An Open Letter to the Police and the Justice Secretary.

Re: “Police Slam Women Drink-drivers” reported on the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7165248.stm

Dear Scottish Police Chiefs and Kenneth MacAskill,

I appreciate that drink-driving is a very real concern and a danger that should be highlighted, but why are you picking on women drivers? As you acknowledge women drink-drivers only made up 100 of the 657 drivers who were charged with drink-driving over the festive period, yet you select them out for particular criticism. I understand that the number of female drink-drivers has risen from previous years, but I am not sure why that matters. Instead of addressing your comments at men, who after all are the majority of offenders, you select women. This seems suspiciously like a double standard that ignores male bad behaviour as natural and vilifies the same behaviour in women. Comments such as “Sadly, it is a grip that seems to be tightening on both young people and women - many of whom seem to believe that heavy drinking and driving can go together. We have got to do more to nip this dangerous trend in the bud” as made by Kenneth MacAskill or “It is a disappointing statistic that over 100 female drivers have been found to be over the drink-drive limit since the festive safety campaign began” by Assistant Chief Constable Jim Green, which entirely ignore male offenders, reinforces this. Drink-driving is wrong whether you are male or female. Targeting women in this way is sexist.

In future could you kindly address this?

Best Wishes,
Feminist Avatar.