Automobile accidents are a major cause of death in America. Driver inattention, which includes the use of cell phones, is the leading cause of traffic accidents of which texting while driving is considered the most dangerous part of using a cellphone. A quarter of all car crashes involve cellphone use, according to estimates by the National Safety Council — 723,000 crashes so far this year. Texting on a handheld device while driving is illegal in 41 states; calling is banned in 12(Guzman, 2013, Para5). Several things are thought to be correlated with texting and driving. Some examples include Risk taking, disregarding the law, lacking social responsibility etc. This paper will explore the role of gender in texting while driving. There are various findings in the paper which are supported by different research which correlates to the topic of the paper. It is hypothesized that men and women tend to text and drive equally as gender does not play a role in risk taking.
In the survey done by TeleNav- commissioned in 2010 two specific questions were asked that relates our study. First are men or women better drivers? Second, who text while driving? It was hypothesized that “40 percent of male respondents indicated they think males are better drivers than females. Only two percent of males indicated that females are the better driving sex while 58 percent thought that gender plays no role in driving ability. Female respondents had a different opinion of the better driver debate. Only four percent of women indicated males are the better drivers. Interestingly, just seven percent of female respondents think that women are better drivers. Nearly 90 percent of females indicated that gender plays no role in driving ability. While both sexes agreed that texting while driving should be illegal (89 percent of both men and women), it seems that neither men nor women are fully practicing what they preach. Nearly 25 percent of both male and female respondents reported sending at least one text message while driving per week. Men seem to text more with 36 percent of those who text while driving indicating they send an average of seven or more texts per week while on the road. In contrast, only 23 percent of women admitted to texting as frequently.So there is only 2 percent difference in both the genders. The survey was done amongst 502 US drivers (251males/251 females). Survey was conducted in year 2010 and it was hypothesized that both genders have equal habits on the road. However, the survey results also suggest that while their actions on the road may be similar, men and women have very different perceptions of which gender rules the road.” (TeleNav 2010, Para 1&2).
The results of the survey supported the study that men and women have equal habits on road and are equal risk takers. Although equal amount of both genders feel texting while driving should be illegal; they equally admit to texting at least once a week while driving. But interestingly, when asked who is a better driver 89percent of women feel gender does not play any role in comparison to 58 percent men and only 7 percent women feel they are better drivers than 40percent men. It also supports hypothesis of our study and shows us that risk taking and lack of social responsibility are personal traits and have nothing to do with gender.
Our next hypothesis is Women passengers are tend to say something if the driver is Talking on the phone or texting while driving. Driving skills of men tend to differ more than women while texting and driving. In the research done by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in 2012 two questions were addressed. First “who tend to speak up more if the driver is texting or talking on phone while driving, men or women? Second, How Texting/E-Mailing Affects Driving, by Sex? This was a telephonic survey conducted by NHTSA which reported attitude and behavior of