Sex Discrimination

It might be something of a cliche, but I myself am a feminist.

“Oh Jesus, not one of those men who claims to be a feminist!”

Yup.

It might come as a result of having three very forceful intelligent women in my direct family, or it might just be that I despise most forms of discrimination in general, but I am, without a doubt, a staunch supporter of feminists across the globe. Girl power!

However, there is one issue that really, really bothers me: female-only care insurance advertisements.

It is against the law to discriminate on the grounds of sex (or gender) in the provision of goods, facilities or services to the public. (SDA)

So how can Sheilas Wheels (and other girl-power insurance companies) get away with this? There”’’s feminism, which is a good thing; and then there”’’s breaking the law -which in most cases is not such a good thing.

I thought it would be a good idea to look into this a little further, by trying to apply for an insurance policy on Sheila”’’s Wheels.

Mr Artemis Jones is a 25-year-old primary school teacher who drives a 1999 Ford Fiesta 1.3cc with 4 years no claims. He keeps his car in a garage, it is fitted with an immobiliser and an electronic alarm and he has held his license for about 4 years. He could enter all of this information without being told he had to “fuck off” because of his penis. They gave Artemis a quote for £458.86 per year, or a deposit plus £41.26 per month. It is expensive, but Sheila’’s Wheels is OK with him being a dude.

And Diamond.com? Same story. Even though the first thing you read on the website is “Hey Girls, with a comprehensive car insurance policy for women you get…” and the URL of the “Retrieve a Quote” section is: //www1.createdjustforwomen.co.uk/QE3. They quoted Artemis an annual fee of £463.55

So it would appear that whilst these insurance companies seem to be providing services for women only, they are actually not discriminating at all.

That said, their advertisements; indeed their very websites, consistently imply that they are for women only.

So my plan is thus:

1.) Set up a bog-standard car insurance company like any other
2.) Launch an advertising campaign with these main key points:

“Women are terrible at reverse parking and will frequently dink their bumper when manoeuvring into a space three times the width of their vehicle”

“Women are irrational and emotional, making them liabilities behind the wheel; the risk of them being cut off by an inconsiderate driver and then breaking down into tears and losing control of their car is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the same thing happening to a male driver”

“Women ignore warning signs in their cars, like loss of power, oil/petrol lights and strange noises from the engine”

“Women are more interested in the appearance of their car (and themselves) than road safety. Women will often use rear-view mirrors to apply make-up and dangle fluffy objects from a number of dangerous places inside their vehicles”

“Women are preoccupied with footwear. Inappropriate footwear leads to loss of control of the clutch, brakes and accelerator in a car and therefore women who have many different types of shoes (most, if not all women) are very dangerous when driving”

“Women are skittish and easily distracted by sparkling and shiny objects”

3.) Let the shit-storm rain.

I do not believe in the points I have just made, most of the women I have ever known are safe drivers (with a few exceptions). But the truth is, if companies are allowed to bemoan men as unsafe and pitch their products exclusively to women, would it not be fair to allow men the same privilege?

Then there is the statistical argument. Let us ignore the fact that women make more claims on their insurance in the UK than men and focus on this: men are not as safe behind the wheel as women.

“We can prove it. Look at the numbers. Etc.”

OK, fair enough. if you are going to have a statistical argument then, would it not be “legal” to refuse black people various services (like life/household insurance) based on so-called “statistics” about crime rates? No, that would not be OK, that would be incredibly racist and nobody would ever allow it. And rightly so.

Can you imagine how the public would feel about a “Whites Only” health insurance advertisement?

Even if they were, in fact, offering that service to people of all ethic backgrounds, the advertisement itself would be condemned, would it not?