The golden rule of insurance, of course, is the assessment of risk. The insurer invests a considerable amount of time and energy calculating the risks of an adverse event – and the higher the risk of it happening, the higher the premium charged. This fundamental principle works in favour of women drivers, since they are demonstrably much safer than the rest of the population – female car insurance, therefore, tends to be cheaper than for many other drivers.

Countless tests and surveys have shown that female motorists drive slower, with greater care and generally make shorter journeys than men. But that is not all. Only 2% of all convictions by the courts for dangerous driving are against women – a whopping 98% are against men. Even taking into account all offences involving driving, women account for only 8% of convictions – 92% are against men. It is perhaps not surprising to discover, therefore, that female drivers are involved in less serious accidents than men and the claims made against their insurers are a lower value. All in all, therefore, women present an overall picture of much safer driving, lower risk and generally good news to insurance companies.

In the past, the much healthier claims record of women drivers made little impact on the premiums they were charged. Most companies charged similar rates for both sexes, with the result that females effectively cross-subsidised the poorer driving habits of the menfolk, who traditionally submitted more frequent and higher value claims.

Before long, however, insurers discovered a valuable marketing target amongst the female part of the population and one that they could justifiably argue was fairer on those – namely, women – who drove more safely and were likely to make fewer and less expensive claims. In a highly competitive motor insurance market, the fact that premiums could be lowered for this target group encouraged a rapid growth in the number of "women only" insurers (though most will also allow boyfriends, partners and husbands also to be added at a "male driver's" rate).

If you are a woman and interested in female car insurance, therefore, it might pay to take a closer look at those insurers advertising special deals for women drivers. Although your gender alone should secure some degree of discount, it is more likely to be the standard considerations which affect the pricing of all forms of motor insurance that bring down the price more markedly: namely; the insurance category of the car you drive (a smaller, lower-performance vehicle will always be cheaper to insure); your age (start accumulating a no claims discount as soon as you can); whether you have taken the initiative by installing extra security devices, such as alarms or immobilisers; and whether you are able to take advantage of the discount offered by many insurers to those who drive a limited number of miles each year.

Female car insurance can be a good starting point, therefore, if you are a woman driver, though it is still important to weigh up carefully what is being offered against the premiums being charged. Clearly, there are no savings to be made simply by falling for one of the latest kinds of marketing techniques.