Género, violencia y riesgo en el tránsito. La dominación masculina en los discursos de automovilistas de la ciudad de Buenos Aires

Abstract

We present partial results from two Multicentric Studies on sociocultural and demographic aspects of traffic accidents in Argentina, conducted between 2004 and 2008 with financial support from the Ministry of Health. This paper focuses on the relationships between gender dimensions and driving habitus that emerged from 92 indepth interviews applied to an intentional sample of male and female non-professional car drivers in the Buenos Aires City. Qualitative analysis was performed following the interpretive paradigm. Grounded Theory procedures were applied and constant comparison was used for the discovery and construction of categories. We were able to identify the presence of the male domination phenomenon in the habitus and doxa (Bourdieu) of different categories of car drivers. Criticisms of feminine driving styles and discriminatory attitudes against female drivers were found in the dominant discourses of young males and of females of all ages. Different interviewed women value the male pragmatism in driving; while mature women consider it as a "natural" masculine attribute, young women adopt it in their own driving practices as a mean to avoid gender stigmatization. However, such a pragmatism is opposed to traffic legal rules and due respect towards other people in the public space and, as long as young women take masculine driving style as their model, the risk of traffic injuries would surely increase. Policies aimed at improving road safety should emphasize the kind of positive values of responsible driving that we discovered in the sub-dominant (feminine, mature) discourses that reminded us Gilligan's concept of the ethics of care.