To think for women born in the '50s, driving is a class thing?

[DaggersDrawn]

Of my friends who's mums are 40s/50s born - I've noticed that every one who's mums don't drive are working class. Those whose mums drive are uni educated/ middle class - bar a few exceptions.

AIBU to be surprised at this in the Year of Our Lord 2023?

Family could only afford one car? Their parents couldn’t afford driving lessons for them? They were SAHMs so didn’t need a car?

I thought this was gonna be about Nicola Sturgeon, only she wasn't born in the 50s.

Anyway, your experience doesn't chime with mine - my mum and many of her friends were from very WC backgrounds, born in that era, and am struggling t think of any who couldn't drive.

2 Grannies, both drove.
Both born in 1910.
one working class, one middle class

My mum was 1950s, never drove, neither did her mum.

My Mum was born in 50. Really poor 5 children sharing a bedroom. My Dad too.

My mum learned to drive when I was 4 so in 1984. She was a Sahm by then my Dad had a semi decent job.

My friends all have a similar story. So don't think thats the case.

I think maybe YABU to be surprised given that they wouldn't have had access to a car and broadly speaking if they had jobs would have walked or used public transport. Certainly the women in my family of that era and a bit later didn't drive, and some of the men didn't either. All working class living near the industrial work or hospitality work that they did.

I have colleagues who have mothers of that era and have spoken about them having to give up driving as they get older, and yes they are mainly better off women.

I think you're going to get a lot of anecdotes on this thread that disproves your theory.

My mum (born 50s) didn't learn to drive until she was in her 30s and she would not be considered working class. But then I suppose it could be that they had money when I was little for her to learn?

Pre 1940 one drove and what didn't. The 'didnt' was posh and the did was probably working class.
But you did specify 40s and 50s

What I'm probably saying is that's your experience and nothing more. I think it's all circumstance and class doesn't come into it at all.

YABU yo make sweeping ageist generalisations. Majority of older ladies I know drive.

No. It has absolutely nothing to do with class but to do with men with misgynistic views about women. These men insist on driving their wives everywhere excet for short local runs because "they are incapable of driving on a motorway or for any distance"

These women don't get to build up confidence behind the wheel. The husbands die or are incapacitated in some way and these women are trapped. This applies to women of all ages.

This is why on driving threads I always urge women to get behind the wheel and build up their driving confidence.

I was born in 1958 and drive 99% of the time.

actually thinking about it, I wonder if my Grannies mentioned above (1910) drove because they learnt during the war?
I actually don't know what age they learnt, so it is a theory.

But I agree with pp about car ownership. Much much less common on my parents generation.
Also, my parents first cars were company cars as my dad travelled for work. Mum wasn't allowed to drive them

My nan who was born in 1923 learnt to drive. My grandad worked on a factory floor so they were definitely WC.

My mum and her 2 best friends drive and dont fit your stereotype.
They're in their 70s. My mum was from a poor working class background in rented house. She git her licence before kids. One friend had 2 working parents with a business but definitely working class. She married and ended up in a council flat. certainly driving before 25. The third was the poorest. Her dad died and her widowed mum bought up 4 children in a council house. She then went on to marry (badly) and later became a single mum in a council house.She didn't learn to drive till later (35/40) when she remaried.
My mum's always had her own car and dad had his. Dad did pay for and chose them though. At one time Dad had a Rover and mum had a Reliant Robin so bit of inequity there but didn't seem to bother her.
Dad always drove when out together.

Anecdotal, but none of the women on my mums side drive bar one who is a police officer.

Very traditional working class background - their mum didn’t drive either.

My mum born in 1945. Drives and is university educated.

My mum is WC and can drive, her dad taught her though, not an instructor. Neither of my GMs drove

Learning to drive isn't cheap. It wasn't back then either.
Plus mums were less likely to work out of the home, and many families only had one car. Supermarket shopping often happened one evening, after work, and both parents went.

My mum can't drive. My parents simply couldn't afford to pay for two of them to drive. Dad worked out of the house so it needed to be him who learnt. They usually had far greater priorities for their money than paying for mum to drive. They certainly couldn't have afforded to run two cars As they got older and had more money my mum just wasn't interested. She had managed for years using public transport when she needed to travel so was more comfortable doing that.

1950s born and a driver since 17. Most if not all of my friends and contemporaries drive. I did have a few years without a car when I lived 5 minutes away from the tube then children came along and a car was a necessity.

From my own family and people I know, I'd say this is generally true

DM was born in 1949, daughter of a miner so definitely working class, learned to drive in her early 30s when she and DF got a car. As far as I know, she passed her test before DF (took her one attempt, took him 3).

Her dad could drive - before he was a miner her worked in a pub/hotel, and learned by parking the guests’ cars for them. He used to take the cars out for a spin around York while the owners were busy having dinner! But for some reason never taught his daughters.

I'm 50s born, very much working class. And l've been driving a very long time.
But l do know women my age who never have 'because their husbands drive'.
That bemuses me. I've seen situations where husbands have been ill/died, and consequently the women are left with cars they can't use sitting outside their houses. One was having to get three buses each way when her husband was in hospital.
l'm pretty sure it's not all down to the husbands not wanting/allowing their wives to drive.
I know for a fact that in two cases at least the women said they 'wouldn't be able to do it' (having never tried) or 'wouldn't like it' - ditto.
Best thing l ever did. I'd be lost without my car.

Are you sure they had to learn to drive at all? My grandparents, born the same year as yours, never did as they got a car before a test was required to drive, and so they just got a vehicle and had a go. When licenses were introduced, they received one automatically.

I was born in 1958. Dad was a miner, mum mostly had a series of menial jobs.

I drive but I've also got 4 degrees, so became middle class quite some years ago.

My Mum was born in the 30's. She learned to drive. It took driving up and down the driveway before Dad realised she was deadly serious that she was going to learn and get her licence, but she did. A bit of salt and pepper, my Mum! I think that in Brit terms we were working class/middle class mix. Mum was totes working class. Coal miners daughter.

It has absolutely nothing to do with class but to do with men with misgynistic views about women.

Absolutely not the reason in my family. Dad is, and has never been, misogynistic. It was simply money priorities. It makes far more sense for the person who needs to travel to work and back to be the one who gets the lessons out of a very restricted budge, than the stay at home parent.

Might not be class, but income will have a huge impact.

My mum and MIL were both born in the 40s, one middle class, one working class. Both have driving licences now, but both learned later in life. My mum was in her late 40s and only passed her test about 3 weeks before I did.