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Original poster

Why are there so few female driving instructors?

47 replies

Ruralbliss · 16/05/2022 08:01

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!

OP posts:

CandyApplePie · 16/05/2022 10:23

I preferred to have a male instructor personally, and done lessons at 17 it never occurred to me to be scared to be in a car with a man. I don’t know why there isn’t more female driving instructors but I bet pretty much every man would prefer a male one anyway so women don’t need to worry about teaching strange men.

ClinkeyMonkey · 16/05/2022 10:52

I was taught by a woman thirty years ago. She was absolutely brilliant. I had been due to go with my brother's driving instructor, but my brother got a bad vibe about him because of some of the comments he made about women and instead put me in touch with the female instructor who had taught his friend. His spidey senses were right as same man was convicted of sexual offences a few years later.

ElCoh · 16/05/2022 10:56

Elhona · 16/05/2022 08:18

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.

Of course you could! Some female instructors are specifically female-only schools anyway. In a private business you can turn anyone away with or without reason.

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Original poster

Ruralbliss · 16/05/2022 20:33

I'm pretty sure I could set up a girls-only driving school in the same way there are women only gyms or have times and laws moved on and this is now not ok.

One could easily decline to teach all blokes by saying there was no availability and probably not end up in a sex discrimination case.

Maybe I'm naive.

OP posts:

Secretstory · 16/05/2022 20:43

My (male) partner is a driving instructor and his does have a few female colleagues but most are men. He does do a DBS check every 3 years (though I appreciate that is no guarantee). He also mainly works evenings and weekends to fit round people working. It's expensive learning to drive so he finds its less students and more people who are working and have the money to afford it. He actually looked after the children at home when they were preschool and I worked in the day then he went out to work later. Its not so good now they are school aged in terms of childcare. But he can always make sports day!

Dinoteeth · 16/05/2022 22:06

One could easily decline to teach all blokes by saying there was no availability and probably not end up in a sex discrimination case.

Maybe I'm naive.

You are being very naive.
Same but different a nursery in Dundee was taken to court for declining Asian children, due to no space, but friend with white children got spaces, then a couple of calls were recorded.

Wouldn't take long for someone to get you for discrimination.

Original poster

Ruralbliss · 18/05/2022 11:34

@Dinoteeth I can set up a women-only gym so why not a women-only driving school?

(NB: I'd get legal advice if I was actively perusing this right now)

OP posts:

Original poster

Ruralbliss · 18/05/2022 11:36

It's the difference between disgusting racism (Dundee nursery) vs running a safe and happy place for women to learn to drive with a female instructor.

Perhaps the law sees it differently.

OP posts:

mubarak86 · 18/05/2022 12:15

There was a women only driving school in my town that was great until they had to take a man on because they couldn't get enough female instructors, so it can be done. A friend of mine worked there, she qualified in her early 50s but the overheads were so high that she wasn't making much over minimum wage. She works independently now and does 3 lessons a day and intends to stay this way until retirement. As a pp pointed out, most people want after school or evenings (or weekends) so it really isn't an ideal job if you have school aged children.

Fizbosshoes · 18/05/2022 12:24

I learnt to drive with a female driving instructor. While we were out one day she saw a lone dog wandering the street and made me pull over so she could catch it, and then instructed me to drive to the local police station to hand it in. I was way more nervous about having an unknown and unsecured dog in the car than anything else!😂

latetothefisting · 18/05/2022 12:36

I would think it's quite a big initial outlay (particularly for a side hustle), and one of thise jobs you dont really know if youll like/be good at until youve done it - but need to spend a lot to have a go! So perhaps it's the risk and cost that prevents people from doing it.

although agree with you it could be a really good opportunity to work around childcare and sounds like people are desperate for instructors right now.

I had a male instructor when I started learning who was an absolute twat - switched to a female instructor who was great, I passed first time, and I then recommended her to my friends, my sister learnt with her etc so there's definitely a market out there.

SpringSparrow · 18/05/2022 12:42

My first driving instructor when I was 17 was a pervert. He made me drive to an isolated area and asked me questions about my boyfriends. He was 54. I was very naïve at 17. I would hate my dd to be in a similar situation now.

Thehonestybox · 18/05/2022 13:12

I had two different women driving instructors when I finally did my lessons a couple of years ago.

The first one was so immediately awful (gear stick pit being used as an ashtray, beeping at cars around her, shouting at passing cars to fuck off, asked me if I was stupid for leaving my license in the house), I actually unbuckled my seatbelt after 30 seconds in her car and RAN HOME!

The second woman was alright, got me test ready, but an hour before my test she text me saying she "had a feeling" I owed her £200 and wouldn't let me use her car for the test until the money was in her bank.

Although, when I was 17, I did a few lessons with a male instructor who would ask me to slow down if there was an attractive woman jogging on the pavement...

If you're a friendly and sensible woman, I would wholeheartedly support your side hustle!

CurbsideProphet · 18/05/2022 13:24

I was taught to drive by a woman who had a 100% first time pass rate. She was excellent. I bumped into her a few years ago and she was just as nice as always. All my female friends were taught by men and took at least 2 tries to pass their tests.

Original poster

Ruralbliss · 18/05/2022 14:10

If I still had small children and was living with their dad (as I was when they were) I'd have been at home all day with the kiddos then able to do driving lessons on the weekend or evenings when he was home from work it would have been great.

Good point about not knowing whether you'd be any good until all the capital expenditure made.

I did a four year teaching degree without knowing if I'd like teaching - I didn't so have had a different career.

Hmmmmm.

OP posts:

Snowleopard98 · 07/08/2022 07:38

I once switched to a female instructor after having a couple of male ones. I felt perfectly safe in a car with the men but I felt they were a bit impatient with me as I really struggled with the basics.

The female instructor kept cancelling on me last minute due to childcare reasons.

I don't want to sound sexist at all and obviously this would not be true of other females instructors, but it's just my personal experience.

kittykutty · 07/08/2022 07:51

moomintrolls · 16/05/2022 09:41

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

It's a driving instructor, not a taxi when you're drunk l ate at night - most likely all will be fine. I had a female one and she was terrible, unprofessional, taught nothing. Dropped her for a man who was brilliant. I felt more anxious with that particular woman driver.

The sensible approach is try a male instructor once. If you find him a good teacher, proceed. If not, not much lost.

OnceRuralNowUrbanbliss · 09/08/2022 22:19

My daughter is incredibly anti-men and has severe social anxiety so the option of taking driving lessons with a male instructor is out of the question for her.

She now has started lessons with a wonderful female instructor and is doing well.

I just can't work out why there isn't 50% male and female instructors out there.

VyeBrator · 09/08/2022 22:25

Sh05 · 16/05/2022 08:26

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.

Yes, definitely area dependent.

There are loads here too and possibly because there's a high number of Muslim women, and for many it would be frowned upon to be alone in a car with a man.

My (male) friend is a driving instructor and a few of his female Muslim pupils will have a family member sitting in the back.

JoanOgden · 09/08/2022 22:26

My experience is that there are quite a lot of bad driving instructors (of both sexes) and a significant minority of male driving instructors are overfamiliar or worse. A friend of mine who is Jewish encountered an anti-Semitic instructor, which was horrible for her.

Agree that it would be great to have more good female driving instructors.

Deadringer · 09/08/2022 23:50

There are a fair few where I live, in fact the nearest one to me has only female instructors.

Kite22 · 10/08/2022 00:22

There are plenty of female driving instructors local to me too, but I presume for all the over anxious females who can't be alone in a car with a man, then the same would apply if they were a driving instructor and the pupil were male, as has been said when the thread was started.

However, not sure all the costs associated with being a driving instructor (specialist training, specialist car, insurance etc etc) would work if you were just going out and about after your dh got in from work. I presume you would need to work full time to make a profit from it (even more so with the cost of petrol). You would need to be working just as the dc needed picking up from school at the very least. Then how would you / your car be available for the pupils' tests if you weren't available during the day ?

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