Car insurance for ladylike drivers. Really?

What does it mean to be ladylike in the post-feminist age? Whereas it was once considered to be a compliment to be called ladylike, can it nowadays actually be classed as being patronising or insulting even?

When I was learning to drive, my grandmother told me that I should at all times be ladylike behind the wheel. She never quite expounded on what this meant, and I didn’t ask, though I couldn’t help but conjure images of silk driving gloves and an eternity of demure waiting at T-junctions.

Whatever the case, I don’t think CoverGirl is about to start advertising itself as the leading car insurance company for ladylike drivers – women drivers, yes – good women drivers, yes – safe drivers of any gender, yes – but ladylike drivers, would sound a little anachronistic.

After all, ladylike is an adjective more closely associated with days when it was unusual to see women drivers at all, with the very idea of a woman driver being considered unladylike.

So when I read a piece of news, as I did this week, about women in the West being more ladylike than in any other part of England, I struggle to know what to make of it. Does this mean they make the best hosts, laugh at the right moments and know how to serve tea, or does it mean something else?

Actually what it means is that they’re the least likely to get lairy on a night out, unlike say those from Liverpool or Newcastle, reportedly.

Since when has not getting drunk and causing a fight count as ladylike behaviour? Have standards really fallen so low? By this definition it would seem that any woman who doesn’t get plastered and punch-happy is an ideal candidate to meet the queen.  

Labels: car insurance, woman, women drivers