My mother (70s) was a generation ahead of her time. But she only went to college (math major) because my Dad signed her up for the SAT and told her she should go. But she was very adamant that her children, especially her girls, be fully independent. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but there was never any real gender discussion. I was good at math and science and sports. I wasn’t good for a girl. I was just good. Period.
Getting back to driving. My mother has always been comfortable driving anywhere by herself. She taught her mother to drive and made her get a job. My grandmother drove to her job, but that was it. Once retired, hardly ever again.
I love to drive by myself. I would prefer to drive all the time, but so does H. I usually defer to him until he gets sleepy. He has a bad problem with that, and I take over then. However, I do see at some point I will not feel comfortable driving. As we age, our decision making skills decline. So does our vision, especially our night vision. Age catches up with us all eventually.
But in my town, it’s very common for even young women today to not drive anywhere alone. My co-worker’s 30 year old D has never drive outside of our area alone. She made her BF (now H) drive the 2:30 back from college every weekend. When he worked 7 hours away, he drove home every other weekend. But she is not unusual for my area. We seem to be a generation or two behind in many ways. For instance, when I had my kids 20 years ago, there were no daycares for kids under the age of 2. You either stayed home, used family/friends, or found a private sitter.