Why are there so few female driving instructors?

[Ruralbliss]

My anxious teen doesn't want to be in a car with an unknown bloke to learn to drive - fair enough.

I can't understand why there are so few female driving instructors when it surely is the ideal job to fit in around child care commitments.

It makes me want to train to be one as a side hustle and to offer local girls the option which currently isn't there - presumably my kid isn't the only one not learning to drive because of this barrier.

Weird!

I've an acquaintance who is a driving instructor and she's managed to fit it in around pretty much everything in her life -a really great choice for her. But she's got nerves of steel.
Maybe it's to do with the starting point; a big interest in motoring?
I'm sure your hunch is correct, lots of people would much prefer a female instructor.

I'm now suddenly really serious about the side hustle idea and qualifying so I can do the odd lesson on weekends or evenings. I have an MSc to complete this year so maybe next.... 🤔

https://www.reddrivingschool.com/start-a-new-career-become-a-driving-instructor-3/?source=google-ppc-diexact&gclid=CjwKCAjw7IeUBhBbEiwADhiEMcTydae1jpD7yJJ3Y8pbmzvAD85IgoQJAYdCK8HLY-fkPX2b96Q-RoCyc8QAvDBwE

There's quite a few where I live. Most women would prefer a female instructor I'm sure.
There's definitely a business in it if there's a gap in the market where you live.
There's obviously then a safety issue but there's things you can put in place for protection.

Personally I wouldn't do it for the same reason your niece doesn't want a male driving instructor. I wouldn't want to be struck in a car with men I don't know / trust even to teach them. Maybe that's a big part of it?

There's quite a big initial cost. Car, Training, Insurance, and membership of AA or RED or whatever.

My driving instructor ditched Red and went independent the minute his contract was up as they kept booking him appointments in time he had marked as unavailable.

I wouldn’t want to be in a car with strange men to teach them. At least when you’re a female student you can vet the instructor and choose carefully based on recommendations. But if you are the instructor you can’t really say no to anyone, you could end up in a car with any random bloke.

I'd say it's something people just aren't interested in doing. I found learning to drive really difficult and the thought of trying to teach people like ME is so off putting. No money would compensate you lol

I would have used a woman driving instructor but there wasn’t one to be found in my local area! Not through being nervous of being in a car with a man just purely because I probably would have preferred the conversation with a woman! I passed when I was pregnant and for some reason I found it almost unbearably difficult to tell my (very lovely!) man driving instructor. My examiner was a woman though and the test centre seemed to have more women examiners than men.

I think it's area dependant obviously. We have loads of female instructors, just off the top of my head I can think of 6 that I see regularly and there are others I've heard of.
I think after the initial costs it can be quite a lucrative job, main or on the side.
My ds just passed with an instructor who only did evenings and weekends as it was his second job and it's something he's thinking of as well once he's been driving for long enough.

Is there a history behind her anxiousness about being alone with an unknown man? If not then I think you need to address this first rather than perpetuating the stereotype that all lone men are dangerous

This. By the time they’re old enough to be a driving instructor, most women have had experiences that show them it’s not safe to be alone in a confined space with a male. I’d never consider it for that reason. ☹️

1 in 4 are women in the UK that's much higher than I thought.
Also for cultural reasons some women have to use female instructors
@Elhona
A quick look at some of the female driving instructors websites..many of them say they only teach women.
I can imagine certain people challenging that though.
There's things you can put in place, in-car cameras personal protection, panic button.

I definitely would want a woman for my dds. Friend of a friend had a grim pervy driving incident. Could you be a female instructor and only teach girls?

Someone mentioned the role fitting in with childcare commitments (which tend to fall to women unfortunately but that’s another thread). I’m not sure. Aren’t most learners 17 year old students/apprentices and therefore looking for lessons in the evenings and at weekends?

I can't find one at all - I need to learn in an automatic which limits me further.

I started learning with a make driver at 17 and he was really horribly pervy, which is why I stopped. I can't bear the thought of learning with a man again.

I live in zone 1 so it's never been an issue that I don't drive, but the risk that male instructors pose and the lack of female ones is a real problem.

There are so many where we are, mainly due to the reasons you have said and cultural reasons.

This might just be a statistical anomaly, but the two I know used to drive a lorry and big commercial vans. It's got better hours and is less physical. If a significant number are from that background then there are fewer women in those jobs.

Obviously all lone men aren’t dangerous, but enough are (or make you uncomfortable) for plenty of women to not want to pay money to be trapped in a car with one.

Can she get a recommendation for an instructor from a friend? I had a female instructor when I was learning about 20 years ago. She was the only one I could find back then and I wanted a woman after having two awful male instructors (one pervy, one shouty.) Unfortunately she was rubbish too and I eventually passed with a lovely patient man who was recommended by a friend.

My daughter was a very nervous learner driver and she wanted a female instructor for a number of reasons. The majority of her friends though had male instructors. I think if it wasn’t for covid impacting then we may have had more time to check out a few other instructors & finding the right one for her personality was more important than whether they male or female.

Though there isn’t any testers who are female in our test centre all men.

I had a male driving instructor. He was a self employed professional man with (I assume) a mortgage wife and kids. At no time did he ever make me feel uncomfortable, (he was probably more scared of my awful driving!!) I get why some women might feel uncomfortable with a male in a car, but I would say that 99.9999999% of these men are professionals who are just earning a living

Because women seldom want to be alone in a car with an unknown bloke.

This. A lot of driving instructor work will be at evenings and weekends, when many women who have children won't be available to teach, unless they have a partner who can look after DC at that time.

But it could be a good move for any woman who can overcome this particular hurdle, although you'd have to be careful to avoid breaching any sex discrimination laws if you only wanted to teach women.

It’s interesting you raise this, I was having lunch a couple of weeks ago with a group of friends - one is learning to drive as an adult. Of the four others of us who had learned as teens, three of had had weird/unsettling/not ok experiences with middle aged instructors (mine for example asked me once if I was driving badly because it was ‘my time of the month’ and on a separate occasion told me to be gentle with the handbrake and ‘handle it as you’d handle a man’ )

But yes, if female instructors can’t decline male pupils, you just wind up with the situation in reverse. Ok, the woman is in the instructing position at that stage, but it’s pretty intense and I wouldn’t be terribly keen.

Not sure on why so few, maybe less interested in cars, I imagine lots on Driving instructors hours are anti social. But maybe in an area with lots of colleges you have lots of young people who can do school hours between college classes.

Re becoming an instructor with Red 12 years ago I looked into this. It all seemed to be a big con making money out the instructors.
Red charge instructors to learn, they must buy their car from Red, with no guarantee to getting students at the end of it. There was also a critic commenting about them training far more instructors than the other big two companies combined (AA and possibly RAC) but having far less students than either of them.