It was August 1888 when Bertha Benz showed the lords of creation the exhaust pipe. She was the first person to venture beyond shorter test drives and undertook a 106-kilometer long-distance journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim in a three-wheeled motor vehicle. The men on their horse-drawn carriages couldn’t spit. Of course, it didn’t take long before they took the wheel themselves and the woman became the passenger. Until 1958, women were only allowed to get a driver’s license if their husbands or fathers allowed it. Finally, in 1973, the television viewers found out in the program “Der 7. Sense” why driving a car is not really their cup of tea. “Women usually drive more carefully than men because they lack the practice. They then impede the flow of traffic,” said the original.
They allegedly use the rear-view mirror primarily as a make-up mirror and if they become a traffic obstacle with their car, it is usually due to their lack of technical understanding and they are dependent on male help. A sentence followed that should have caused Alice Schwarzer to gasp when she was sitting in front of the television: “Often to observe: If the lady is young and pretty, help usually comes quickly.” Finally, the women found out when they were still allowed to get behind the wheel despite all their shortcomings: “It often happens that men are unfit to drive due to alcohol consumption and are dependent on the help of women, even though they do not like to drive in the evening or at night.”
Men who will still be sentenced to condemnation in 2022: “Woman at the wheel, monster” must now be brave: they are catching up. they become more. Traffic in Germany is becoming more female. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, from 2020 to 2022, 1.55 million men nationwide got their driver’s license, and 1.68 million women in the same period. This also applies to car ownership. Of the 48.4 million vehicles, 16.8 million or 34.6 percent have an owner. That’s quite respectable, even if this development is still progressing with the handbrake on in the district of Munich. Only 28.4 percent of motor vehicles are registered to women, 44.8 percent are owned by men, and the rest is owned by the company on a gender-neutral basis. In a league of car owners, that’s just enough for 393rd place out of 399 urban and rural districts. In this respect, there is still room for improvement for the women in the district of Munich.
Friday morning on the country road near Taufkirchen: A heavy Mercedes trundles in front of you at 50 km/h. A man at the wheel. It obstructs the flow of traffic. What was it called almost a century ago in the show “The 7th Sense”?: You could also crack jokes about the hat and braces driver who leisurely trundles along the streets with the cigar on his tooth. Maybe he just lacks practice.