Female involvement in fatal crashes: Increasingly riskier or increasingly exposed?

Abstract

Men have long held the lead in motor-vehicle crashes. However, recent research from a variety of countries indicates that women are closing the gap. The relative increase in females involved in crashes has been associated with an increase in crash exposure. But is it simply that there are more women driving that is causing this increase? Or are there other mediating factors? The main goal of this research effort was to shed some light on this controversy. We found evidence that most of the observed increase in female drivers’ fatalities was due to a parallel increase in female driving exposure but that some groups of female drivers (mainly underage female drivers) have become more vulnerable to some risk-taking driving behaviors than others.