Women vs. Men – who’s better at parking?

(this is the first in a series of blog entries on gender stereotypes. Future entries will tackle these provocative questions: Women vs. men – Who’s more cooperative? Who’s happier to hear the words ‘I love you’? Who has more self-esteem in youth, early adulthood? and Who’s more motivated by cute baby faces? But first, parking).

Last Friday night, on Craig’s porch, I posed this simple question to three of my (male) friends: “Gentlemen, who’s better at parking, men or women?” All three laughed, and with no evident pause quickly answered: “That’s easy, men.” Hmmm. Think again.

A major study conducted in Great Britain has given women the nod, rating their “parking coefficient” (based on six criteria) as higher than men (13.4 vs. 12.3 from a maximum score of 20). Women bested men in five of the six categories, but, interestingly, the survey found that women don’t believe it: when asked about their beliefs, only 18% thought they were better parkers than men and “just 28% of women believed they were better parkers than their partners,” according to the study.  Plus, in a sidelight (that might not surprise you) study analysts noticed that “men like to ‘pose park’ when accompanied by a female passenger by opting to squeeze into a small space when a bigger one is available.” Goodness, I’ve done that.

Perhaps the most interesting finding was that women bested men on parking in reverse – a method preferred by driving instructors.  This led some analysts to hypothesize that women’s spatial awareness has been vastly underrated or, perhaps, that males’ spatial awareness has been overrated.  But spatial props aside, women outscored men in virtually every category, save for “speed of parking.” The bottom line: women are more adept at maneuvering into a parking space and when they park they are more likely to leave their vehicles in the middle of a parking bay.

Some specific survey results:
• *Reversing in space – Women: 39%, Men: 28%
• Finishing in a central position – Women: 53%, Men: 25%
• Adhering to speed limits in parking lots – Women: 92%, Men: 64%
• Good or very good ‘pre-parking pose’ – Women: 77%, Men: 53%
• Parking speed – Women: 21 seconds, Men: 16 seconds.  

The month-long study was conducted by the National Car Parks, the UK’s largest private parking lot company – operating in more than 700 locations, with over 200,000 parking spots.  NCP also estimated that we park our cars 1,004 times a year, meaning that in a lifetime of driving, women spend 12 days carrying out a parking maneuver vs. nine for men.

* This morning, just for fun, I backed into my parking spot.  Roe probably would have done a better job.