Gender roles and female drinking-driving

Using roadside survey data on 2044 drivers in a southern metropolitan community, the potential of gender roles for explaining the role behavior of female drinking drivers was examined. Although female drinking drivers are like female nondrinking drivers in previous driving and drinking-driving experiences, overall they are more like male drinking drivers. Both female and male drinking drivers tend to drive in similar places and to be on the roads at similar times and days. They also carry similar numbers and types of passengers. The greater similarity of female drinking drivers to male drinking drivers than to nondrinking female drivers suggests caution in leaning too heavily on gender roles as explanations of female drinking-driving behavior.