Boys versus Girls – Who is Better at Parking?
It’s one of the oldest and most gender-stereotypical issues of all; who is better at parking…boys or girls? Amid accusations of a ‘lack of spatial awareness’ and ‘short attention spans’, a lot of studies have actually been carried out to identify whether any conclusions can be drawn from this age-old discussion, and it may not surprise you to learn that there are several very distinct viewpoints at large. Nothing results in us carrying out car body repairs in Wimbledon quite like parking fails, so we thought we’d take a closer look into this common point of contention…
For the Boys…
There’s a widespread opinion circulating among ‘blokes’ that women have a natural lack of spatial awareness; at least in comparison to their male counterparts. Some studies have been carried out in support of this argument, and parallel parking has often been hailed as one particular area where women struggle. Furthermore, women generally take fewer risks when parking and take their time a little more, yet the results are (apparently) not as accurate as a guy parking a car. However…
For the Girls…
…if you read this old Telegraph article, you’ll be given a very different story to the great cliché of ‘women can’t park’. In this study, women were found to be more adept at manoeuvring, as well as more competent when it came to locating spaces in the first place. The idea that women take longer to park (on average) does seem to carry some weight, but aside from that the two stances seem entirely incompatible; their claims are completely to the contrary.
Some men have argued that parking in the middle of a space is a poor benchmark to determine accurate parking by, because this isn’t always the best policy, but the fact remains that the idea of women being ‘spatially less aware’ looks to have substantial flaws. In the end then, we have two viewpoints, both apparently backed up by studies, that appear to say the exact opposite of each other. Because of that, we can’t help but wonder if it’s just a case of individual driver competence.
Inconclusive…?
Shock horror! How dare we suggest that gender has nothing to do with this almost ageless quibble! Could the answer really be as simple as ‘it depends on the person’? It could well be, but here at Smartway we know very well that both men and women alike need car body repairs for plenty of different reasons, and all we care about is being able to solve those problems. We’re proud to say that we have a proven track record for doing so, so contact us now by calling 07732 542500.
