The High Cost Of Gender Equality

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Two things happen today, December 21: The world is coming to an end. And in Europe, insurance companies are no longer allowed to vary premiums according to a policyholder’s sex. The first thought that flashed through my caveman mind was: “Those accident-prone women drivers will get great deals, and us guys will pay for it.” Wrong on both counts.

There will be a high price to pay for gender equality. It turns out that female drivers, especially young ones, were a much better insurance risk, and therefore received better rates. That’s over. “Some female drivers will pay 40 percent more for car insurance,” reports the Guardian from the UK. According to the report, premiums for young female drivers are expected to increase by between 15 percent and 38 percent. But will guys get a break then? Their rates dropped only 5 percent.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • El scotto El scotto on Dec 21, 2012

    For most of mere mortals both adults in the family drive. It's just all sorts of crazy for some people to comprehend that dual income couples take two different cars to work. The fairer sex having a daily commute or GASP those elusive creatures called soccer moms actually driving every day. What's next? That fancy but still dangerous ee-lec-tricity Edison is trying to sell or indoor plumbing with both hot and cold water? Kinda like guys in the military bitching that it would be hard for a woman to change a tire on a two and half ton truck by herself. Hell, I don't want to change a tire on a deuce and half by myself. there's a reason young men pay higher insurance. They do dumbass things. I'm too tired and ready for a few pints to look up actuarial tables on a Friday night.

  • JK43123 JK43123 on Dec 22, 2012

    In my house: Tickets: my wife 2, me zero Hit garage door with car: my wife 2, me zero At-fault accidents: my wife 1, me zero Enough said. John

  • Piffpaff Piffpaff on Dec 23, 2012

    It is interesting that when discussing a topic based on statistics and probabilities and what is relevant criteria for assessing risk, quite a few of us are happy to base our arguments on a sample-size of one (my wife, my colleague, etc.). As my actuarial friend said: "the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data' ".

  • Kvndoom Kvndoom on Dec 24, 2012

    Based solely on my years of driving and observing other drivers, I tend to see that women pay less attention to details, whereas men definitely do drive more aggressively as a whole. You might get more 5MPH fender-benders from women because they were too busy with the eyeliner to notice the light hadn't turned green yet, but it's the guy who floors it trying to squeeze trough the red light at the last millisecond that's more likely to kill somebody. Based on talking and watching women I've dated, they are really bad about paying attention to signs. However, that is offset by the fact that showing cleavage to get out of a ticket is NOT a TV myth.

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