The 'Gender Directive': Females Slapped With Higher Insurance Premiums

The Gender Directive has today finally come into play, much to the delight of young, male motorists across the country. The European Gender Neutral legislation means that insurers can no longer consider a person's gender when calculating premiums, including motor insurance. This has the side effect of raising insurance premiums for young, female drivers who were previously considered to be safer whilst being involved in fewer accidents.

According to road safety charity Brake:

Young male drivers have much higher crash rates than young female drivers due to higher risk taking. In the UK, young male drivers aged 17-20 are seven times more at risk than all male drivers - but between the hours of 2am and 5am their risk is 17 times higher.

As a result, new male motorists sporting their green licenses have been traditionally penalised. But according to the Co-operative Young Drivers initiative, they're likely to save money on their next insurance quote.

Unfortunately for 18-25 year-old, female drivers, premiums are likely to rise to even out the previous gender imbalance, and according to many insurers, one of the best solutions is to opt for telematics insurance. We've previously written about Telematics and with a range of smartphone apps being released without the need for a blackbox install, the verdict's still out on whether they will prove to be effective on encouraging safer driving.