Spanish drivers to be fined for shouting sexist insults

Spain has taken a series of measures to stamp out abuse of women recently and now one city is going further by punishing those who are caught insulting female drivers.

The local government of San Fernando, in the southern region of Andalucía, has approved a new municipal regulation imposing fines of up to €100 on those caught making sexist comments aimed at drivers.

The text of the new rule states that “the act of insulting other drivers, especially because of their sexual condition, can be deemed a traffic violation” and it states that people using public spaces “should respect norms of co-existence, with particular consideration when it comes to avoiding behaviour that denigrates drivers because of their sex”.

“We are used to hearing comments against women drivers,” said Conrado Rodríguez, a councillor in San Fernando’s socialist-led city hall. “When a woman is parking at a moment of tension she often receives comments and we have to lay down limits so that this does not happen.”

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A study published earlier this year found that just over 50 per cent of women had been the target of sexist comments while driving, while 15 per cent of men complained they had suffered such abuse. The study also found that 19 per cent of men believed that women are the worse drivers, although male drivers receive more traffic sanctions than female drivers.

The new gender-focused measure has not yet come into effect and is part of an entire chapter contained in a mobility ordinance dedicated to sexual equality for the city. The text also calls for the promotion of gender equality “in signs, traffic lights and information panels”. San Fernando has already made a start in this area, with pedestrian traffic lights depicting illuminated male and female figures, as well as homosexual couples.

Gender equality has been the focus of intense political debate in Spain in recent years, with the leftist coalition government taking a number of initiatives in this area, including a law putting more emphasis on consent in sexual relations and clamping down on sexist or sexual comments and propositions in public places. Such measures have drawn a backlash from many on the political right.

Just as San Fernando city hall presented its new measure to protect women drivers, contrasting attitudes to this issue were on display elsewhere. The president of the Andalucía region’s medical schools, Antonio Aguado, sparked controversy when he warned that the future of private medicine was in danger because so many women were joining the medical profession and that they “have to look after their children, they get pregnant, they often have to look after the home”.

The CSIF union called for Mr Aguado’s resignation and said his comments “set us back 50 years”.