This past week I attended a lecture at the Detroit Institute of Arts which featured Nancy Nichols, author of Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car. The book is an overview of women’s automotive history through the personal car experiences of its author. Women Behind the Wheel is significant for a number of reasons. Although men have been writing about their automotive experiences for decades, women’s relationship with the car is rarely examined. Nichols’ book not only succeeds in addressing that lack, but is relatable to any women who has ever owned a car, particularly those of the baby boomer generation. Second of all, it draws attention to the longstanding gendered practices of automotive production, marketing, and ownership which reflect and perpetuate cultural attitudes regarding women and cars. In addition, automotive history is most often focused on specific automobiles and the men who built them; consequently women’s participation in automotive culture is considered less. Nichols’ well-researched manuscript contributes new knowledge through a rarely viewed female lens, and considers how the automobile has contributed to women’s lives in both empowering and dangerous ways.
Finally, as a scholar who has made the investigation of the relationship between women and cars the subject of her ‘third act,’ it has always been my hope that my work would encourage others to explore this little-explored connection in new and engaging ways. While I was pleased and honored to see some of my scholarship cited in Nichols’ book, I was also rather overwhelmed when, after introducing myself, Nancy called me out as the ‘original’ and asked to give me a hug. It was quite a thrill and as I drove home, felt perhaps that the work that I do, while in a very specific niche, does have some value.
As a journalist, editor, and former broadcaster, Nichols’ writing is both accessible and engaging. I would encourage any woman with [or without] a personal connection to cars to read Women Behind the Wheel.