DUIs Down as a Whole, But Female DUIs are Up
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MSNBC reports that more women are getting arrested for drunk driving than ever before. They speculate that pressure to be the "perfect wife and mother" is driving women to drink in secret and not admit that they need help. Whereas men are often social drinkers and cannot hide their habits from friends and family like women can. Friends and family can then encourage their loved ones to get help and face their problems.
I don't know if I believe that is why female arrests are up and male arrests are down. I could believe that women have always had this issue and police officers aren't letting women off the hook anymore. I can also believe that the number of women who drink regularly is up because of the state of our country. I would attribute drinking to escape the pressures of life more to working women who have to maintain a household and be the bread winner than to homemakers who feel the pressure to be "perfect".
Something I don't understand is why these prevention programs and campaigns are working for men, but not for women. Women are supposed to be more sensitive and more empathetic, you would think that they would not be willing to take the risk of drinking and driving. They could seriously hurt or kill themselves and those around them.
That is another issue brought up in the article, drunk driving with children in the car. They brought up Schuler, who was the driver in a collision that killed eight people including herself, her daughter, and her three nieces. Schuler's family has denied that she drank or used drugs, the investigation is ongoing. But the thought is pretty scary. It is bad enough that people (not just women) still get into a vehicle and think they can drive safely after having a few drinks, but to do that with kids in the car? Horrific!
As always, drinking and driving comes about from a series of choices. MADD and other anti-drunk driving groups often focus on the consequences of those choices to convince people not to drink and drive. Perhaps if we gave people more choices to choose from they would not get behind the wheel. Also, take the choice away from them. The bill introduced by Assemblyman Mike Feuer to require DUI offenders to install ignition-interlock devices in their vehicles recently passed. It has had success in other states and hopefully it will be a success here as well. Whatever is being done is working because the incidents are down, but it's time to focus on campaigns that will appeal to women, because drunk driving should not be on the rise at all, not for any group of people, it needs to stop altogether.