Will The EU’s New Insurance Gender Equality Laws Affect Women’s Driving Behavior?

While supposedly making EU insurance laws more or less gender neutral will the latest EU court decision on gender equality geared EU insurance laws affect women’s driving attitudes in the EU?

By: Ringo Bones

Unfair stereotype or not, the statistical correlation of young women drivers aged 18 to 25 being safer than their male counterparts is not easy to overlook. But will the latest European Union Court ruling to make insurance premium pricing laws gender neutral across the EU eventually change current safety-conscious attitudes of EU citizen drivers?

The new EU law outlawing gender discrimination in the pricing of insurance premiums in the vehicular / car / driving insurance front could make women drivers in the EU face a sharp jump in the cost of their driving insurance premiums by as much as 40%. And according to Aidan Kerr of the Association of British Insurers, the sharp rise in car insurance premiums of women drivers in the EU would certainly affect their safety conscious driving attitudes down the road if they now pay the same insurance premium rates as their male counterparts.

Not only driving insurance premium rates will be affected. The latest European Union Court ruling on gender neutral insurance premium pricing will also affect life insurance and pension annuity premiums. Women in the European Union will be paying up to 30% more on their life insurance premiums despite recent scientific studies showing that women in the EU tend to live longer than their male counterparts in a statistically significant manner. Whether it is due to genetics or due to an inherently risk averse behavior, anyone – male or female – who live longer and pay for their life insurance premiums for much longer due to their longevity do deserve lesser premium rates. 

On the “losing” side, EU men now could face to collect 10% less on their retirement income of their pension annuities due to the new EU insurance gender equality laws. Although, the policymakers that legislated the new EU insurance gender equality laws seems to be silent on how all of this will affect the inherently safety-conscious attitudes of EU women drivers who now have to pay the same increased car insurance pricing premiums as their male counterparts in the near future. Is it just an unjust law that defies current scientific findings?