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Women penalized in Europe

The article asks whether men and women should pay the same premium rates.

Author: Norris Rios

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The ideas of discrimination and human rights are somewhat controversial in our part of the world. We think people should look after themselves rather than rely on others if they get into a jam. In other countries, the laws are actively used to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, gender, and so on. Courts enforce human rights as real laws rather than something hypothetical. It's a difficult call to say who comes out of this better.

Go back forty years when feminism was really taking off and there were protests and demonstrations demanding equal treatment. Even today, there's clear evidence that women on average only earn 80% of equivalent male salaries. You can only go so far in explaining this by saying women go for lower paid work as teachers, nurses, and so on, or they tend not to ask for higher salaries. There must come a point when there's some evidence of unfair treatment. Yet, apart from one or two high-profile cases brought by individuals or as class actions, there are very few cases taken to court. Either women don't think they are being victimized or they don't think the courts will give them any real protection.

Coming to auto insurance, there's overwhelming statistical evidence showing women are safer drivers than men. So, because insurers calculate the risk they will have to pay out, they charge women lower premium rates than their male equivalents. The argument is that it's unfair to the safer sex to charge them more. The dangerous men who drive recklessly pay more for the privilege of driving while under the influence of testosterone. Except that's not really true, is it? Insurance should be about looking at an individual driver's record and deciding whether he or she is a safe driver.

This involves looking at whether the driver has been on safety driving courses, has moving violation tickets, and has made claims. It's not actually fair to charge someone more just because they are male. It's not like their sexual equipment gets in the way of the steering wheel.

No one can control their biological sex. You take what you are given when born. When calculating premium rates, insurers should estimate the risk that A will drive badly. How we drive is under our control. A new European Court judgment has now ordered the insurance industry to change the same premium rates to men and women.

The court accepts the argument that charging different rates based on gender infringes human rights. This means the premium rates for women is likely to rise and those for men are likely to fall. The question we have to ask is whether this should happen here in the US. Should women and men pay the same based on their driving records? For now, this is a hypothetical question but, sooner or later, the same question about car insurance rates could be asked here. What is interesting, of course, is that this discrimination also applies to life insurance. Women live longer so pay more for annuities. If women are to pay more for their car insurance, they should pay less for their life insurance. Fairness all around is the rule!

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Amazed by the professional approach with which Norris Rios explores the subject of the article? Visit http://www.fewclicksinsurance.com/articles/gender-equality.html to read more articles from Norris Rios in which he shares his point of view on many other topics.

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Women penalized in Europe