, the campaign noted that 84% of fatal accidents are caused by men.

In 2022, according to a French government report, 3,550 people were killed on the roads in mainland France and its overseas territories.

“When we look at the figures, they are clear: to stay alive behind the wheel, the best thing for men to do is adopt the same behavior as women,” the campaign’s website says.

Victimes & Citoyens also cited data showing that 88% of young drivers are killed by men, 93% of drunk drivers involved in accidents are men, and women are eight times less likely than their male counterparts to have a fatal accident on the road.

“Statistically, driving like a woman means only one thing — staying alive,” the group said on its website.

The awareness campaign will run across print, digital, and metro platforms, and will also use a chatbot to respond to posts on X about women driving. according to the campaign’s website.

In the U.S., according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the number of male crash deaths was more than twice the number of female crash deaths for almost every year between 1975 to 2021.

The institute said this could be attributed to men typically driving more miles than women but also being more likely to engage in risky driving practices, such as speeding, not wearing seatbelts, and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Historically, men have faced higher insurance premiums, as insurance companies see them as a greater risk, according to Yahoo! Finance.