More women than ever are driving their own cars, but parking building managers still seem to think women are inferior to men when it comes to parking.

Several upscale shopping centers in Jakarta now provide special women-only parking areas for female drivers' comfort and safety.

"We started the service in anticipation of the increase in women drivers. We can see that some women are less competent than men," Mahdi Shahab, area business manager for parking services at Plaza Senayan, South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"We try to provide more convenient spaces for them as well as parking officers to guide them when they are parking," he said.

Plaza Senayan has allocated a total of 120 spaces for female drivers since August last year. These spaces are available near the entrances and exits of the first, second and third stories of its parking building every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Three parking officers are ready to guide women when they are parking their cars.

Didi Haryadi, a parking operations employee at Plaza Indonesia in Central Jakarta, said the plaza's women-only parking spaces were available 24 hours every day.

"We take into consideration the safety of female visitors who go to the late cinema session, which usually finishes around 3 a.m.," he said.

The shopping center allocates to women drivers convenient parking spaces near the entrances and exits and ensures good lighting to protect women's safety at night.

"All of these are preventive actions we consider necessary, although there have not been any crimes so far," Didi said.

Plaza Indonesia has allocated 30 special parking spaces for women since September last year.

A visitor at Plaza Senayan, Satria Pulungan, said he supported the women-only spaces for safety reasons.

"Women need the service because they are vulnerable to crime," he said.

Another visitor, Nisa, said she was pleased with the extra attention from the shopping centers, even though it was based on lack of faith in women's driving ability.

"I am not bothered about that perception," she said.

"I've noticed many malls still provide parking lots where the spaces are too narrow and the lanes too steep. Also, not many parking officers are available. I definitely prefer to visit malls with better services."

Another visitor, Lisa, who was at Plaza Senayan with her family on Monday, said the service was quite helpful although it was not really necessary.

"I am grateful for that, but I am also all right without it," she said.

Two visitors at Plaza Indonesia, Shirley and Dinda, said they hoped the malls increased the number of women-only spaces.