It’s official: Women worse at parking than men, study shows

By David Menzies

As news goes, it’s about as earth-shattering as declaring that the Pope is Catholic or that there’s an excess of saltwater in the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, a new study has revealed that women are worse at parking than men. (In case anyone thinks the fix is in, the scientist in charge of the study is female.)

The details: not only do women drivers typically take an average of 20 seconds longer to park their cars, but they still manage to do a poor job as they’re less likely to end up in the middle of the parking space compared to their male counterparts.

As part of a test, 65 drivers were asked to park an Audi A6 sedan in a standard-sized parking space.
Their maneuvers – including head-on, reverse and parallel parking – were timed and rated for accuracy. Each motorist was also judged by how far the vehicle was kept from the edges of the parking space.
Incredibly, even though the female volunteers were appreciably slower, researchers were nevertheless surprised to discover that the extra time didn’t translate into a superior final result.

Dr. Claudia Wolf of Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, who led the study, said the research indeed confirmed previous findings. Namely, men have better co-ordination and spatial awareness than women. As well, men are more apt to take risks behind the wheel.

“These prejudices exist and as a scientist I decided the find out if they are true or based on myth,” she recently told the U.K.’s Daily Mail. “I don't think that feminism or the cause of women is in any way set back by these findings. It only proves what previous studies about the spatial differences between men and women have shown.”

As well, Dr. Wolf was quick to point out that just because men are inherently better at parking vehicles, this doesn’t mean males are the superior gender.

“It is not as if there was a massive failing by women,” she said. “It is just about parking – not the triumph of men over women.”

Nevertheless, gentlemen, next time you see a member of the fairer sex struggling to maneuver into a parking spot, don’t get angry. They just can’t help themselves…

Comments

damnit :|

Ouch! It hurts to accept this but most of my female friends are truly so.

Nevertheless, I wonder how the researcher chose the 65 drivers. It didn't say here which factors were taken into account when they chose the drivers, did it? Also, is it possible that the outcome would vary in different parts of the world? I mean, each country has its own nature/culture when it comes to driving on the roads, isn’t that so?

Well, that’s just a point of view from one of the better female drivers. There have been cases where male friends had to let me park for them!

Women may park worse than men - but as a 64 year old male who has never driven - just never bothered to learn - I have been a winess to the driving habits of both genders for many years and I feel MUCH SAFER as a passenger with a woman driver than I do with another man. Men have a "genderic" problem. We feel we can do no wrong - and that we are invulnerable. I am sorry guys but - while there ARE bad female drivers - my - call it 59 years, because how much do I really remember of the first 5 - experience tells me that men are far more dangerous DRIVING than women - and frankly if I had a choice between bad driving/good parking or the reverse - I would choose good driving/bad parking ANY TIME

I will grant you that he WAS a bit on the elderly side - but the worst example of parking I have ever seen was a male. He was attempting to parallel park his car while I was watching a baseball game my son was playing about 25 years ago. He backed and filled 10 or 15 times - but he could NOT park his car. Finally a young man also watching the game decided to help him - so now he was safely parked. By the way - he had the whole block to park. There were NO cars parked

what a pile of crap

Mr. Menzies, do you by chance have an issue with the feminine because you are named after the menstrual cycle? Maybe you'll feel better if you changed your name to Testes instead. The highest recorded IQ's were found in women, but the ability to park, as opposed to innovation, will absolutely ensure the survival of the species at this point. LOL.

Lets hear the excuses now, like how they pick the women for the test, ect ect ect. Can't park in a regular parking spot and yet I bet all the whiners think they can parrallel too!!

Why are scientists even conducting this experiment ?
This reaches a new level of pointless, we have a priority list for scientists right now and researching which race is a better driver is not on it.

This is directed to Chuck - Where on EARTH did you ever hear that "the highest recorded IQ's were found in women"? What a load of crap! There have been many studies that have demonstrated that without any bias to ethnicity or age, men on average score 3-4 points higher than woman on IQ tests. These studies are not hard to find either. Do a quick google search for reputable IQ studies before you go off spewing that ignorant nonsense.

I'm just curious if anyone is looking at the psychology behind this. I had a male friend help teach me to drive. With things like parking, he always told me not to get worked up about it. Just relax. As long as you don't hit another car just pull out and do it again. Most women I know get embarrassed and worried about what the men around them think. The more embarrassed and worried, the more mistakes. Case in point. I was helping a girl friend get used to driving here (she's from South Africa... other side of the road type thing)... she would get up tight. The more I encouraged her the less up tight she got... she's now a better driver than most men I know. I would really like to see a study about how attitudes affect a person's driving... we all know it does!

to who asked about different areas of the world, and how that might make a difference, id like to agree, but i cannot.

as taken part in several drivers training courses across the globe and being a teacher of several road classes, i can say, not only that is it the most random of pickings, (i dont pick who i teach) but that as bad as american drivers are, europe is far, far worse, in almost every respect.

theres less incidences of minor aggression, but, believe it or not, there is more "greediness". and a, do or die attitude is taken to the heart.

this test is also to include something, the fact that it is only generally, it doesnt mean every single man can park better than any and every woman.

but there are also circumstances, even personally, sometimes i can whip right into a spot in parallel parking, but other times i must over and over again pull out and retry, due to things such as stress, time, excitedness etc.

and in tests like these, women tend to be more stressed or unrelaxed than men because they have an overbearing feeling of being watched, well, because they are, but they dont like being judged, get excited, and make more errors.

but in the end, its the females ability to accept their job, in every case ive seen the car stops and how it is, is how it is, were as a man, will criticize his park and make sure there is enough room and make his parking as best he can. this equation however goes to sh*t when we drive trucks.....

How many of the 65 were men and how many were women? So many un-answered questions for too small of a sample group. I may not be the best parker in the world but i know there are both men and women who are far worse than I am. And i know that I can't parallel park either!

Much as I may hate to admit, I'm a 49 yr old female who has been driving for 30 years and this article says what I've been saying for years. Men can park better than woman, a woman will usually park forward in a space after she's circled the lot looking for a "drive-through spot" and men will generally back into a parking space, thus giving him easier (and faster) exit and not only do men park better, they also drive in reverse much better and much faster. Watch a man who's passed the sole parking spot on a busy street, no problem , he throws his arm over his seat and throws the car into reverse down the street and into the open spot, a woman will circle until she finds a spot, or if she did try to reverse it, you can bet she's spending a lot of time watching her rear view and side mirrors as she slowly and cautiously backs up the street. Men are definitely the greater risk takers when it comes to driving and this is coming from a lady with a heavy foot.

Thats funny, because, I can park my car perfectly NEARLY every time, but the guy with the jacked up truck has to park diagonally across 2 spots.
The fact that it was a test, makes a huge difference. If you know its a test, you with either feel pressured and screw up, or not.
They should have just gone to a mall parking lot and done their measurements on cars as their drivers got out of their vehicles.

Must be globull warming. Tim, what town do you live in.. I want to avoid the water.

Come on people, they do research on everything nowadays. I believe it's true. Been driving for 40 years and most women drivers I know, professional women and non, most of them have problems parking and backing up and they are very bright people

I know for myself I struggle a bit with parking sometimes, I am not offended! We all have our strengths and weaknesses, this article is not about which gender is superior. Who really cares?!

Car Insurance?? why do males pay out the rear for car insurance in ontario canada and females don't pay near as much???/ why is it not regulated ????? sorry but $7500 a year for my 09audi

But women do a better job applying make-up while driving.

and also, y'all don't wanna get in their way, neither, hm?
http://www.thepassinglane.ca/2010/01/parking-spot-rage-leads-to-ice-pick-attack.html

Corey - just because men are better at parking doesn't mean they're better at driving.

Insurance rates are based on risk assessment. You obviously constitute a large risk in the eyes of your insurance provider. Not saying that their assessment is *accurate* - don't get me started on the evils of the insurance industry - just that that's how you rate.

Personally I'd rather be a better driver. I can take a little longer to park.

Actually "yet another girl",

The same attributes and skill set that contribute to parking ability, also contribute to driving ability, namely spatial perception and co-ordination. Throw in the fact that men also have faster reaction times (another fact that has been proven in many studies), and the conclusion is simple: Men are superior on the road.
Insurance rates are higher for men because having a much greater number of speeding tickets would suggest that men are more aggressive drivers and therefore pose a much greater risk.
The truth is that in practical terms, having better co-ordination and faster reaction times and better spatial perception, means that men are able to drive more aggressively while still remaining safe. It's all about knowing your limitations and driving within them.

Most studies are made up of more than 65 people, the reason being that 65 is not nearly a large enough number to get any kind of accurate results. If I had handed in a study or survey or anything like that in college that only used 65 people it would have been thrown out as inaccurate. 65 drivers is an extremely small number of people in comparison to all the drivers out there, maybe less than .001 percent of all the drivers. So I wouldn't put any confidence in this study

I also wonder why a study like this was even done. As usual, government or university studies really have no bounds for stupidity. Anyone who drives knows that men can park better than women. And ladies, it's nothing to get upset about, there are plenty of things you do better than men, including being safer drivers. We are wired differently, therefore it only makes sense that one sex will outdo the other in certain things.

this is to ringqueen8 ... some men with trucks usually take up two parking spaces so that people dont park beside the truck and possibly hitting it with their doors