Take a moment to imagine a drunk driver. Were you thinking of a male driver? That’s often the stereotype, and there’s a reason for it: Statistically speaking, men are caught while driving under the influence more often than women.
That said, one worrying trend shows that women are slowly becoming more involved. For example, about 90 percent of drunk drivers who were arrested — the only way to really measure the prevalence of drunk driving, though there were certainly many who did not get arrested — were men. The other 10 percent were women.
Fast forward to 2011. That year, about 75 percent of drunk drivers were men, while about 25 percent were women.
So, while men are still the high-risk group by a long shot, making up three out of every four drunk drivers, women have been closing the gap.
Why is this? It’s hard to know for certain, but experts do have some theories.
One is that teen trends may play a role. The divide isn’t nearly as large, with drunk teen male drivers just slightly more common than female drivers.
Another theory involves the changing roles of women in society and the workplace. Positive advancements in these areas mean that women are more likely to have jobs and active social lives, as the stereotype of the housewife who stays home alone all the time has declined. While that’s certainly positive, it could mean that women with a drinking problem would have stayed home in the past, but they won’t today.
The fact of the matter is that drunk drivers remain a serious threat on the roadways of Colorado. If you’ve been hit and injured, you must know all of your legal rights.
Source: Guardian Interlock, “Guys vs. Gals: Who is at a Higher Risk for Driving Drunk?,” Charles Hickman, accessed Aug. 31, 2017