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?

Mostly the women I know from that age group who don't drive live in relatively urban locations where there's this mysterious thing called public transport... my mum didn't drive as she didn't need to, it was fifteen minutes' walk into a major city shopping centre and the buses ran every six minutes. Those were the days...that city now has an excellent metro system (though you do have to live on the right side of town to use it and it's not as good as it was. Still miles better than most places I've lived or visited...)

I am sure if the op posted that the majority of wc women from those generations drove, posters would be falling over themselves to tell her she was wrong.

In the small northern town I grew up I don't recall any of the working class mothers, that would have been from that era driving. They may have gone on to drive at a later age, but it was not common place amongst my peer group in the 70'sand 80's.

This maybe partly due assigned gender roles, women stayed at home to look after children and the man went out to do a manly job in the car and the costs of lessons and owning a second car.

Outside of necessity, for e.g. people living in remote areas. I wonder what people are regarding as working class - i.e. unskilled and low paid.

My mum and aunts variously worked as cleaners, care workers, land workers (fruit picking / hop tying) and in food processing or factory work. Retail, waitressing, hairdressing and bar work would be a bit too 'posh'. They all drove. I grew up in a small town and a small city in a rural area but not 'remote' at all.

It just goes to show that working class and middle class are such broad definitions nobody has a handle on what they mean. And they mean different things depending on region.

Both my grandmothers born before WW1 drove, so did my mother and DMIL born 1929/1935... not a degree between them. I didn't bother to learn until I was in my 30s, because I never intended to live outside a city with 24 hour transport, but then I moved back to Cornwall at which point it was vital.

You must be exhausted spending 99% of your time driving!