After decades of bickering between the sexes, there might finally be an answer to which gender makes better drivers.Everybody knows that women can’t park, or change gears smoothly, or do a three-point turn, or understand roundabouts, or generally grasp the concept of other road users…

…just like everybody knows that men are aggressive, impetuous drivers, all with Little Man Syndrome and a total disregard for common courtesy.

But now there are some statistics that lend credence to at least one of the ‘man vs. woman’ stereotypes: that women struggle with parking manoeuvres. Sorry, ladies.

According to The Telegraph, data from the Driving Standards Agency shows that more women fail their driving tests than men as a result of poor parking during 2010.

Just under 19,000 men failed their test during the reverse parking section, while more than twice the number of women did: 41,000.

A greater proportion of women failed their practical test that year – 57% compared to 50% – with around 940,000 major mistakes (those bad enough to warrant test failure) made by women, compared to 720,000 by men.

Men are quicker to learn, too: a man will have, on average, 36 lessons before passing his test, but a woman will need 52.

But while the numbers are stacked against the women (well, just these ones specifically), some more pragmatic observation suggests that, at least, women are more considerate parkers – according to The Telegraph, a recent report based on observing car parks showed women as neater, more considerate parkers than men. As in, they park neatly in the middle of the space.

And not all the stats go the man’s way: slightly more men failed the test than women for forgetting to check their mirrors before signaling and pulling away.

Nonetheless, it’s 1-0 to the fellas, as far as these stats are concerned. Oh well, at least women can cook and clean really well…

While the statistics in this article are true (to the best of our knowledge), please take the embedded sexism with a large pinch of salt.