Driving Us Crazy

(Personal Crusade 1) I hope, occasionally, I can write about things which particularly annoy me. I mean of course that rape, world hunger, and the lack of education and toilet facilities for women worldwide annoy me intensely (see my other pieces) - but this is an item which personally affects me - and billions of other women around the world - particularly in countries where men refuse to let women drive at all.

"Don't park like that!"

"Don't drive so slowly"

"Don't crunch the gearstick"

The ridiculous comments men make go on and on.
Yes, it's a day-in day-out sexist annoyance that we suffer .
And setting men right on a smaller transgression might make them realise that they are unthinkingly sexist at more major things.

Once a month I drive a minibus of (mostly) children to a riding stables. There's always atleast ONE boy who thinks he's slumming it by being driven by a woman. This is not the place to rant about personal safety records, but it IS the place to point out that women everywhere have superior driving records to men - and lower insurance rates to prove it.

"You're grinding the gear again", a 12-year-old boy said to me in the minibus recently.
"You're grinding our brains again", said a 10-year-old girl to him.

She, as a girl and a woman, will go far - and I hope to help her get there - by minibus AND education!