Car Chicks

Female car enthusiasts and their stories.

Car ChicksCar Stories

Women’s Muscle Car Stories

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

In much of my work I collect women’s car stories. I’ve spent many hours interviewing women who had much to say about their relationship with cars. I’ve talked to women with chick cars, muscle cars, and pickup trucks. I’ve met with women who engage in motorsports, as well as women in their 80s and 90s to reflect on early car experiences. Although the themes that emerged from these various projects made their way into journal articles and books, the particular experiences of each woman are often limited to a quote or two. I thought, therefore, that it might be worthwhile to go back and revisit the interviews and unearth some of the stories that deserve to be told. 

One of the first group of women I spoke with were those that own classic muscle cars. The original American muscle car – a two-door, rear-wheel-drive, midsize vehicle equipped with a large muscular V8 engine and sold at an affordable price – was produced between 1964 and 1973 to appeal specifically to an affluent young male market. Because this car culture is so intertwined with masculinity and the male driver, I was interested not only in how the women negotiated their way into this masculine fraternity, but more importantly, hoped to uncover exactly what the powerful cars meant to the women who drive them. The overwhelming majority of female muscle car owners were of the baby boomer generation. Some of the women participated in muscle car culture alongside husbands, but others went it alone, often after the passing of a male companion or family member. Here are two of their stories.

In Minnesota for a family wedding, I happened upon a muscle car show outside of Minneapolis. One of the cars that caught my attention was a bright purple [Plum Crazy] 1970 Dodge Challenger. I was especially intrigued by the album set next to the car; it included not only restoration photos but also contained a faded photo from the 1970s of a young blonde woman in a bathing suit posing next to the car. As it turned out, the woman sitting next to the Challenger at the car show was the original owner. As a teenager fresh out of high school working her first job, Jenny Brinker-Wagstrom was driving a 1957 Chevy that kept breaking down. Needing something more dependable for work transportation, she spotted an advertisement that featured a young blonde woman next to a 1970 Challenger. Jenny went to the dealership and ordered a car exactly like that pictured in the photograph, not understanding what exactly she was buying.

Jenny came from a family of 10 children. Her strict Catholic father accompanied his daughter to the dealership to pick up the car. As she told me, “I heard the car coming from around the building and all I could hear was this loud ‘jib, jib, jib, jib’ really loud, and I thought, oh my god, my dad’s going to kill me. There’s no way. Here comes my Challenger. A guy brought it around for me, he gets out, hands me the keys and says ‘man, you’re one lucky young lady.’ And I thought you don’t know my father, you just don’t know my father. And I looked up at my dad, he looked at me, and he looked at [the dealer] and he said, ‘find another car. There’s no way my daughter’s driving this car.’ And of course the tears welled up in my eyes. And I, you know my father, you can’t talk to him, once he’s made up his mind you know.”

Jenny looked hopelessly at the dealer, who somewhat miraculously, talked her father into acquiescing to his daughter’s wishes. As she recalled, “I didn’t say anything; I just stood there holding my keys. I wouldn’t give my keys up. I was only like what, 20 at the time. And I thought nope, nope, no one’s taking my car. This is my car; I fell in love with her right away you know.”

The Challenger became Jenny’s daily driver for many years. She drove it to work, for running around with her girlfriends, and was often challenged to race by boys on the street. But the Minnesota winters eventually took a toll on the car; although it was no longer drivable, she could not part with it. As she told me, as one of 10 siblings, she had to share everything. Jenny has kept the now restored Challenger all of these years because, as she exclaimed, “it was the only thing I’ve ever owned that I paid for. And just the fact that I fell in love with her.”

Sharyl Sharrow’s 1970 Ford Mustang has a sentimental history. On a trip to Tennessee, her husband and son found the car in a field behind a barn. They trailered it home, and worked on it when they could over the next 15 years. As she told me, “when you have children there’s things that come before your toys.” Once the kids were set in college, she and her husband began working on the car together. They took it apart; every screw, and every bolt were removed and put it in bags. As she recalled,  “we pretty much took everything apart and we had parts stored in the basement, the engine hanging on a block in the garage, and tires underneath my basement steps wrapped in blankets.” But shortly after dismantling the Mustang, Sharyl’s husband became seriously ill and could no longer work on it. However, her husband’s friends from the car club took it upon themselves to finish the project. While her husband was in hospice, about four weeks before he passed, the restored car was placed on the front lawn. As she reminisced, “he cried when they pulled it in; he was so happy.”

Since her husband’s passing, Sharyl has driven the Mustang to car shows as a tribute to her husband’s memory. As she said to me, “Oh it was my husband’s dream car. [Before he passed] he made me promise him I would take it out. So I do it, and I do it grumbling. It can put a smile to my face or it can bring a tear to my eye. You know it’s just, it’s that bittersweet. I would love to have him back in the driver’s seat of it.”

“Every car has a story” is a popular sentiment among automotive enthusiasts. It speaks of the personal, cultural, and historical meanings automobiles carry to those who owned them. In their encounters with cars, individuals often create narratives that combine memory, feeling, and life experience; they generate stories that “integrate their past, present, and future […].”[1] Traditionally, storytellers in these locations have been male; since the early years of automotive history, men’s car stories have been a popular subject of books, film, and magazines.[2] In the twenty-first century, men’s automotive narratives are often found in locations such as car TV, podcasts, online blogs and forums, automotive websites, and digital newsletters. In these masculine settings, women’s unique relationship with cars, and the stories attached to them, are often ignored or considered invalid. In her collection of essays by women writers on cars and the road, Elinor Nauen exclaims, “women have always driven and owned cars – and always fought with men who thought we shouldn’t.”[3]

As tourism scholar Lee Jolliffee argues, culture related to cars “includes not only the cars but also documentation and expression of related histories,” both written and oral.[4] Because women’s relationship with cars differs from that of men, women’s car stories – such as those mentioned here – add a new dimension to the common narrative and provide automotive histories that are otherwise unrecorded. As Marilyn Root – in her compilation of women’s car stories – declares, “for many women the stories of their relationships with their vehicles are not only those of transportation, but of transformation.”[5]

[1] Nicolette Caperello and Kenneth S. Kurani. “Households’ Stories of Their Encounters With a Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle.” Environment and Behavior 44(4) 2012, 504.

[2] Examples include Car Club Memories: Personal Stories from Three Dynamic Decades of Cruisin’, Competition, and Cool Cars compiled by Fred Thomas; Ambrosio and Luckerman’s Cruisin’ the Original: Woodward Avenue; Gone in Sixty Seconds; Vanishing Point; Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.

[3] Elinor Nauen, ed. Ladies Start Your Engines: Women Writers on Cars and the Road (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996), xvi.

[4] Lee Jollife. “The Bricklin: From Automobile to Place Narrative.” Automotive Heritage and Tourism: A Framework for Study, Michael V. Conlin and Lee Jolliffe, eds. (London, Routledge, 2017), 41.

[5] Marilyn Root. Women at the Wheel 42 Stories of Freedom, Fanbelts, and the Lure of the Open Road (Naperville IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.), 3.

Car ChicksCar Culture

What is a ‘Hot Girl Car’?

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

A recent Jalopnik article asked its readers, “What’s the Most Hot Girl Car?” I couldn’t help but wonder what, exactly, was the answer this query was looking for. Was Jalopnik trying to determine what car, when driven by a woman, qualifies her as ‘hot?’ Or was it, in fact, requesting its readers to name the hottest car among female drivers? 

Jalopnik writer Amber DaSilva’s hot girl car

Historically, the auto industry has featured advertising which features a ‘hot’ women posed next to a vehicle as a means to lure the male consumer. The implication is that driving such a car will attract the type of sexy woman a man couldn’t win over on his own. The measure of a car’s hotness can also be determined by the nature of the woman who drives it. For example, a 2007 Cadillac GTS commercial featuring Kate Walsh famously asked, ‘when you turn your car on, does it return the favor?’ The question equated the thrill of driving a Cadillac to that of a sexual encounter with a beautiful woman. In each of these representations, women’s assumed preference for a particular automobile marked the woman, and the car with which she was associated, as ‘hot’.

Asking the readers to name the hottest car among female drivers, on the other hand, was a question that could be answered by looking at marketing studies that ranked car purchases by gender. It didn’t seem like the kind of request a magazine that caters to a young and often skeptical demographic that prefers an irreverent, humorous, and often critical take on the automotive industry would, in fact, make.

1990s Golf Cabriolet

As neither of these answers seemed to suffice, I relied on ChatGPT, the preferred research instrument of the auto site’s target audience: young adults, the majority male, under 30 years of age. When I posed the question, ‘what is a hot girl car?’ to the popular AI tool, the answer wasn’t at all what I was expecting. 

According to the collected sources, a hot girl car is an informal, often humorous, slang term to describe a vehicle that exudes a fun, stylish, or confident vibe, frequently associated with trendy, independent, or unapologetically stylish young women. The term is not presented in a derogatory manner; rather, it lists the traits of the hot girl car as stylish or cute, compact or sporty, well-kept or accessorized, and associated with urban, fashion-forward, or lifestyle branding. A hot girl car exudes confidence, elan, or a ‘let’s go on an adventure’ attitude. The vehicles most often associated with this label are the Mazda Miata, Mini Cooper, Fiat 500, VW Beetle, or for the adventurous types, the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco Sport. 

The ultimate chick/hot girl car – Mazda Miata

What struck me about this answer was its similarity to the definition of the ‘chick car,’ a term that became popular during the early 2000s. In an article published in 2012, I described the chick car as a type of vehicle favored by women that was small, quick, stylish, and fun to drive. Unlike the hot girl car, however, the chick car was considered inferior by the male contingent for its association with the woman driver. As I wrote, ‘Women’s attraction to a particular automobile causes members of the male population to question the car’s technology. […] The assumption that women lack technical expertise creates a reverse kind of logic in the minds of many male consumers. They believe that since women cannot appreciate the finer technical characteristics of a car, such as power, handling, and performance, the cars women purchase must be technologically deficient. Women’s approval, in the minds of many men, leads to the devaluation of the car.’[1] The male constituency of auto makers, journalists of that time often disparaged the chick car, referring to it as “the kind of car no manly man would be caught dead driving.”[2]

Ford Bronco Sport, for the adventurous hot girl

However, based on the Jalopnik article responses, that sentiment has evolved. The author of the article, Amber DaSilva, invited her readers to ‘think up your definition of a hot girl, and pair that girl with the car that fits her best. What’s the most hot girl car you can buy?’ Many of the vehicles I defined as chick cars – Beetles, Minis,  Miatas, and Golf Cabriolets – were included as bona fide hot girl cars. Jeeps, classic muscle cars, and anything-with-a-stick-shift also made the list. And although the majority of responders were male, they were not regarding the car choices, or the women who made them, in a pejorative way. Rather, they were admiring the women for their automotive preferences; i.e. the choice in itself awarded some hotness. Granted, the readership of Jalopnik skews more left than the majority of car magazines, but I found it encouraging to see that most of posters – while having a little fun – did not disrespect young female drivers. And as the writer defined herself as a hot girl herself, the question – and the responses – were all made it a lighthearted, convivial manner. 

Mini Cooper

As I noted over a decade ago, despite the attempts of male journalists and drivers to disparage the chick car, women embraced the category and made it their own. As I asserted, ‘to the women who drive them, the chick car represents personal freedom, independence, agency, and a whole lot of fun.’[3]It is heartening to know that young people today – men and women alike – embrace the chick/hot girl car a means to adventure, identity, and empowerment.

[1] Chris Lezotte. “The Evolution of the ‘Chick Car’: Which Came First, the Chick or the Car?” The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 45 No 3 2012, 525.

[2] Quote from John McElroy, host of Autoline Detroit.

[3] Lezotte, Chick Car, 529.

Car ChicksCar Culture

Ladies and Limos

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

One of the more unusual items for sale posted on Facebook’s Marketplace recently was a long, low, stretched-out, hot pink limousine. Covered in graphic flowers, the limo’s prior use was as a party vehicle for young, Sweet & Sassy ‘party girls on the go.’ The interior carried the pink theme throughout; facing seats and a star shaped sunroof contributed to the festive atmosphere. As it turns out, Sweet & Sassy is a franchise that caters to young girls; promoted as a kids spa, salon, and fun learning workshop, it offers a variety of events designed to ‘delight, thrill, and create lasting memories for kids of all ages.’ To get to the fun-filled event, kids are treated to a ride in a fancy pink limousine. The limo on Facebook, once listed for $20,000, is no longer available, suggesting that the stretch Chrysler 300 has found a new purpose. Perhaps someone has taken Jalopnik writer Amber Dasilva’s advice to start a business ‘shuttling hot girls with taste to and fro.’

However, it is not only color that links ladies to limos. Women are joining the historically male-dominated chauffeur industry in increasingly numbers. When Kathy Shorr took a job as a limo driver in the late 1980s as part of a graduate photography project, she was an anomaly. However, once her clients got over the shock of a woman behind the wheel, they became very comfortable in her presence, so much so that the Brooklynites allowed her to photograph them in and out of the car. Little did Shorr realize she was setting the stage for women to enter the field a mere forty years later.

Today, female limo drivers are increasingly common, offering professional, safe, and personalized luxury transportation. Female travelers often feel more comfortable with women drivers, citing safety as a primary concern. Studies show that female drivers are less likely to engage in aggressive driving behaviors compared to male counterparts, with a significantly lower percentage of reckless driving convictions. Not only are women proven to be safer drivers than men, but traveling women feel more protected against unwanted sexual harassment or attack when the vehicle operator is female. Consequently, many companies now specifically offer female-chauffeured limo services, catering to clients who prefer the comfort and security of a female driver, particularly business women and those traveling alone with groups. 

Female drivers are frequently perceived as more trustworthy, professional, and attentive to detail than male drivers, providing a friendly, calm, and reassuring presence. Women enjoying a ‘girls’ night out’ can hire a female driver without worry they will be taken advantage of in a small, enclosed space. Many also purposely choose female drivers to support other women in a traditionally male-dominated field.

While the notion of a female chauffeur may lead some to think of women driving neon pink vehicles adorned with bright flowers and cute sayings, women’s entry into the luxury chauffeur industry challenges longstanding gender roles and expectations that have historically defined the sector. These women are breaking woman driver stereotypes that have existed since the early twentieth century, when Henry Ford’s first Model T rolled off the assembly line. It is not surprising that the most fervent supporters – and clients – of female limo drivers are other women. These customers not only understand the challenges female drivers face upon entering a traditionally male automotive environment, but recognize – and reward – them as competent, professional, and trustworthy women behind the wheel. 

Auto IndustryCar Chicks

Female Firsts in Automotive History

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

Being the ‘first’ in any endeavor represents a breakthrough moment – someone or something has crossed a boundary that had not been crossed before. The celebration of firsts suggests possibilities – something that was once considered impossible or off-limits can now be achieved. However, acknowledgement as a groundbreaker also carries the weight of expectations. An individual’s success or failure can influence how others in the same role or field are perceived. While this phenomenon exists in all fields of endeavor, it especially relevant for those whose “firsts” challenge existing power structures and societal norms. Although attention to female automotive firsts may diminish the achievements of those who follow, the determination and tenacity of women who were able to succeed in a culture in which they were not welcomed should not be disregarded. As Nanette Braun, of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, exclaims, “as long as women face barriers, it’s important to celebrate first-time achievements to show other women that such accomplishments are possible” (qtd in Morgan).

Joan Newton Cuneo – first female star of motorsports

It is not surprising, therefore, that in automotive history, many of the celebrated women are ‘firsts.’ Bertha Benz was the first person, man or woman, to engage in a long-distance, internal-combustion-engine, automobile trip. Alice Ramsey was the first woman to drive across the US in an automobile. The ‘first female star of motorsports’ was a title bestowed on Joan Newton Cuneo for her racing acumen. Other female racers have also been honored as firsts – Louise Smith is regarded as the ‘first lady of racing;’ Betty Skelton was known as the ‘first lady of firsts.’ Janet Guthrie was the first woman to qualify at Indianapolis; Lyn St James was the first woman to be awarded the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. Not only was Sarah Fisher the first woman drive for her own team, but was the first female owner to earn an IndyCar victory. The first woman to win an IndyCar race was Danica Patrick. Due to her record breaking accomplishments, Shirley Muldowney is often referred to as the ‘First Lady of Drag Racing.’ The three Force sisters – Ashley, Brittany, and Courtney, hold a collection of drag racing firsts. Other firsts include Nellie Goins, the first African American woman to succeed in Funny Car racing, and Cheryl Linn Glass, the first Black woman to race professionally. 

Betty Skelton ‘First Lady of Firsts’

Female firsts are also noted in the auto industry. Helene Rother was the first woman to enter the field of automotive interior design at General Motors.  Audrey Hodges Moore is recognized as the first full-time designer at an automotive company. The first female industrial designer at Studebaker was Helen Dryden. Betty Thatcher Oros was the first female exterior automotive designer on record. In more recent history, there is no more prominent ‘first’ than Mary Barra, the first woman to serve as CEO of a US automotive manufacturer. Whatever their automotive endeavor, these female firsts stood out as exceptional. They were women that through daring, perseverance, and a little bit of moxie, broke barriers and emerged victorious despite incredible odds. Exceptional women in history, notes Helen Antrobus, are those who lived and worked outside the stereotypical gender norms of the time. They are those “who subverted the conventional role of women, who shouted loud enough to be heard” (56).In automotive history, they are celebrated as pioneers, female heroes, and invaders of the male domain. They appear as long distance adventurers, auto industry interlopers, and motorsport legends.

Cheryl Linn Glass – First Black Female Professional Racer

However as a category of female success, the ‘exceptional woman’ both hinders and helps how women are considered in automotive history. The exceptional label can imply rarity rather than equality; it can suggest an individual’s accomplishments are unusual because of her gender, thus reinforcing the idea that success is the norm for men but not for women. It can give the impression that what a particular woman has accomplished cannot be easily duplicated by others; that she is, in fact, an anomaly, an outlier, a recipient of extraordinary circumstances, relationships, opportunities, coincidences, or luck. It can reinforce gender stereotypes, upholding the idea that women don’t belong in certain areas, and that those who succeed must be ‘special’ rather than talented or learned or skilled; any shortcomings can be generalized as evidence that ‘women aren’t suited’ for the role. It can be condescending, as though the person’s gender is more noteworthy than what she has accomplished. It can isolate rather than normalize, thereby slowing broader acceptance and inclusion. 

Audrey Hodges Moore – first full time female automotive designer

However, the importance of female representation in automotive history cannot be underestimated. Research focusing on women’s participation within male-dominated environments repeatedly demonstrates how one woman’s success can serve as motivation and inspiration for those that follow (Lockwood et al). Asking “Do Female ‘Firsts’ Still Matter” in the US judicial system, Frick and Onwuachi-Willig note how the firsts of female judges all over the nation not only held important symbolic meaning for the advancement of women, but also “helped to change societal perceptions about who is and should be a judge” (1531). Female representation is considered crucial to the retention and recruitment of women in male-centric STEM fields. Write Drury et al, “female role models assist in both of these efforts by improving women’s performance and sense of belonging in STEM” (265). One of the barriers that perpetuates women’s exclusion from Formula One, argues O. Howe, is a lack of ‘representation and (in)visibility” (454). The younger generations need to “see it to be it,” Howe argues. “If a team were required to have a woman on their team, it could provide inspiration for the next generation of women race drivers […]” (460).

Helene Rother – first female designer at General Motors

Research, notes Forbes contributor Margie Warrell, demonstrates that “role models have an amplified benefit for women due to the gender biases, institutional barriers and negative stereotypes women have long had to contend with across a wide swathe of professional domains.” As Warrell concurs, ‘”seeing is believing”. In terms of automotive history, attention to the firsts of exceptional women has the potential to inspire young women to think about a future as a designer, engineer, racer, owner, or even, perhaps, CEO. 

Helen Antrobus. “Anonymous was a Woman: Collecting Cultures at the People’s History Museum.” Anonymous Was a Woman: A Museum and Feminist Reader, ed. Jenna C. Ashton (Cambridge: Museums Etc Limited).

Benjamin J. Drury, John Oliver Siy, and Sapna Cheryan. “Do Female Role Models Benefit Women? The Importance of Differentiating Recruitment From Retention in STEM.” Psychological Inquiry 22 2011, 265.

Amber Fricke & Angela Onwuachi-Willig. “Do Female ‘Firsts’ Still Matter? Why They Do for Female Judges of Color.” 2012 Michigan State Law Review, 1531.

Olivia Howe, “Hitting the Barriers –  Women in Formula 1 and W Series Racing,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 20, no. 3 (2022): 454.

Penelope Lockwood et al. “To Do or Not to Do Using Positive and Negative Role Models to Harness Motivation.’ Social Cognition 22 (4) 2004: 422-450.

Gwen Morgan. “The Missing Story Behind Women’s First-Time Accomplishments.” Fastcompany.com Jan 1, 2017

Margie Warrell. “Seeing is Believing: Female Role Models Inspire Girls to Think Bigger.” Forbes.com Oct 9, 2020

Car ChicksCar Culture

Pink Cadillac

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

As legends go, in the late 1960s, a young woman by the name of Mary Kay Ash approached a Lincoln dealership to request a custom car to help promote her growing cosmetic business. When rebuked by the dealer, who told her to go home and get her husband, Ash took her business to a Cadillac dealer across town. She asked for, and received, a custom new Cadillac in a color to match the blush of her compact. When, after seeing the gleaming Cadillac, a number of Ash’s sale directors requested pink cars of their own, an idea was born. Beginning in 1969, the top five Mary Kay sellers each year were rewarded with a brand new, blush-colored Cadillac Coupe de Ville. The tradition – through model changes and various shades of pink – has continued for over five decades. For 2025, the iconic Mary Kay Cadillac is going electric; top salespeople are now offered a pink pearl Cadillac Optiq, the first fully electric vehicle awarded by the cosmetic company. The automobile’s current advertising themeline  – ‘Drive Your Ambition’ – cleverly combines the personal motivation of Mary Kay and its representatives with the prestige and affluence associated with the Cadillac brand. 

Mary Kay’s Pink Cadillac program has always been somewhat controversial. Critics argue the Mary Kay model and allure of the Cadillac mask a structure that resembles a pyramid scheme. Others find the color of the car problematic; the pink hue stereotypically marks the luxury automobile as a ‘woman’s car,’ a label that is devalued in masculine car culture. The longstanding association between pink and femininity also suggests adherence to traditional gender roles, which conflicts with contemporary notions of business acumen and female empowerment. 

However, supporters view the pink Cadillac as a symbol of women’s financial independence and success. To Mary Kay champions, the pink Cadillac is not a symbol of feminine submissiveness; rather, the flashy automobile represents women’s achievements in the business world, a culture long dominated by men. The Mary Kay organization is often commended for inspiring women’s entrepreneurship in a landscape that has historically presented barriers to female advancement. As for the pink-is-for-girls association, Ash brilliantly coopted the stereotype and transformed it into a recognizable and valuable brand identity. The automobile has a longstanding association with male identity and power; by rewarding associates with Cadillacs that are uniquely pink, Ash transformed a masculine symbol into one of female empowerment. 

The Cadillac has always had cultural significance, particularly among those who held a less-than-dominant position in American society. During the 1950s and 1960s, if a woman drove a Cadillac, it was assumed a man purchased it for her. A woman behind the wheel of a pink Cadillac, earned through hard work, perseverance, and a bit of moxie, would stand out as someone who had made it at a time when female success in any endeavor was difficult to attain.

Certainly there is something ultimately intriguing about the Pink Cadillac. To Aretha Franklin, the pink Cadillac served as a self-propelled ride to romance on the ‘Freeway of Love’. Bruce Springsteen also wrote a song about it, expressing his admiration for the car while wondering just what a woman could be doing in it. Of the new EV version, Jalopnik journalist Logan Carter writes, ‘I’m happy to see that the most driven cosmetic-wielding Capitalists now have the option to go all-electric without compromising their allegiance to Mary Kay.’ As for the women who drive them, the pink Cadillac shows the world they are successful, ambitious, and empowered.  They are, in the words of Springsteen, ‘cruising down the street, waving to the girls, feeling out of sight’ in a shiny, ostentatious, and hard-earned Pink Cadillac.

Car ChicksCar Culture

From People’s Car to Chick Car

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

As a longtime Volkswagen fan, I recently discovered a book on its history that garnered a little bit of positive attention when it was published in 2012. In Thinking Small, an “auto” biography of the Volkswagen Beetle, Andrea Hiott traces the trajectory of the famous auto from its conception as the “people’s car” in Nazi Germany to its emergence as an anti-establishment icon in 1960s America. While the book is ostensibly about the strange car, Hiott also focuses on the people who made it happen – Ferdinand Porsche, whose imaginings served as the inspiration for the Beetle’s eventual production, Heinrich Nordhoff, the German Industrialist who created the positive environment for its manufacture, and Bill Bernbach, whose advertising campaign created the American market for the little German car.

As Hiott notes, the Beetle, initially launched in 1938, was not an instant success. Although as an automobile it had little in common with the Model T, Nordoff, after taking the Volkswagen reins in 1947, adopted Henry Ford’s business philosophy to the struggling German car. In the introduction of the Model T, Ford’s objective was to manufacture an affordable car for “everyman”; the tycoon’s famous “$5 a day” promise to automotive workers assured that the people who built the cars could also afford them. Under Nordhoff’s guidance at the Wolfsburg VW factory, workplace conditions improved and benefits to workers increased; consequently, the reliable and affordable Beetle grew increasingly popular with the masses, eventually becoming the “people’s car” that Porsche had originally imagined.

When the German car came to the United States, the funny-looking little car became the foil to the big, brash behemoths coming out of Detroit. The Bug was embraced by the counter culture; it became the car of choice for strapped-for-cash college students and members of the Woodstock generation. As one of those broke college kids, I purchased my own Beetle in 1970; it was one of dozens that could be found on Detroit’s Wayne State University commuter campus. Although I was hardly the anti-establishment type, as a Detroit native growing up in a community of autoworkers, the VW parked in my driveway no doubt marked me as a “traitor” in my neighbors’ eyes. However, as someone who aspired to work in advertising, VW’s marketing strategy, created by the advertising stars at Doyle Dane Bernbach, convinced me that I was driving the coolest car on the planet.

The last Beetle that evolved from Porsche’s original design, manufactured in Mexico, drove off the production line in 2003. However, affection for the funny little car never really died. In 1994, at the New American International Auto Show, the retro-inspired New Beetle concept car was unveiled. The production model arrived in 1997, “just in time to catch a wave of nostalgia and surf in all the way to sales success’’ (McAleer). The New Beetle was initially met with great enthusiasm and attained modest sales numbers. However, the retro version was not without controversy. Although, Hiott asserts, it was embraced by the hipster generation, descriptors such as “cute,” “playful,” and “fun” led to the New Beetle’s perception as a “chick car,” which was believed to turn off potential male buyers.

The chick car, as I defined in a 2012 article, is a small, sporty car designed for men but appropriated by women for their own use. They are affordable, quick, nimble, easy to handle, and most importantly, “fun to drive.” The chick car is the antithesis of the “woman’s car”, a sturdy and practical vehicle – i.e. station wagon, minivan, small SUV – used to transport kids and cargo. As I discovered, to the women who drive them the chick car represents personal freedom, independence, agency, and a sense of empowerment.

During the height of the chick car’s popularity, Terry Jackson of Bankrate.com wrote, “Carmakers recognize the powerful influence women have today in the auto marketplace while they simultaneously have to avoid sending a message to men that they shouldn’t be caught dead driving these cars.” While automakers welcome the female consumer, the “chick car” label creates a good amount of anxiety and concern among them. Car manufacturers are uneasy when automobiles become associated with femininity and the female car buyer. 

Automakers responded to chick car dilemma in a number of interesting ways. Volkswagen “beefed up” the offending car to be more masculine. As auto writer Doron Levin wrote, “VW has attempted to ‘male up’ the New Beetle over the years by adding a turbocharger to the engine and a spoiler to the rear.” In 2012, VW introduced a “bigger, less ‘cute’, and sportier Beetle” in an attempt to ditch the “girl” car image and attract more male buyers (Healey).

Apparently the efforts to masculinize the little car were unsuccessful. As Anthony Capretto argues, “People weren’t able to move past this image, and these and other factors caused sales to drop substantially by the end of its life.” Whether or not the car’s downfall can be explained by its association with the woman driver seems an easy out as there are still plenty of “chick” cars – e.g. Mini Cooper, Miata – on the road in 2025. Regardless, in 2016, VW discontinued the nameplate after its nearly 80 years of existence. 

Published in 2012, Thinking Small ends on an optimistic note. As Hiott wrote, “the car is still an object we want to love. Its story is still being written” (424). While the New Beetle is no longer being manufactured, it is has gained new appreciation among the collector set. As McAlleer exclaims, “More than a decade after the New Beetle left showrooms, it’s starting to become a choice for younger enthusiasts. […] because it’s such a whimsically adorable design, seeing a modified New Beetle can’t help but put a smile on your face.” Although Hiott couldn’t predict the car’s ending, she exhibited an astute understanding of the car’s effect on generations of drivers. 

My 1970 Beetle

As a previous owner of two Beetles – 1970 and 1979 Super Beetle cabriolet – I have a strong affection for the odd little car. And after learning of the Bug’s early struggles to gain footing in post war Germany, its unlikely emergence as a cultural icon in the United States, and its stint as a popular albeit controversial chick car, I have a new appreciation for the Beetle’s history and its incredible sustainability over nearly 8 decades. Although this post comes over 10 years too late, I would recommend Thinking Small to anyone who has ever had a bit of a love affair with the Volkswagen Beetle. 

Capretto, Anthony. “It’s Time We Gave the Volkswagen New Beetle the Respect it Deserves.” CarBuzz.com 19 Dec 2024.

Healey, James R. “2012 VW Beetle Gets Bigger, Ditches ‘Girls’ Car’Image.” USA Today. 10 Apr. 2011.

Hiott, Andrea. Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle. New York: Random House, 2012.

Jackson, Terry. “Top Five Chick Cars.” Bankrate.com. 1 Nov. 2007.

Levin, Doron. “Are You Man Enough to Drive a Chick Car?” Bloomberg News. 18 Apr. 2006.

Lezotte, Chris. “The Evolution of the ‘Chick Car’ Or: Which Came First, the Chick or the Car?” Journal of Popular Culture 45/3 2012.

McAleer, Brandon. “Volkswagen’s New Beetle is Finally Growing its Own Following.” Hagerty.com 24 Jan 2025.

Car ChicksWomen Writing Cars

The Irrepressible Jean Jennings

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

Jean Jennings, the former editor-in-chief of Automobile magazine and a pioneering woman in automotive journalism, passed away in December at the age of 70 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

‘Bob’ at Westminster with handler Kelly Leonard

I first met Jean not at an automotive event, but rather a dog show. She and her husband Tim were the proud owners of Bob, a champion Chesapeake Bay Retriever who when not in the conformation ring was Tim’s hunting companion. My husband knew Jean from his time working on the Mazda account; as I had just begun my research into women and cars he thought we should become acquainted. Active in the purebred dog world, my husband and I would run into Jean and Tim at various dog events where the conversation was not about cars, but rather about Bob’s chances in the Best of Breed ring. Bob’s big moment came at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York when he made the first ‘cut’ in a fine class of champion Chessies. 

Tim & Jean shopping for a new ‘dog’ vehicle

Jean entered the world of automotive journalism when it was very much an exclusive male fraternity. As the only girl in a family of six children, Jean no doubt understood that the way to make a place for herself among the good old boys was to be tough, outrageous, knowledgeable, and ‘one of the guys.’ Throughout automotive history, women have been required to develop unique strategies in order to be accepted and respected in the masculine world of cars. Thus rather than draw attention to her gender, Jean joined her male contingent to swear, drink, tell dirty jokes, and smoke cigars. She won over fellow auto writers and enthusiasts through her hard work, self-promotion, and engaging storytelling. Jean brought a new style of writing to what was, at the time, a rather conservative automotive establishment. Longtime friend and Automobile co-worker Kathleen Hamilton tells the New York Times, ‘it was enthusiast writing, and she brought adventure to the car-world reader.”

Jean was the first woman to lead a major monthly car magazine. Under her leadership, Automobile became the first car publication to win a National Magazine Award. Jean was also a popular television guest; she appeared on Oprah [where she taught Ms. Winfry to change a tire] as well as the Tonight Show with fellow auto enthusiast Jay Leno. After leaving Automobile, Jean continued to write freelance articles and authored a blog – Jean Knows Cars – for a number of years until her memory began to fail her. Wherever she went, Jean was always easily recognizable by her outlandish hats and larger-than-life personality.

In her later years, Jean and her husband Tim became very involved in raising money for charities like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital. Her pet project was Caden’s Car Show, a private event where patients and their families could get up close and personal with a variety of cool cars on display. I was proud to take my 1967 Ford Shelby to one of Caden’s Full Throttle Events, established to raise funds for the Mott Congenital Heart Research and Pediatric Heart Transplant Units.

I had always hoped to interview Jean for an article on women in automotive journalism, with plans to eventually submit it to an academic journal. Unfortunately, other projects took precedence and by the time I was ready to begin it was too late. While I did not know Jean well, I had tremendous respect for her talent, success, fearlessness, as well as the inroads she created for women in auto journalism. She was one of a kind, and as noted in obituaries of a plethora of automotive sources, she will be greatly missed.

Car ChicksCar Culture

Lowriders and the Woman Driver

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

On a trip to the California Automobile Museum last spring, I chanced upon an exhibit focused on women in lowrider culture. “Rucas y Carruchas: Ladies in Lowriders” celebrated the contributions of women in the lowrider community. The collection of colorful, spectacular cars was accompanied by photographs, videos, artwork, as well as personal stories that spoke of family, community, friendship, heritage, and the meaning of lowriders to the women who own them. As someone interested in the connection between women and cars, the exhibit piqued my interest. Upon investigating the matter a little further, I came upon a number of online articles and reports focused on the rise in female lowrider clubs and communities in the Latino communities in the Southwest United States. What makes this news exceptional is that lowrider culture has long been the province of men, a practice handed down from fathers to sons, from one generation to another. While women have always been part of lowrider culture, it has been primarily in the role of passenger, girlfriend, or a scantily clothed photographic model. However, as I discovered, women have become increasingly involved in the culture as creators and drivers, forming their own clubs, and challenging the male dominated nature of the lowrider scene.

To the uninitiated, the lowrider is a customized domestic automobile – preferably a 1960s vintage Chevy Impala – painted in one of many spectacular and iridescent “candy” colors – bright pink, green, orange, deep purple, or red – highlighted with metal flake coatings, and finished with up to 18 layers of clear lacquer. The car bodies often serve as canvases for elaborative paintings of religious icons, cultural symbolism, the zoot suited pachuco, and shapely women. Lowrider interiors are often elegantly upholstered and intricately detailed in lush fabrics. However, while the lowrider is often recognized and admired for its aesthetics, the lowrider’s defining style is the lowered body that hovers mere inches from the pavement. This appearance is often achieved through the removal of rear shock absorbers and a pile of sandbags in the trunk; however, more sophisticated vehicles rely upon hydraulic technology to raise and lower the massive body frame. While the American hotrod of the white working-class male is most often associated with power and speed, bajito y suavecito – “low and slow” – epitomizes the lowriding culture. The lowrider is meant to be seen; consequently, as Brenda Bright writes in “Heart Like a Car,” owners of lowrider vehicles “drive these beautiful, luxurious roadway spectacles very slowly, literally taking over the road and forcing other drivers to ‘deal with’ their slow, deliberate driving style” (583).

Attendees of a lowrider exhibition, wearing Zoot suits of the Mexican American subculture known as Pachucos (AP Photo/Andrés Leighton)

The lowrider subculture has a long and embedded genealogy in Mexican-American culture. It originated in the “car-saturated prosperity” of post World War II America and has remained integral to Chicano cultural identity into the twenty-first century. While hot rods and drag racers were the white male working-class vehicles of choice, Mexican-Americans proceeded in the opposite direction and created the lowrider. Young Chicanos appropriated the domestic automobile – which symbolized American values of independence, freedom, and social mobility – and reinvented it for their own use. 

Lowrider customization is a form of work in which the Chicano takes a great amount of pride. As Ben Chappell writes, “Lowriders join industrial objects with craft, endowing them with new significance. With reference to Mexican-American history, the investment of a car with symbolic value and manual labor (as well as folk mechanical engineering) with prestige is a posture of resistance to a ‘community identity’ that labels Mexican-Americans as cheap labor” (637). The Chicano community demonstrates its pride not only by cruising “low and slow,” but also through participation in regional car shows and “hopping” competitions. These events provide an opportunity for the Chicano lowrider to demonstrate creativity, artistic skill, as well as technological ability. 

Dueñas Lowrider Club

While some women remain participants in conventional lowrider culture, there are others who have broken away to establish new female and family focused lowrider communities. They have appropriated many of the culture’s longstanding traditions and practices while creating new spaces for like-minded female enthusiasts. These clubs and communities have become sites for creativity, invention, friendship, and family. Of the solidarity found in the lowrider community, one member declared, “you have all the pressures of going to work, coming home, but you know with the club sisters, we find time and manage to go out; they’re a very big support system for myself. We treat each other like family.”

Whereas traditional lowrider culture was centered on the connection between fathers and sons, women have expanded the generational focus to promote not only their own participation, but most importantly, to encourage that of young girls. As a founding member of the Dueñas Club in California explained, “It’s really important that us mothers, us women, show support for our girls. It’s nice to be able to do things with your daughter that she’s also going to love. You know showing my daughter the ways, embracing the culture, the love, and just really being influenced.” Many of the girls begin their immersion into lowrider culture with bikes. As a young member remarked, “I’m involved because my mom, she’s part of the car club, and then over time, I started going with her to the car shows, bike shows, and I was thinking to myself I want one of those. You see your creation come to life, and everything that you’re planning, it just makes you feel really good.” When these young girls become adults, they often follow in their mother’s footsteps. Angel Romero, founder of the all-women’s car club Duenas, spoke of her mother’s influence. As she recalls, “Back then, we didn’t see a lot of women driving lowriders. People would joke that the lowrider was my boyfriend’s or Daddy’s ride. […] We got into this lifestyle and culture very differently from most people. It wasn’t our dad or a male role model who taught us about cars. It was our mom.”

The women who participate in lowrider culture view their vehicles not only as spectacular machines, but also as canvases on which they can express their creativity, culture, and identity. In the “Rucas y Carruchas” exhibit, for example, the collection was accompanied by photographs, videos, artwork, and personal stories written in notebooks and scribbled on scraps of paper. Personal artifacts were often strategically placed around the cars, which offered a glimpse into the lives and dreams of the women who owned them. This practice begins in girlhood; in online club photographs, bikes are often surrounded by a young girl’s important possessions. 

Women in lowrider culture are getting recognition in local and national news sources. Lowrider magazine, dubbed the movement’s “bible” by readers worldwide and is considered the source for the latest in everything lowrider, published a special edition in October 2024 dedicated to ‘women shaping the culture’ in honor of women’s history month. As noted in an article in Motor Trend, “Historically, depictions of women in Lowrider magazine were often limited to models on the hoods of cars. This limited-edition revival highlights the women behind the wheel who have fought for their place as drivers, builders, mechanics, painters, and welders in a male-dominated world.”

For generations, lowrider culture has evolved as an important site of collective and individual identity formation among Chicano fathers and sons in the southwestern United States. In the twenty-first century, women within these locations have embraced the historical, cultural, and creative components to construct new female-centered communities focused on friendship, family, and a shared passion for the iconic lowrider automobile.

Bright, Brenda. “Heart Like a Car: Hispano/Chicano Culture in Northern New Mexico.” American Ethnologist. 25.4 (1998): 583-609.

Chappell, Ben. “Lowrider Style: Cultural Politics and the Poetics of Scale” in Cultural Studies: An Anthology. Michael Ryan, ed. Malden MA: Blackwell, 2008.

Figueroa, Fernanda and Melissa Perez Winder. “Lowriding is More Than Just Cars: It’s About Family and Culture for Mexican-Americans. 15 Oct 2024. APnews.com 15 Oct 2024.

Good Morning America. “Meet the Moms and Daughters of this All-Female Lowrider Community.” 8 Feb 2024. Video.

Romero, Angel. “How an All-Women’s Lowrider Club Formed in the Heart of Silicon Valley.” 27 Sep 2024. kqed.org

Car ChicksWomen & Car WritingWomen Writing Cars

The Wheels Keep Turning

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

When in graduate school as a senior citizen, I came upon a unique opportunity to engage in an area of unexplored scholarship. While taking a class in ‘Gender, Technology, and Pop Culture’, I discovered that the subject of women and cars had not received much attention in the academic literature. I suspect part of this was generational. The late 1950s and 1960s are often considered the ‘golden age’ of car culture. Women who came of age at this time – which would include yours truly – were less cognizant of cars, and more involved with the rise of feminism. Newly engaged feminists who entered graduate school during this era no doubt had more ‘important’ issues to consider than the gender politics of automotive production, marketing, and culture. Another reason for the lack of attention to women and cars could also be due to ideology. Historically, the automobile industry and automotive culture have leaned right. Conservative scholars do not consider gender in the same way as their liberal counterparts; i.e. it is not common for those who subscribe to a right-leaning ideology to look at the world through the lens of gender. Whatever the reason, when I embarked on a master’s degree in the early 2000s, there was very little written on women and cars from either a historical or cultural perspective.

While in the master’s program at Eastern Michigan University, I submitted a paper written in class on the chick car to a well-respected academic journal. When it was accepted without any revisions whatsoever, I knew I had discovered my niche. I took every opportunity to explore the topic; on the advisement of my professors I approached class assignments with future articles in mind. As I continued to write about the subject in a variety of contexts, my goal was to contribute to the literature as often and in whatever way I could. As I was in my 60s when I made this ‘discovery’, I understood that my time to add meaningful work to the literature was limited. Thus my objective became not only to create a solid body of scholarship, but more importantly, to influence others to continue to explore and examine the subject of women and cars for future generations.

In the last few years there has been a slow and steady stream of exciting new work on women’s relationship with the automobile. The subject is being addressed in academia, the media, and in popular culture. In 2017 historian Katherine Parkin came onto the scene with her brilliant and well-researched work Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars. In the last issue of the SAH [Society of Automotive Historians] Journal, SAH member and reviewer Helen Hutchings brought attention to no less than seven books regarding women ‘in the motoring world.’ These included a number of works focused on women in motorsport, as well as historian Carla Lesh’s important contribution Wheels of Her Own and the engaging semi-autobiographical Women Behind the Wheel by journalist Nancy A. Nichols [‘Wheels’ seems to be a common theme in book titles.] I recently had the pleasure of reviewing a new book –  to be published later this year – that is a delightful and accessible addition to the small but growing women-and-car collection. What is especially meaningful to me is that my work is cited in many of these books, as well as in recent journal and online articles. While it is certainly an ego trip to see one’s name referenced in someone else’s work, I am both encouraged and honored to think that I might have inspired others to continue the research on this important but often overlooked subject matter. 

I recently turned 75. And although I still have a few projects in the works I hope to have published over the next couple of years, I don’t know how many more productive years are in my future. But I am excited by the young scholars who have found the subject matter to be as interesting and important as I, and who will continue to contribute to the literature in multiple and engaging ways for many years to come.

Auto MuseumsCar ChicksCar Culture

‘Rucas y Curruchas’ at the California Car Museum

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

During a recent trip to the west coast we made a stop at the California Car Museum in Sacramento. As one of the volunteers told us, the museum began as one individual’s collection of every early model produced by Ford. While the museum has reinvented itself over time to incorporate other makes and models in its collection, many of the original Fords remain. The collection – while inclusive – is very much a museum of place. Among the historical artifacts exists a strong undercurrent of California Car Culture.

1984 Pontiac Grand Prix

This was very evident in the special exhibit taking place during our visit. ‘Rucas y Carruchas’ is an extraordinary collection of female-owned lowriders, accompanied by photographs, videos, artwork, and numerous stories of women’s involvement in lowrider culture. The individual vehicles are spectacular, ranging from first ‘pedal’ cars and lowrider bicycles to massive 50s era Chevys and 80s Pontiacs that have been restored and reconfigured to reflect the personality and character of the owners. Each car is accompanied by a story, relating how the car was acquired, the significance of the design and décor, and the modifications added to make each vehicle one of a kind. The narratives speak of family, community, friendship, heritage, and the meaning of lowriders to the women who own them.

1954 Chevy Bel-Air

Much emphasis is made on the importance of passing down this culture to daughters, who often start off with bicycles and move on to cars after obtaining their driver’s licenses. There are videos, posters, magazine articles, clothing, and a variety of artifacts that demonstrate the vast reach of lowrider culture in the community and the importance of the vehicles to individual and cultural identity. I was extremely fortunate to have caught this exhibit while in town as it will be replaced by another at the end of the month.

The general collection of the museum includes many of the ‘usual’ female automotive references; i.e. Bertha Benz, Amelia Earhart, the selling of electric cars to women, and the contributions of automakers’ wives to company success. However, ‘Rucas y Carruchas’ brings attention to how museums with limited artifacts are often able to create exhibits – whether from their own collections or through loans from other sources – to commemorate women’s achievements or to celebrate a certain moment in women’s history, automotive or otherwise. Such special exhibits are often put together during March to commemorate Women’s History Month. The 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage [2020] was also an occasion for these notable displays, although the pandemic did postpone or reduce many of them. However, as special exhibits, the items often disappear once the ‘event’ passes; consequently, women’s contributions to automotive history remain unacknowledged and unknown.

This exhibit is also unusual in that it features the automotive involvement not only of women, but also that of women of color. Although many museums have made efforts to include notable women in automotive history in their collections, very few have endeavored to feature this important yet underrepresented group. The only other instance I encountered was at the Automotive Hall of Fame –  the spectacular “Achievement” exhibit included the contributions of African American women. As these exhibits demonstrate, although often rendered invisible, women of color have been important contributors to automotive history and culture in a number of significant ways.

1967 Chevy Impala

I was extremely lucky to come across ‘Rucas y Carruchas’ during my trip to California. Not only was it an educational and enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, but it brought attention to the importance of special exhibits as unique demonstrations of women’s unrecognized participation in automotive culture.