[INTERVIEW] 'Unnie Car' founder helps women break gender bias on roads

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Lifestyle

Tue, October 3, 2023 | 07:28

People & Events

INTERVIEW'Unnie Car' founder helps women break gender bias on roads

Posted : 2023-02-17 10:21

Updated : 2023-02-20 15:20

Lee Yeon-ji, center, holds up the bonnet of a car to offer vehicle maintenance tips at a workshop in Daegu, December 2021. Courtesy of Lee Yeon-ji

By Lee Yeon-woo

It's an open secret in Korea that female drivers are unwelcome on the roads. Commonly called "Kim Yeo-sa," or "Madam Kim" in English, women are depicted as bad drivers and sometimes bullied by male drivers on the roads. The term usually refers to a middle-aged housewife who has no work experience outside the home, reflecting the outdated view that driving is in the domain of men, not women.

"The term 'Kim Yeo-sa' makes me think that male drivers are marking their territory against female drivers. Actually, there are many men who are not good at driving, too. But have you ever heard the name 'Kim Chong-gak' (a kind of male counterpart term to Kim Yeo-sa) for a male driver?" Lee Yeon-ji, the founder of the educational program "Unnie (older sister) Car" asked The Korea Times. The program hosts various events to help women become confident drivers on Korean roads.

Even though the number of female drivers has increased as many women have entered the workforce, discrimination against female drivers persists, Lee said. As of 2019, the number of women who hold driver's licenses stands at 13.7 million, accounting for 42 percent of all license holders.

As an avid driver with six years of experience behind the wheel, Lee is all too familiar with microaggressions, which she describes as "dust-like."

"People whom I met on roads, or in car repair shops, tend to think first that I'm not good at driving and don't have enough knowledge about cars because I'm a woman. And if they realize that I know all too well about these things, they say 'you are too good to be a woman,'" Lee said.

When Lee first visited a driving school to enroll in a course, she found an employee trying to discourage her from obtaining a Class 1 driver's license. The employee asked why she wanted to get a Class 1 license. "It's difficult," the employee said.

A Class 1 driver's license is required to drive bigger vehicles such as vans with up to 15 seats, while Class 2 is for those who wish to drive vehicles with 9 seats or less.

"Well, if the school had enrolled me in the course, they could have received 600,000 won. But they tried to discourage me instead. I found it weird that they felt it was more important to discourage me than to receive my money," Lee said.

Female drivers who are passionate about cars are considered "one-of-a-kind," Lee said. Most driving-related places, such as repair shops and car enthusiast clubs, are male-dominated.

Lee Yeon-ji leads a workshop for women on cars and driving in Daegu, December 2021. Courtesy of Lee Yeon-ji

She was the only female member in a car lovers club where she learned how to tune a car from one of its members.

"I asked myself, 'If I participate in this club for 10 more years, will I be able to teach others about cars?' Maybe I could, but would I see more female members joining? I wasn't sure," Lee said.

In 2020, her questions led her to start the "Unnie Car" project. It aimed at helping fellow female drivers who love cars and driving, but are at a loss to find a comfortable place to explore more about it. Lee hoped that female drivers could freely seek advice there as if they were asking their older sisters.

Lee holds training sessions on car maintenance and classes that teach drivers how to deal with situations on the road, such as traffic accidents. So far, she has completed hundreds of sessions across the country, including Seoul, Gwangju, Daegu and even Jeju Island. She also shares useful information about car brands and road conditions on social media.

The program has been hugely popular. The participants told her that they gained confidence and are now able to respond better to conflicts on the roads.

As Lee met more fellow female drivers through the project, she learned that most of them experienced similar situations. For example, some car dealers talk to a husband or boyfriend even though it is a woman who wants to buy a car. And it is also common to see people automatically pointing the finger at the female driver in minor car accidents.

"I don't think people are so hard on women as to make them give up driving. However, those experiences, the feelings that women are not welcome on roads, trouble women, which can cause them to give up driving," Lee said.

"I want to make many more 'exceptions' so that people saying 'without a doubt men are better at driving and dealing with machines' can transform their perceptions. I want to make more examples of women who have better knowledge of cars and driving than men."

yanu@koreatimes.co.kr