Good Samaratin trying to counteract stereotypical girl's behavior

So today I helped a very stereotypical girl get out of a stupid situation. In Des Moines we had about 3 inches of snowfall yesterday. Idaho Street by the Wellness Center on the Grand View College Campus is never plowed that well, and today was no exception. The girl had a little Dodge Dakota and she had thought to park on the street, but pulled in at a bad angle. As she tried to back up to park somewhere else, she got stuck.

So what does she do? She sits there and guns it, and guns it some more, even though it clearly isn't helping her get out of the spot she's in. So I jump out to see if I can help. I'm only a girl myself, but I can already tell I'm more useful in the situation than she is (because I think if I had left her and come out after my class, she would have still been there gunning it, or out of gas!!!).

I tell her to try pulling forward, but not to gun it (there is a car parked in front of her, and I don't want her to hit them). She seems confused by this idea, so I explain that maybe if she can pull forward, she can then back up at a different angle and get out. The look of understanding brightens her face and she jumps in and guns it, getting her nowhere. I probably should have been more emphatic on not gunning it.

I begin to think out loud that we can use some sand, and she says she has some. I say I guess not enough as her truck is still pretty light to be stuck like it is. In the bed of the pickup, right behind the cab, she has a storage container full of sand. I suggest that she get a few bags and lay them in the back of the bed, and she looks at me as if I'm not speaking English. Really, this isn't rocket science!!

While I start surveying the situation, trying to see what the next best move might be, she goes to see if the snow by her front tire is the problem. I explain that she has a rear wheel drive vehicle, and it's her back tire that isn't moving, and the snow by the front tire isn't an issue. The look on her face suggests that I maybe am speaking a foreign language at this point.

I throw some sand around the tire that isn't moving, because it doesn't seem like it can hurt anything. I tell her to hop back in and try pulling forward again. I say don't gun it again, but I think she'd quit listening to me at this point, because she immediately guns it again. While she guns it I try to rock the truck form the back so that it'll catch. This is successful after a few seconds and she lurches forward, immediately slamming on the brakes so as not to hit the parked car in front of her. She then is able to back up a bit and pull out no issues.

I can only hope that she is not from a snowy state, because I'd be appalled to think she could live somewhere with snow and be so helpless when driving in it. I also hope that the truck isn't hers and that she has borrowed it for some reason, because I think pickups deserve to be driven by people who know how to drive them. I honestly think that for all cars, but especially pickup trucks. No one should be able to have a pickup truck that doesn't know what their doing.

Anyway, I'm glad I was able to help her and I hope she gets some sand bags in the back of the bed. I am a little disappointed to have met someone who so blatantly perpetuates the stereotype that girls are helpless in adverse weather. My grandma would be appalled at her complete helplessness (I have watched my grandma (all 5' 3" of her) stand in bitter predawn cold, and tell giant semi-pro basketball players how to get their car out of the parking lot after a big snow). I suppose I will just have to be satisfied that as a girl myself, I was able to get her unstuck, and ope that maybe it somehow of counteracts her behavior.