Women Becoming Larger Percentage of Drunk Drivers

Women Becoming Larger Percentage of Drunk Drivers

 Along with greater social equality, better pay and more positions of power, women are gaining on men in another, less desirable measure: arrests for drunken driving.

Arrests of men who drive under the influence still greatly outpace those of women. But while the number of arrests of men is declining, the number of arrests of women is gradually rising.

"We've come a long way, baby, and this is not a good way," said Gail D'Onofrio, chairwoman of the emergency medicine department at Yale School of Medicine.

As the state police continue this week with their annual holiday crackdown on drunken driving, a gender¹ breakdown² for arrests in recent days is not available, said spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance.

But over a period of years, state statistics show that women are becoming a larger percentage of all drunken drivers in Connecticut - rising from 17.4 percent of all arrests for driving under the influence in 1997 to 21.7 percent in 2006, the latest figures available, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

That might not seem like a dramatic shift, but the trend is clear: Arrests of men fell by 17 percent during those years, while arrests of women have been flat or slightly up over the decade.

Nationally, the trend is slightly different, but with the same end result: The number of women arrested for DUI increased by 28.8 percent between 1998 and 2007, while the number of men arrested for DUI dropped by 7.5 percent, according to U.S. Department of Justice crime statistics.

The reasons for this shift are diverse, according to academics, insurance experts and law enforcement officials.

More binge drinking among younger women and strict enforcement applied⁴ more often to women drivers might be contributing to the trend - along with a cultural change that has put more women on the road and brought them into roles of responsibility, experts said.

Young women are binge drinking more than in the past to keep up with their male counterparts, nationally and in Europe, said D'Onofrio, who is widely recognized for her work studying patients for alcohol and drug use. This is especially dangerous because women become more impaired⁵ from alcohol than men, partly because women have proportionately less water in their bodies than men, she said.

But binge drinking among young women might not explain the whole shift.

The answer might lie in the way that laws are enforced. Police are less lenient⁶ on women than they had been in the past, said Henry Kranzler, associate scientific director of the Alcohol Research Center at the University of Connecticut.

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Men account for the bulk of arrests for drunken driving - 78.3 percent of arrests statewide in 2006 compared with 82.7 percent a decade before. But some men might be changing their behavior in response to increased punishments and a greater societal disapproval⁷ in the past 10 years, Kranzler said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report this month that said the overall fatality⁸ rate from car crashes declined from 2007 to 2008. The same is true for crashes involving drunken men and women: There was a decline for both from 2007 to 2008.

"If women are drinking more, there should be a greater increase in the fatalities⁹ related to drinking, and because there isn't . . . it really does suggest that there's differential enforcement," Kranzler said.

Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance disagrees with Kranzler's suggestion.

"I don't think we treat males or females differently today as compared to yesterday," he said.

One thing is certain: The insurance industry has taken note as the number of women drivers has increased in the past several decades. In 1963, 40 million motorists were women, accounting¹⁰ for 43 percent of drivers, said Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute.

"Today, more than 88 million women are licensed¹¹ drivers, almost half of all motorists in the U.S.," she said.

Premiums¹² for young women, in particular, have risen significantly, closing a gender disparity. Thirty years ago, young women drivers paid 46 percent above the base rate for adult drivers while young men paid 187 percent above the base rate. Today, young women pay 120 percent above the base rate and men pay 185 percent, almost exactly where they were.

"Over many years, across the nation, we have seen an overall merging¹³ of the rates charged between men and women," said Ted³ Mitchell, a spokesman for MetLife Auto¹⁴ & Home. "This is likely the result of a number of factors - such as the fact that women are more equally participating in this country's economic life and, therefore, are on the road more and driving many more miles."

"As the driving habits of women more closely resemble those of their male counterparts," Mitchell said, "instances of aggressive driving and drunk driving have increased, and a woman's auto rates are likely to be similar to those of a similarly situated¹⁵ male counterpart."

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

3 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

4 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

5 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 lenient   

adj.宽大的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• The judge was lenient with him.法官对他很宽大。
• It's a question of finding the means between too lenient treatment and too severe punishment.问题是要找出处理过宽和处罚过严的折中办法。

7 disapproval   

n.反对，不赞成

参考例句：

• The teacher made an outward show of disapproval.老师表面上表示不同意。
• They shouted their disapproval.他们喊叫表示反对。

8 fatality   

n.不幸，灾祸，天命

参考例句：

• She struggle against fatality in vain.她徒然奋斗反抗宿命。
• He began to have a growing sense of fatality.他开始有一种越来越强烈的宿命感。

9 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

11 licensed   

adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
• Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗？

12 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

14 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

15 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。