Its official, women are hopeless at driving. I know this will anger all those feminists out there, but unfortunately a survey of 4,200 drivers (men and women!) by insurance company elephant.co.uk has proved it. The survey found that female motorists are much more likely to suffer parking stress than men, particularly when someone else is watching them.

I’m afraid I have to agree with this survey. I am hideous at parking – I hardly ever reverse into a space, and if my boyfriend is in the car with me, I usually get him to park the car if it’s a particularly tight spot. And apparently I’m not alone, the survey found that women are twice as likely to ask someone else to park their car for them, and three-quarters admit that backing into a space is at times too tricky even when there is sufficient room. This compares to just 9% of men who admit they are useless at parallel parking and half who admit that reverse parking can be tricky.

Interestingly, earlier this year, the AA revealed that 34 per cent of drivers would fail on parallel parking if forced to retake their driving test.

Fortunately, many car makers, including Ford, Volkswagen and Mercedes, have wizened on to the fact that us girlies are useless at parking and have invented parking assist gadgets to help us out. Ford’s Parking Assist, for example, uses four ultrasonic sensors located in the rear bumper which are activated when the ignition is switched on and the reverse gear is selected. As the car is reversed the sensors detecte any obstacles behind the car and will alert a warning sound when the car gets too close. So if you own a Ford and you find yourself panicking at the thought of having to park your car, pop down to your local Ford dealer to find out more, and let those panic-stricken moments be a thing of the past and let’s beat those boys at parking!