Why does the man of the family usually drive? (weight, easy, summer)
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Location: God's Gift to Mankind for flying anything
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsprit
or flying the plane when we're traveling, she's a very competent ASEL pilot.
My wife has the same ratings I have, but she simly refuses to be the PIC,
because she enjoys the *doing nothing but look around* part.
For me it gives me peace of mind to have her next to me for Justin Case ...
But, when driving a car, then she often takes over, just so I can take a nap.
For some idiotic reason, I get sleepy very quickly in car,
especially on USA highways which are often just bloody straight for umpteen miles.
For those of you who are not pilots, you are always doing something when flying ...
On long stretches of a highway, what *can* you do ?
When I drive, I notice that men tend to be the ones that drive the car among heterosexual couples or families. Is this out of macho custom, desire to be pampered, comfort or some other reason? When I was a kid, my Dad and grandpa always drove. On rare occasions, my mom drove if it was a long road trip and Dad was tired. Dad says that being in any other seat of the car gets him "carsick". I had an uncle who let my aunt drive, but he was the exception.
Glad to hear from some couples where the wife drives all the time--when we are on a long trip, or even just around town, my husband insists on driving. All the way, including our drives back and forth to Florida every winter. It gets tiresome really. I'm a perfectly competent driver, and drive long distances by myself at times, but he won't have it any other way. He claims he'd be too bored being a passenger, but I suspect he'd be a really terrible back seat driver. We have friends where the wife always drives because the husband's not such a hot driver I think, but that's not the case with us. Only time I drive with him is when he's had too much to drink.
Are you implying that a woman can't find/feel/fix the things a man can?
You're blurring his point, probably not by accident. He suggested MOST men/women, not ALL men/women. The overwhelming majority of auto mechanics are men. The overwhelming majority of car magazine subscribers are men. I distinctly recall as a child that I loved cars, many boys shared my enthusiasm, and no girls did. I grew up and realized that pattern was not evil.
Quote:
Why does the man of the family usually drive
Two reasons:
1. Driving is a leadership position, and men have evolved to take leadership roles more than women have.
2. Automobiles are mechanical devices and men are better at and more interested in mechanics than women are.
It's not a surprising pattern if you believe in evolution.
You're blurring his point, probably not by accident. He suggested MOST men/women, not ALL men/women. The overwhelming majority of auto mechanics are men. The overwhelming majority of car magazine subscribers are men. I distinctly recall as a child that I loved cars, many boys shared my enthusiasm, and no girls did. I grew up and realized that pattern was not evil.
Two reasons:
1. Driving is a leadership position, and men have evolved to take leadership roles more than women have.
2. Automobiles are mechanical devices and men are better at and more interested in mechanics than women are.
It's not a surprising pattern if you believe in evolution.
WRONG!!!
The only reason more mechanics are male is that up until not too long ago, women were discouraged and even forbidden from taking those classes in school.
I have always loved cars. My first car was a 68 Cougar with a 351 Cleveland. If you know so much about cars, tell me what's wrong with that picture.
You're blurring his point, probably not by accident. He suggested MOST men/women, not ALL men/women. The overwhelming majority of auto mechanics are men. The overwhelming majority of car magazine subscribers are men. I distinctly recall as a child that I loved cars, many boys shared my enthusiasm, and no girls did. I grew up and realized that pattern was not evil.
There are at least a few reasons for most mechanics being men. Number one, being a mechanic can be physically difficult especially if you are working on heavy equipment. Men are generally quite a bit larger and significantly stronger than women which can be a definite asset in that line of work. Women can certainly be mechanics but it is relatively harder for them to do so and thus fewer do it. (The ones that are in that field anyway are generally excellent because they do have to work relatively harder and are much more likely to be doing it because they really wanted to do so.) For example, I am a big car nut and have tried on multiple occasions to teach my wife a few basic things after she had asked me to explain them to her, such as how to change a tire. She is a very average-sized lady, so in other words seven inches shorter than me, 60 pounds lighter, and can lift approximately 1/3 to 2/5 of what I can. It is physically difficult for her to take a lug wrench and loosen a somewhat sticky lug nut when changing a tire, plus picking up a tire on a wheel weighing more than half of what she does is very difficult as well. I can do the same job easily. Her changing a pickup tire would be like me using my two foot 1/2" cheater bar to remove the back wheel off of an old Ford 8N and then move it around by myself. Could I do it? Yes, but it is tough compared to getting an impact wrench and a buddy to help.
There is some discouragement of women from "getting their hands dirty" but I do see this changing. Fathers my age are much more likely to take their daughters with them doing "guy stuff" than their wives' fathers were. We'd hope to be able to expose them to the things we like so that we can have more shared interests in the future. I know I will be in that boat as I fully intend to take my daughter out to the shop (and the field, the pond, the trail, and the range) when she gets old enough to be there. My wife actually encourages me to do this because she wishes her dad would have done that with her when she was younger.
There are also repeatedly demonstrated differences between men and women in general likelihood of having aptitude in a certain field. Note that the studies nearly always have a disclaimer that these are general trends and any particular person can be considerably different than "predicted." In my experience the disclaimer is very valid when dealing with individuals and the studies are really only good for explaining general trends such as the one we're discussing. Women as a group tend to be relatively more skilled in verbal and interpersonal tasks than men as a group. Men tend to do better in analytical and spatial tasks. Mechanical skills are very heavy in the spatial and analytical areas and not so much verbal or interpersonal. Women thus are less likely in general to be interested in being a mechanic because of that. But like I said, you have to take every person as an individual. There are excellent female mechanics and construction workers just as there are excellent male daycare workers and kindergarten teachers.
When I drive, I notice that men tend to be the ones that drive the car among heterosexual couples or families. Is this out of macho custom, desire to be pampered, comfort or some other reason? When I was a kid, my Dad and grandpa always drove. On rare occasions, my mom drove if it was a long road trip and Dad was tired. Dad says that being in any other seat of the car gets him "carsick". I had an uncle who let my aunt drive, but he was the exception.
My wife drives 99.99% of the time and it's exactly because of your Dad's reason - she gets carsick if she's sitting there anywhere but in the driver's seat. Sometimes even then, especially if it's heavy traffic with a lot of stop and go, she'll get carsick.
Interesting thing is, while we were dating I used to drive all the time. It was only after she became pregnant with our first child that her carsickness became much worse. Dang kids screw up everything...
In our family, my husband does ALL the driving because I am legally blind. I don't think anyone would WANT me to drive. lol. I used to drive but gave up my license some years ago and haven't driven in over 10 years-and I don't miss it. Didn't like driving. But I do miss the freedom of just getting into the car and go if I want to go somewhere-rather than asking him to drive for me.
I am not totally useless in the car. I am the navigator-and quite a good one if I may say so myself. I can always find alternative routes if there is a lot of traffic/construction. No GPS for us. I just need a good map.
Cat
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