UAE best country for women

Residents take pride in gender equality on International Women’s Day

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, right here in the UAE there is more positive data.

According to a survey done in the Emirates by RoadSafetyUAE via data extracted from their ‘UAE Road Safety Monitor’, a long-term perception and attitude research project that has been running for the past six consecutive years, revealed that women scored higher than men when it came to driving safely in the UAE.

For the record, the data were extracted from several waves of the ‘UAE Road Safety Monitor’, a long-term perception and attitude research project which has been running for the last six consecutive years, conducted by YouGov (representative samples of around 1,000 UAE residents per research wave) and commissioned by RoadSafetyUAE.

Use of indicators

Thomas Edelmann, founder and managing director of RoadSafetyUAE said: “Female drivers have been less involved in road accidents than male driver especially in the last six years.” Not just that, he said, more ladies in the UAE than gentlemen ‘always’ use their indicator when changing lanes, taking an exit, merging onto a highway, turning at a junction. Take this, according to RoadSafetyUAE, the number one reason for cause of death on UAE’s roads is that the act of reckless driving goes hand in hand with the non-use of indicators.

Indian expat Radica Shyam, a UAE resident for 12 years and who has been driving in the country for 10 years said she has barely had an accident — that too minor — twice in all this time. “I maintain my speed limit and drive safe. I also make it a rule to put my phone away so I don’t get distracted with messages and calls. For me driving on the road is a serious business.”

And this was confirmed by the survey which stated, that more female UAE drivers ‘never’ use their mobile phones as opposed to the male drivers.

According to UAERoadSafety, women drivers also better understand the importance of using seat belts on the front seats. “Female frontseat passengers ‘always’ use their seat belts more often when they sit in the front as passengers. Unfortunately, for back-seat passengers the ‘always’ usage of seat belts is way too low, both for females and males,” the survey added.