Women Drivers: It's the Estrogen

Far from being a disparaging post about the fairer sex, this is a post positively fair ;)

The BBC is reporting on a study that may indicate that women are better drivers due to biology.

From across the pond:

The female hormone oestrogen could give women the edge when it comes to tasks such as safe driving, say researchers.
Tests showed attention span and ability to learn rules were far better among women than men.

The Bradford University scientists told a hormone conference in London how tasks requiring mental flexibility favour women over men.

A woman's oestrogen levels may prime the part of the brain involved in such skills - the frontal lobe - they said.

They asked 43 men and women aged 18-35 to perform a battery of neuropsychological tests that assessed skills such as spatial recognition memory, rule learning, attention, planning and motor control.

The women were far better at being able to shift their attention from one stimulus to another, making it easier for them to perform everyday actions like driving and reading.

This might explain why girls find it easier than boys to concentrate at school and why women are more careful drivers, the researchers hypothesise.

Of course there is more at link. It's worth a read, as other research is also cited - and lo, it indicates that men may be better at, "spatial skills such as map reading and parking may be difficult for some women because they had too little testosterone in the womb."

Hmmm. Too little testosterone = shitty map reading.

Okay, the obvious question that needs to be addressed is this: Has a man ever consulted a map - or any means of navigation - other than intuition?

That is one for the ages.