If you’re a man, there’s a good chance you’ve paid more for car insurance than women, simply because you’re a man. And if you’re a woman, chances are you’ve enjoyed lower insurance rates simply because you’re a woman.
But why is this kind of gender discrimination okay in modern times, when we’re all supposed to be equal under the law? Read on to find out.
A brief history of discrimination law
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, private businesses could discriminate against customers and employees for any reason. And, indeed, they did, usually for racial reasons.
Title II of the Civil Rights Act put an end to businesses’ right to discriminate against certain customers. Specifically, it forbid certain types of privately-owned businesses open to the public from discriminating against customers based on “race, color, religion, or national origin,” but the act did not say anything gender. Businesses not open to the public, like private country clubs, were exempt. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act did mention gender, but it only applied to employer-employee relations, not business-customer relations.
After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a bevy of other discrimination laws were passed by the federal government and states, some having to do with gender, but also extending protection to pregnant women, disabled people, military personnel and others.
So why are insurance companies allowed to discriminate based on gender?
The answer is because (almost) none of the existing laws forbid it. Insurance companies aren’t like public lunch counters or sports stadiums, so Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t apply, and the Act doesn’t mention gender in Title II anyway.
Montana is a rare exception because it does have its a law that explicitly prohibits auto insurance discrimination based on gender. But in most other states, without any laws stopping them, insurance companies are free to price male insurance higher because men statistically have a higher risk of accidents.
Is it fair to charge men more for auto insurance?
In a sense it is fair, because if gender discrimination were outlawed women would have to pay higher rates to cover the opposite sex’s more reckless behavior. On the other hand, it’s not fair because dangerous women drivers enjoy a discount they don’t deserve, and safe male drivers pay for the recklessness of their entire gender. Regardless, to a certain extent unfairly lumping in people with larger groups is inevitable, because, after all, that’s what actuaries do and that’s how insurance companies turn a profit.
If you don’t like it, change the law
Ultimately insurance gender discrimination is possible because there are no laws to stop it, so if you feel slighted, blame your fellow citizens and the law makers they elect. There is nothing stopping your state legislators from following Montana and outlawing auto insurance gender discrimination.
10 comments
Fenn
"In a sense it is fair, because if gender discrimination were outlawed women would have to pay higher rates to cover the opposite sex’s more reckless behavior."
WOW. What an astonishingly offensive sentence. If it were true this is "fair" then it would far better apply to racial differences. Rewrite that sentence with "whites would have to pay higher rates to cover black's more reckless behavior", it would statistically be FAR more true than the sentence you wrote, but we would all universally agree it's a disgusting racist statement because WE DON'T JUDGE INDIVIDUALS BASED ON GROUP STATISTICS.
If there is some objective factor that can be tied to an individual, like a demonstrable recorded history of reckless behavior, that could fairly be used to judge someone and justify charging higher premiums, but just because someone is a member of a gender or race that has higher rates of reckless behavior does not justify prejudicially assuming the INDIVIDUAL member of that group is individually any more or less likely to behave recklessly.
Charging individual men with no history of reckless behavior more for insurance than women, sometimes even more than women who DO have demonstrable histories of reckless behavior, simply because of their gender, is obviously disgusting and racist, and the only reason it's accepted is because in this instance women benefit from the discrimination, and no one is particularly concerned about protecting men from unfair discrimination because our culture is fundamentally concerned with protecting and safeguarding women, not men.
Dick
Interesting that insurance companies don't compile statistics based on race or ethnicity,
Joshua Carbajal
Why don't they (the car insurers) make the same rate for all drivers regardless of gender? That way men AND women can stop their complaining and equality is achieved.
Gfy
Lets just say if women were charged more because "they text and drive", feninists will be all over that, like flies around unattended food.
John Doseph
A man speeding is dangerous yes. A woman texting while driving is dangerous yes. But both can be guilty of the same offense. I see more men speeding than I do women and more women texting than I do men. Though I am far less worried about some one speeding and paying attention to the road than I am some oblivious moron checking their tumbler...
Gene
So do you also believe that police should be allowed to racially-profile based on statistics?
Kit
The reasoning can only be applied to private companies (shallow reasoning at best: statistics are made up of individuals, individuals are not made of statistics) but what about in states where car insurance is mandatory?
The men in those states do not have the option to opt out of the discriminating business practices. Thus the state itself is party to discriminating against half of its citizens.
health insurance chicago
I loved up to you will receive carried out proper here. The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nevertheless, you command get bought an impatience over that you wish be turning in the following. unwell surely come more until now once more as precisely the similar just about very continuously within case you protect this increase.
Garfield
I think it's reasonable. Young men speed a lot more, and drive much more dangerously. When I was young, my car insurance was pretty expensive, and now that I'm a bit older with a good record it's not bad at all.
Melvin Chor
It sounds like you're creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place