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Car Culture

No Girls Allowed!

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

As those who peruse my blogs may be aware, I am a regular reader of Jalopnik, an online publication and news website dedicated to automobiles, car culture, the automotive industry, and broader transportation topics. While there are thousands of automotive news and culture websites globally, I am particularly attracted to Jalopnik because it is young [although I am not], often irreverent, and unlike most car sites, fairly left leaning. Consequently, it provides content that appeals to a broad demographic, which includes the female car enthusiast. It also offers a lot of ideas and insights that provide fodder for this blog.

One of the common formats promoted by Jalopnik is audience participation; i.e. asking its readers to opine on or contributed to a particular topic. Earlier this month, the editors asked Jalopnik subscribers to suggest “youth-focused car programs our readers would create if they didn’t have to worry about money.” The responses included off-the-wall ideas such as ‘forklift-racing,’ but also those that were modern day updates of programs from the past. What was notable about of these ‘revival’ programs mentioned is that all were activities in which girls had historically been prohibited from participating. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to do a gendered history on these activities to see if and when they became open to young girls with an interest in cars.

The first on the list was ‘shop classes.’ Also known as industrial arts, traditional shop classes teach practical, hands-on trade skills alongside applied problem-solving. Subjects include but are not limited to woodworking and carpentry, metal working and welding, drafting and design, and auto repair and mechanics. Problem solving skills include the ability to troubleshoot structural flaws, adapt to material limitations, and make immediate, calculated decisions. Skills learned in these classes can lead students to trade and technical careers, preparing for potential apprenticeships or industrial work. More modern technical education programs often connect directly to employment in STEM fields.

Before the 1970s, shop classes were traditionally restricted to boys, while girls were steered into home economics, reflecting the gender prescriptions of the time [this was certainly my experience]. While rare individual exceptions existed depending on the school district, official segregation or strong cultural discouragement kept girls out of the industrial arts. In 1972, the passage of Title IX outlawed sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. From 1975 to 1978, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued final Title IX regulations, giving public high schools until July 1978 to fully integrate curricula, combine shop and home economics classes, and open all electives to all students.

Another program recommended by Jalopnik readers was the Soap Box Derby. For those unfamiliar, the soap box derby is a youth racing program featuring unpowered, gravity-fed cars built from scrap wood, boxes, or official kits. It was started by newspaper photographer Myron Scott in 1934, who was inspired by children racing homemade cars down the street in his native Dayton, Ohio. For decades, the derby was officially restricted to boys. Although written rules never explicitly banned girls from participating, promotional materials, local Chevrolet dealerships [Chevy was a major sponsor], and founder Scott treated it as an exclusive boys-only competition. It was only after pressure – particularly from mothers in Fayetteville, North Carolina who fought against local rules and Chevrolet – that the organization changed its rules in 1971 to allow girls to compete. The following year, 27 of the 251 champions qualifying for the derby were girls and, for the first time ever, a girl placed in the top nine. In 1975, Karen Stead became the first girl to win the American Soap Box Derby championship in what was once an all-boys sport.

The Pinewood Derby is a gravity-powered, miniature wooden car racing event hosted primarily by Scouting America [formerly the Boy Scouts of America]. The Pinewood Derby was created by Don Murphy in 1952, a Cubmaster in Manhattan Beach, California. Murphy wanted his young son, who was too young to compete in full-sized Soap Box Derby races, to experience building and racing a car. In 1955, the derby became a nationwide program of the BSA. To compete in the derby, each participant started with a Scout Shop kit containing a block of wood, four plastic wheels, and four metal axels. With guidance and help from adult mentors or parents, Cub Scouts carved, sanded, and painted cars with a 5-ounce weight limit. As an official program of the Boy Scouts of America, girls were not allowed to participate, forcing organizations such as the Girl Scouts to host their own Pinewood Derby events. Girls were not eligible to compete in the Pinewood Derby until 2018, when the BSA began admitting girls into the Cub Scout program.

Perhaps the most prominent youth automotive activity of the twentieth century was the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, an extracurricular industrial arts competition and talent pipeline run by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors from 1930 to 1968. Created as a philanthropic and public relations project, it was established to identity, train, and recruit young artistic talent, as formal automotive design degree programs were almost non-existent at the time. Over its 38-year run, the guild enrolled more than 8.7 million youths across the US and Canada, awarding millions in college scholarships. In its early years, teenage boys were challenged to handcraft 1/18 scale or ½ scale wooden models of the Napoleonic Coach, the iconic corporate logo of Fisher Body. Beginning in 1937, GM design chief Harley Earl expanded the contest to include one-of-a-kind 1/12 scale concept or ‘dream’ cars. The coach-building category was phased out by 1948, leaving futuristic car design as the program’s sole focus. Many top national winners were offered direct employment in the General Motors styling and design studios, launching careers for prominent young automotive designers and industry leaders.

Girls were never allowed into the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild program; only boys were encouraged to enter. Although the 1968 discontinuation of the program is often attributed to a “mix of shifting educational and cultural factors,” as noted by Hemmings writer Daniel Strohl, Richard Earl, Harley Earl’s grandson, “claimed the contest was discontinued specifically to prevent women and non-whites from competing.” Ruth Oldeziel, in the 1997 paper “Boys and Their Toys”, noted that the exclusion of girls from the Fisher Body program “reveals an intricate web of institutions that defined and maintained a male technical domain.” With the women’s movement and Title IX on the horizon, it can be argued that the guild anticipated the upcoming change in societal and gender mores and opted to close its doors rather than revamp its program to allow female participation.

Unlike the GM guild competition, the Ford Industrial Arts Awards Program – which began in 1949 – permitted any student in grades 7 through 12 from a vocational, trade, or public school to enter. While he majority of competitors were boys, girls routinely submitted projects and won national prizes in divisions like Printing, Mechanical Drawing, and Plastics.

While Title IX is most often referred to in conversations regarding equal opportunity and financial compensation within women’s sports, as the above auto-related examples suggest, its effect had a much broader and powerful reach. It is interesting to note that in the suggestions for youth auto-related programs from Jalopnik readers, not one mentioned gender as a qualifier. So yes, when it comes to kids and cars, perhaps we’ve come a long [but not long enough] way, baby.

Karren Stead, first female
Soap Box Derby Winner
AnnouncementsWomen & Motorsports

Published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

In 2022, I embarked on a project that focused on women who participated in autocross. At the time had just completed an article that traced the chronology of women-only racing for a collection focused on the history and politics of motor racing. While conducting research for that project, I discovered that while motorsport as a whole has been historically unwelcome to women, autocross is a notable exception. Intrigued by how women were able to negotiate membership in this traditionally masculine pastime, I decided to delve deeper into what it was about autocross that encouraged and accommodated female participation in ways the majority of motorsports do no. I therefore sought to consider the strategies women called upon to gain entry into the autocross arena, the features that attracted women to autocross in the first place, the obstacles that hindered women’s integration, and whether increased female involvement had the potential to challenge and reshape autocross culture in particular and motorsport in general.

I spent the next year interviewing female autocrossers and attending autocross events. I joined the SCCA Women on Track Facebook page to learn more about women’s unique experiences in autocross. I presented my initial findings at the Argetsinger Symposium on the Motor Racing History at Watkins Glen later that year. Then I sat down to the arduous task of putting everything together for a journal article.

Due to other things going on in my life, it took about a year to complete the first draft. I submitted it to a sports journal and it was rejected for not being a good fit. Dejected but not discouraged, I sent the article off to Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, one of the leading gender studies journals in the field. I had published an article on women and muscle cars in Frontiers about ten years prior, so I understood the parameters of the journal so was able to restructured the paper to best fit the journal’s requirements.

After about six months I received a ‘revise and resubmit’ from the publisher. While many are deflated by such a request, as someone who spent a career in advertising I am rarely taken aback when asked to revise. In my experience writing journal articles, the suggestions made by reviewers almost always improve the article. I went through two or three sets of revisions and then waited. And waited. A year passed and I was told although the article was accepted there was a holdup with the publisher. Another year passed and I finally received a proof. Today, nearly four years after the project started, “‘Without the Community, It’s Just Driving Fast Around Cones’: Autocross, Women’s Worlds, and the Reimagining of Motorsport Culture” has, at long last, been published. 

As I started in academia very late in life, my goal has been to have at least 10 articles published in peer review academic journals in my lifetime. At the age of 77, I have finally reached that goal. I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish this late in life, and I hope to continue writing about women and cars for as long as I can, whether in automotive or academic publications. But for today, I am happy that the goal I set for myself when I first entered graduate school has, at long last, been achieved. Thank you to Frontiers, and especially to the awesome autocross ladies that made this possible.

Auto IndustryEvents

The Automobile at the Museum

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

The 2026 Annual Awards Banquet of the Society of Automotive Historians was held Saturday, September 19 at the historic Durant-Dort Factory One in Flint, Michigan. Considered the birthplace of General Motors, Factory One is where visionaries William C. Durant and Josiah Dallas Dort helped put the world on wheels and Flint, Michigan on the automotive map. The restored building’s grand exhibition hall – with antique vehicles and vintage articles parked on the floor – served as a perfect venue for a gathering of automotive historians.

As both the SAH Awards Chair and organization President, I was responsible not only for ‘encouraging’ the award panel chairs to submit their decisions in time for the ceremony, but also for all the particulars of the evening, including menu, presentation slides and script, programs, and the guest speaker. The last task is the trickiest; while past banquets have included presentations on automotive icons and obscure automobiles, my goal was to choose an individual who was both an unusual but ultimately appreciated choice. Last year – my first year in this position – I inadvertently hit the jackpot. I convinced an individual from my advertising past to talk about his collection of automotive advertising art. He was a hit, so much so that he recently gave his third presentation to a sold-out crowd of former advertising art directors, photographers, and illustrators.

When my first contact for 2026 did not pan out – a former automotive clay modeler who was unavailable that weekend – I racked my brain for someone who could discuss an aspect of automotive history unfamiliar to those in attendance. I remembered meeting Shelley Selim, the Detroit Institute of Arts Mort Harris Curator of Automotive, Industrial, and Decorative Art, at a book signing last year. I approached her about presenting to a group that most likely appreciated cars more than art, and she graciously accepted.

As someone who has a BFA in art as well as an interest in both automotive and art history, I found Shelley’s presentation – ‘Automotive Design at the Detroit Institute of Arts’ – to be fascinating. She began with a short history of the automobile in America’s art museums, moved on to past exhibits in the DIA, and followed with many examples of automotive illustration now in the museum’s collection. She concluded by alerting the audience to two exhibitions of automotive design scheduled to take place at the DIA within the next three years. Shelley’s presentation was informative, visually interesting, and accessible to a group somewhat unfamiliar with the subject matter.

Shelley also informed the audience that the DIA is actively collecting studio renderings for exhibition and preservation at the museum. Although a foundational gift provided most of the current examples, building the collection is a number one priority. She noted that in addition to storing the artifacts in accordance with the best standards in the industry, the museum will also be mounting temporary exhibitions and every piece acquired will be catalogued, photographed, and viewable on the DIA website. She encouraged those in attendance interested in contributing work to the collection to contact her for preservation instructions and information.

Although I was worried about the speaker’s reception at the banquet, I received much positive feedback from the guests in attendance. I was pleased – and relieved – that my unusual speaker choice was well received. I can’t thank Shelley enough for taking on the challenge of presenting to an assembly of automotive geeks. And as someone who resides in southeastern Michigan, I look forward to visiting the automotive illustration exhibits she will curate at the DIA in the not too distant future.

Photos courtesy of Victoria Mobley

Car Stories

Women’s Truck Stories

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

Many of my women and car projects have involved interviewing women about their relationship with cars. While the interviews include a set of pre-planned questions, I also encourage women to go off script and tell a story about the car that has particular meaning  to them. As noted in earlier blogs, the answers are often influenced by the type of car a woman has parked in her driveway. Muscle car stories are often steeped in nostalgia, whereas chick car stories are filled with joy. The stories that evolved from conversations with pickup truck owners were often focused on what the vehicle allowed the women to do, and what driving a pickup allowed them to be.

Unlike the chick car and muscle car, the pickup is a vehicle with a purpose. It was originally developed as a mechanized workhorse to assist in the performance of daily tasks on the ranch, the farm, construction site, or small business. As auto journalist Lukach writes, ‘Unlike more frivolous automobiles that gained their notoriety by being faster, fancier, or more exotic, the pickup truck had to prove itself to a potential buyer as capable of enduring hard work’ (1998: 109). Many of the stories told reflected the pickup’s value as an important partner in getting something done. Darci tells of driving her Nissan Frontier to her boyfriend’s tree farm during a cold December. As she recalled, ‘there was quite a bit of snow up there. But we ended up taking it up there, four wheeling, and got our Christmas tree. And that was pretty cool.’ Rebecca built her ‘dream monster truck’ from the ground up. As she noted, ‘I took that thing everywhere, I took it through the mud, and the mountains, the desert, everywhere.’ The truck became the vehicle that allowed her to go places and do things that were not remotely possible in a minivan or family sedan. Behind the wheel of her F-150, work became an adventure; it was the 20,000 ‘toy’ hauler used not only for work but ‘to go have fun.’ 

Although the pickup assisted women in their work, they also relied on it for adventure and good times. Many of the participants engaged in recreational activities that required the transport of equipment or livestock. Dirt bikes, motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, campers, outdoor gear, kayaks and classic cars are just a few of the ‘toys’ that can be found in the bed of a truck or pulled along behind it. Kirsten shared a love of trucks with her brother; together they ‘liked to take our old Ford pickups out in the mud.’ While Kristen valued her F-150’s ability to haul and transport things, she also appreciated its function as an ‘off road mud toy.’ Stacey would concur; as she exclaimed the Ford F-150 FX4 Supercrew  ‘has allowed me to go dirt biking, snowmobiling, help people move, and do my own landscaping.” As the women’s stories suggest, the pickup is valued as a strong and dependable workhorse. However, it is also called upon as both a means to and a source of recreation and fun.

Although the acquisition of a pickup truck is often purpose-driven, women often discovered that pickup truck ownership came with extra, often surprising, benefits. And that was changing the way not only how they were regarded by others, but by how the truck made them feel about themselves. The women told stories of how getting behind the wheel of an F-150 or Silverado or Dodge Ram caused others to think about them differently. As Brenda exclaimed, ‘I don’t feel like a mom driving it. I feel like I’m really bad driving my Ford truck.’ Jennifer related how her El Camino brings a great deal of pleasure to her life; as she remarked, ‘I enjoy the attention that it draws; you get a lot of thumbs up, and smiles, and waves.’ Of her F-150, Betty noted, ‘when I drove it, I always felt I was younger and fun.’ Women of shorter stature remarked how driving truck was a bit of an ego booster. Said Heather, ‘I’m a little person and I feel like guys take me a lot more seriously when I pull up in it; they’re like holy crap, that’s a sweet truck.’ Ronni Jo, who also describes herself as a little person, enjoys how her Ford F-350 King Ranch Dually makes her feel like ‘I am a little bigger than everyone else.’ Behind the wheel of her Dodge Dakota, states Susan, ‘I feel a bit powerful.’ In her F-150, Brenda exclaims, ‘I don’t feel quite so girly.’ And of her F-150 XLT  Heather remarks, ‘I love driving it on sunny days. I feel like, you know, it’s a head turner. So I guess it boosts my ego, sitting way up there.’

As the stories suggest, the pickup serves women in multiple and interesting ways. It is a work partner, a means to adventure and fun, and as they handle a big and bulky pickup truck skillfully and assertively on rural roads, in city traffic, or in suburban parking lots, a source of female empowerment.

Car Culture

A Street by Any Other Name

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

Jalopnik, a news and opinion website about cars, the automotive industry, racing, transportation, technology, motorcycles, and much more, recently published an article which delved into the woman whose name graces the 10 and 405 interchange in Los Angeles, California. Marilyn Jorgenson Reece was a woman of firsts. She was the first woman in California to hold a full civil engineering license, the first female resident engineer of the California Division of Highways, and the first woman assigned to design an interchange in the state. The interchange design, notes Jalopnik, was far from straightforward; “it required handling one of the most congested junctions in a city already defined by its freeways, while accommodating vehicles moving at sustained high speeds.” Female civil engineers were a rarity when Reece earned her degree from the University of Minnesota in 1948. My late aunt, who entered Southern Methodist University in 1942, was the only female in the school’s civil engineering program. Reece was rewarded for her breakthrough achievement, first by receiving the Governor’s Design Excellence Award in 1962, being recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a lifetime member, and four years following her death in 2004, becoming memorialized in the dedication of the interchange in her name – the Marilyn Jorgensen Reece Memorial Interchange.

Detroit -1976: the renaming of 12th Street to Rosa Parks Boulevard [Ms. Parks second from left]

This news story was not only interesting for its attention to the significant but little-know accomplishments of a remarkable engineering pioneer, but it also got me to wondering how many other US interchanges, highways, and city streets were named after women. The answer, which was not unexpected, is very few. Nearly three quarters of US streets honor men. Thousands of streets across the country are named after George Washington, yet the person-title streets in major cities that recognize women is less than 10%. There are a number of reasons for this roadway gender gap. For most of American history, men held public office, real estate development roles, and leadership positions. When streets, subdivisions, and towns were platted, developers and male leaders typically honored male politicians, landowners, war heroes, or family members. Secondly, society has historically recorded and celebrated the public achievements, military service, and business success primarily of men. Women’s contributions – often rooted in domestic, community, or uncredited labor – were rarely deemed “monumental” by city planners and therefore not considered as street-naming possibilities. When women did get streets named after them, it was usually as the daughters, wives, or relatives of wealthy landowners or mayors rather than for independent public achievements. My current city of residence, Ann Arbor, Michigan, was named after the founder’s wife Ann, as was the street two blocks from my house. Interestingly, it is rumored that the high number of streets seemingly named for women in San Francisco – Clementina, Ramona, Mary, and Harriet – were named after hookers. Finally, most American street networks were laid out and named permanently by the mid-twentieth century – prior to the women’s movement’s efforts to recognize female contributions – locking in the patriarchal naming conventions of those decades. 

The objective of the Feminist Street Initiative, launched by the Women’s March Foundation on the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Women’s March, is to “reclaim our streets” and “rename streets across the United States to reflect the names of those women who have earned their place in history.” The individuals considered for recognition include feminist and historical icons Dolores Huerta, Gloria Steinem, Maya Angelou, Wilma Mankiller, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sojourner Truth. In my own hometown of Detroit, Rosa Parks Boulevard is one of the only roads in the city [re]named for an influential woman. Los Angeles leads the way when it comes to streets that honor those who weren’t the wives or daughters of powerful men. No less than 30 LA thoroughfares recognize independent women who forged their own paths. Other cities – including New York and St. Louis – have named streets after historical female figures who fought for civil rights, science, or labor, as well as local pioneers or landowners who shaped their city’s history.

While it would appear difficult to name new streets or rename existing avenues to reflect the contributions of women after decades of male leadership, the Feminist Street Initiative website provides step-by-step guidance in the street naming process for those who seek to correct the gender imbalance on our nation’s roadways. The group also invites the public to contribute suggestions of noteworthy women for future street-naming initiatives.

Sojourner Truth mural in Battle Creek, Michigan

The next time you drive one of the thousands of Washington boulevards, think of how much more interesting – and memorable – it would be to turn right on a street named Truth.

Car Stories

Ode to the Minivan

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

In 1983, Lee Iococca, and his team at Chrysler, introduced the roomy, reliable, safe, and ubiquitous minivan to the world. The production of the Dodge Grand Caravan and Plymouth Voyager not only saved the flailing automotive company, but in the process created a new vehicle category – the consummate family vehicle. As Cindy Donatelli argues, the timing of the minivan introduction coincided with Ronald Reagan’s “family values” campaign, often considered a backlash against the second-wave feminist visions of the 1960s and 1970s. As a “lifestyle enabler,”[1] the minivan – purposefully and aggressively identified with women by automakers, marketers, and the media – reinforced the notion that women bear primary responsibility for housework and childcare. As such, writes Donatelli, the minivan belongs to the nineteenth and twentieth century technological developments that “define domesticity as a female regime by identifying women, rather than men, with material objects and practices in the context of the home” (90).

In the election year of 1996, the ‘soccer mom’ became an important demographic category in American politics. While the term was most often called upon to define a particular white, middle-class, female suburban voter base, it was eventually appropriated into mainstream culture to describe a woman who devotes an inordinate amount of time transporting her school-age children to a myriad of sporting events and other activities. When pictured in the media, the soccer mom was invariably found behind the wheel of a minivan, crossover, or small SUV. As Donatelli suggests, the soccer mom phenomenon was the product of “an accidental convergence of vehicle choice, children, sport, and election year politics” (92). While women drivers have long been linked to a specific type of family vehicle – e.g. the station wagon of the 1950s and 1960s and the 1970s hatchback sedan – the soccer mom era forever cemented the notion of the “woman’s car” into the public consciousness. Sturdy, spacious, safe, and utilitarian, the “woman’s car” has become synonymous with a vehicle equipped especially for carrying kids and cargo.

During the time of the minivan’s introduction, I was working at an automotive advertising agency working on the Buick account. While I recognized the minivan’s value to a large segment of the US population, as a childless woman working to establish herself in a career populated by overtly conservative men, I distanced myself from the implications driving such a vehicle would generate. I vowed to never, ever, own a minivan, and was able to keep that promise to myself for a number of decades. Although, at this time, I began breeding and showing dogs, I looked pass the popular vehicle to consider other choices for hauling multiple, very large dogs. Under no circumstances did I want to be associated with a vehicle that Donatelli described as “the locus of daily family life,” even when that family was canine (89).

Flash forward 30 plus years and the conversation surrounding the minivan has greatly diminished. Its popularity has been overwhelmingly surpassed by that of the ubiquitous SUV. Although there are still remnants of its ‘mom car’ reputation remaining, advertising increasingly features dad behind the wheel, a positive and affirming move that suggests both parents are equally responsible for child rearing. 

My own life has changed as well. No longer working as a full time professional, and no longer engaged in the dog show world, my dog hauling vehicle only has to accommodate two [still large] dogs. So a couple of years ago I did the unthinkable. I purchased one of the few minivans still on the market – a 2024 Kia Carnival.

It was a carefully thought-out choice. I measured the rear door opening for its ability to accommodate side-by-side cargo crates. I chose a vehicle with rear seats that could be removed to provide a flat surface for those crates. As both the dogs and are getting older, the lower floor – particularly when compared to that of an SUV – made entering easier for my senior dogs as well as my aging self. 

A recent Edmunds.com article praised the Kia not because it’s cool [which it most definitely is not] but “because it’s so darn good at most everything you’d want it to be.” And as I discovered, that includes traveling with a couple of bullmastiffs. We recently took a road trip via Milwaukee [to visit my stepson] to Minnesota to take part in the annual family gathering at the Minnesota State Fair. Although the dogs were only with us for part of the way [they were dropped off at a friend’s boarding kennel in Kenosha] they were cool and comfortable for that leg of the trip. And so were we. Although I missed the power and performance of my Golf R, I-94 does not present many opportunities for quick acceleration [0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds] or tight cornering. The Kia describes itself as a multi-purpose vehicle [MPV], which perhaps suggests it is trying to “make you forget what you are driving.” While that is stretching reality just a bit, I have finally come to terms with the notion that one is not [always] what one drives. I am happy that the minivan continues to serve such an important function for families of all shapes and sizes. And I am glad that I have – at long last -gotten over my stubborn aversion to the minivan as a practical vehicle choice.

[1] Taken from a 1994 quote by Dick Johnson, former creative director at Chrysler ad agency BBDO, cited by Cindy Donatelli (88).

Donatelli, Cindy. “Driving the Suburbs: Minivans, Gender, and Family Values.” Material History Review 54 (2001): 84-95.

Auto MuseumsCar Chicks

FIVE DRIVEN WOMEN

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

While at the Studebaker National Museum for an automotive history conference earlier this month, I had a chance to take a peek at a new special exhibit. Although the space of Five Driven Women is dominated by five magnificent automobiles, the stories of the women who owned and operated them are what, in fact, drives this groundbreaking exhibit. The five featured women originate from a variety of circumstances and called upon the automobile for a myriad of reasons. However, despite differences in wealth, status, opportunity, and fame, each understood the importance of automobility to personal goals, practice, and identity. 

Eleanora Sears, represented by a 1912 Simplex Torpedo, was well known for her accomplishments in tennis and equestrian sports. She and her Simplex, gifted to her by none other than Harold S. Vanderbilt, participated in the first national meet of the Vintage Motor Car Club of America, which brought together collectors from all over the country.  Louise Arner Boyd – the first woman to lead an expedition to an Arctic archipelago – selected the 1934 Packard Twelve 1108 Custom Convertible Sedan due to its suitability for photography fieldwork. For three months, chauffeur Percy Cameron piloted Boyd and the Packard through Poland and neighboring countries; the resulting photographs – which included Hitler propaganda posters – were incorporated into Boyd’s landmark 1937 publication, Polish Countrysides.

The Schumacher 1928 Hudson Series O Town Car

Aviator Amelia Earhart was well known for her love of cars; auto manufacturers often capitalized on Earhart’s fame to promote their automobiles. However, the 1937 Cord 812 Convertible Phaeton on display at the Studebaker was purchased by Earhart for her own use, no doubt due to its streamlined design and advanced engineering. Classic car enthusiast Margaret Dunning learned to drive at 10 years of age; she maintained her love of cars and driving throughout 103 years of living. Dunning purchased the 1930 Packard 740 Roadster in 1959; she was not only its owner but also performed the routine maintenance herself. Dunning was a great champion of automotive history; the Sloan Museum of Discovery in Flint, Michigan recognizes her many contributions.

Margaret Dunning’s 1930 Packard 740 Roadster

The 1928 Murphy-bodied Hudson on display, attributed to socialite Maribel Schumacher, represents many of the difficulties recovering women’s automotive history. Marriage, divorce, name changes, and the inability of women to purchase automobiles on their own often muddled the archival waters. In Schumacher’s case, verified ownership is further complicated by a daughter who inherited her mother’s first and last name; such inconsistencies in the archival record lead to the question of who, in fact, owned the 1928 Hudson.

The Studebaker National Museum exhibit not only presents the cars and those who drove them but also provides insight into the challenges researching women’s automotive legacies in the early twentieth century. It also touches on how wealth, or lack of it, complicated women’s choices and options in automobile purchase and use. Accompanied by artifacts, news articles, and rarely viewed photographs, Five Driven Women communicates how, despite differences in background and opportunity, early female drivers sought automobility for the opportunity and independence it promised.

Auto MuseumsConferencesEvents

Automotive History Live!

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

This past weekend the Society of Automotive Historians partnered with the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana for Automotive History Live!, two days of lectures from renowned automotive historians focused on a variety of topics from the automotive world. The event was held in conjunction with the museum’s annual Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm, a celebration of automobiles held on the beautiful grounds of the Copshaholm mansion. This was the first year of the partnership; the SAH helped to recruit speakers from its membership while the Studebaker Museum did most of the heavy lifting. The SAH tech guy in residence, Eric Monterastelli, recorded both days’ proceedings for YouTube viewing. The Friday program included seven presentations, with a wide range of subjects that included automotive mascots, the development of the hydra-matic transmission, 100 years of Bentley, Chrysler’s and Studebaker’s Three Musketeers [Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton, and Carl Breer], and a panel discussion of the Mother Roads – the Lincoln Highway, Route 66, and the Interstate Highway System. The adjoining show grounds featured the Concours d’Lemons, a tongue-in-cheek contest celebrating the un-best of the automotive world. Award categories included “Rust Belt American Junk,” “Most Dangerous,” and Best Back Seat; the judging culminated in the presentation of “Worst of Show.”

Concours d’Lemons

Saturday featured three more presentations in the auditorium while the Concours judging took place on the grand lawn. The lectures celebrated Pontiac’s 100th anniversary, automotive barn finds, and my personal favorite – “She Drives a Duesy”, an engaging exploration of how women and Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs intertwined throughout history. I visited the ACD Museum for my women in automotive museum project a couple of years ago. Presenter Madison Auten, who as archivist has provided background for many of the artifacts I reference, should be applauded for her efforts to bring attention to the unrecognized women in automotive history. The day’s events concluded with the pass and review of the Concours award winners. Spectators lined up along the estate’s stone wall to admire the beautiful motor vehicles as they drove slowly by.

Madison Auten and “She Drives a Duesy”

Many SAH members served as judges for the events. As SAH president, I was there to represent the organization and offer support when needed. Blessed with good weather, the weekend events were well organized, well attended, and offered something for everyone. Folks with a two-day ticket could visit both the Studebaker and History museums, attend the lectures, tour the Copshaholm mansion, and walk among the best and un-best automobiles on display. It was a great experience for anyone interested in automotive history; I was honored to be a small part of such an educational, accessible, and exceptional event.

Pass and Review

Car Stories

Women’s Chick Car Stories

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

Since I began talking with women about their cars more than a decade ago, I’ve collected countless automotive stories. What has struck me most is how widely those stories vary, reflecting not only the women who owned the vehicles but also the types of cars they drove. The stories attached to classic muscle cars, as I noted in an earlier post, tend to be nostalgic. Many of the women I interviewed associated these cars with a significant person, a memorable event, or a cherished moment from the past. Stories about contemporary cars, by contrast, focus less on nostalgia and more on the role the vehicle plays in everyday life. In conversations with chick car owners, most women spoke about what the car enabled them to do, how it made them feel, and how it expressed their personal identity.

Adventure in a New Beetle

The chick car – a term that became popular during the early 2000s – was in many ways a response to the vehicle historically associated with the woman driver. Sturdy, spacious, and utilitarian, the “women’s car” – the ubiquitous station wagon of the 1950s and 1960s, the 1970 hatchback sedan, the popular minivan introduced in the late 1980s, and today’s downsized SUV and crossover – was recognized as the perfect vehicle for carrying kids and cargo.

Ready for a twisty ride

However, in the late 1990s, a new type of female driver emerged. She appeared in many guises: as a young single woman making her way in the world, a married professional focused on career, or middle-aged empty nester looking forward to a more independent life. Seeking to shed their domestic identities, whether temporarily or permanently, these women embraced a car that was in no way utilitarian, but rather, small, quick, stylish, and “fun.” This vehicle became branded in many automotive circles as the “chick car.” The most common cars in this category were the Miata, MINI, and VW New Beetle.

Autocross in a Miata

When chick car owners tell stories, they are accompanied not by nostalgia, but by joy. The small, nimble cars provide automotive experiences that cannot be duplicated by a heavy, cumbersome, and practical automobile. Many of the car stories related to me told of automotive adventures: road trips in which the journey – not the destination – was the point. The chick car owners often spoke of the pleasure and excitement of navigating “twisty, fun roads” in new and exciting places, often with organizations composed of similar-minded auto aficionados. As a 49-year-old human resources officer remarked of her participation in the “Italian Job” run in Venice, California, “It’s just so much fun. I’m giggling the whole time.” Rather than calling on the automobile solely for the performance of everyday tasks on suburban thoroughfares, chick car drivers find exhilarating new uses on country highways, scenic byways, and a multitude of “curvy mountain roads.” Many of the women spoke of driving the Tail of the Dragon, a legendary 11-mile stretch located at Deals Gap on the Tennessee – North Carolina border. Famous for its challenging driving experiences, the road features dramatic switchbacks, tight curves, and steep embankments with no intersecting roads or driveways. Unaccustomed to thinking of the automobile as a road machine, many women mentioned how they enjoyed preserving these new driving moments through journals, scrapbooking, and online photo albums. A 53-year old accountant, who keeps a photo of her first drive through the Dragon as computer wallpaper, remarked, “In the picture, I’m coming out of one curve, setting up for the next, and you can see a third curve in the distance.  I have the top down, I’m wearing a fun hat, and you can my eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. A really cool picture.” 

MINI parade

Although many told stories of driving trips and tours, some found pleasure in creating stories in which the car was the star. Because the chick is car is small, stylish, and unusual, the women who own them are continually thinking of new, imaginative, and fun uses for their respective Miatas, MINIs, and New Beetles. A 55-year-old community service officer created a photo book for her 2004 Mini Cooper. Armed with a tin of chocolate chip cookies as a “reward” for participation, she and a friend would drive aimlessly “looking for interesting places to take pictures of my car.” Some the photos included: ready to be scooped-up by a back hoe, parked next to a helicopter, in a firehouse, next to a fire truck, in a restricted area military bunker (with a helicopter escort), ready to be clobbered by Western Exterminator’s “Little Man” (Western Exterminators added this picture to their employee newsletter), on a nude beach, with bathing suits hanging from the car door, with Verizon Wireless’s “Can you hear me now” guy, looking very tiny next to a live elephant, and being driven by the Chick-fil-a cow (which broke the driver’s seat). A 58-year-old technical writer “did the trick photography that every single person got into the back seat of the MINI. And the last guy, he was six foot seven, got into the passenger seat and I opened the sunroof and his head was sticking up out of it.” A 45-year-old tech teacher awarded “Bertha” – her 2011 Mini – with its own Facebook page.

Fun with a MINI

Ownership of a chick car is accompanied by experiences many women never thought possible. The stories the women tell are filled with humor, exhilaration, freedom, and fun. They disrupt the popular image of the woman driver, from one who is dutiful, serious, and cautious, to an individual who is carefree, adventurous, creative, and ultimately empowered. To the women who own them, the chick car is not merely transportation. It is transformative. 

Car Stories

My Biggest Car Mistake

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

Auto writer Logan Carter recently asked Jalopnik readers to share their most expensive automotive mistakes. He confessed that his own was purchasing his first car from a “sketchy dude” from Craigslist, only for everything to go wrong the moment the 2005 Saab cabriolet was parked in his driveway. The reader responses ranged from tales of purchasing a beater with the intention to fix it up, trusting cheap mechanics, deciding to invest in questionable upgrades on a perfectly serviceable daily driver, and “thinking I could afford that new 1985 Pontiac Fiero on my measly paycheck.” The last story hit close to home, as I found myself in a similar situation when I purchased a hot little convertible based on an attempt at coolness coupled with a rather embarrassing misunderstanding of a potential pay raise [more on that later].

My story of woe goes as follows. I had recently started my first job in advertising. I drove to work in a rusted out, 11-year-old VW Beetle that had been my trusty college commuter car. One day returning from work I discovered all of the spots in my apartment were taken; consequently, I parked my car on a Detroit street. When I went out to get in the car for work the next morning, the car was completely totaled, due to an errant [and nowhere to be found] driver. Although I got nearly half of what I paid for the VW from the insurance company, the amount was worth a lot less in the 11 year since I had purchased the car.

Faced with a conundrum of what to buy, I looked around at my co-workers’ rides. I was ultimately smitten with that of my supervisor [who happened to be Cathy Guisewite, not yet rich and famous for her self-titled comic strip], a 1975 Fiat Spider convertible in black. Having just received what I thought was a substantial raise, and wanting to emulate my cool and successful boss, I purchased the same car in fiery red. Soon afterward the troubles began.

First of all, I couldn’t afford it. When I was told by my supervisors I was “getting sixteen”, I assumed it meant my salary was being raised from ten grand to $16000 a year [which seemed like a lot to me in 1976]. Alas, what was meant was that I was receiving an additional $1600 a year, which raised my yearly salary to a whopping $11600. Those car payments were painful right from the start.

Secondly, Fiats at that time were not known for their dependability. The politically incorrect phrase attached to FIAT was “Fix It Again Tony,” intended to poke fun at the unreliability of the Italian car brand. So not only was I making significant car payments, but the car’s frequent appearances at the repair shop caused me to go into significant debt.

Finally, a convertible makes absolutely no sense in Michigan. Although I enjoyed the ease at which the top lowered [I could do it at a stoplight], the joy of wind in my hair could only be enjoyed for 3 or 4 months a year. In the winter, the car’s rear wheel drive and lowered stance made driving on snowy roads a considerable challenge. And as I didn’t have a garage, the cloth top experienced some wear and tear.

At some point, I realized my mistake and traded in the Fiat for a VW Scirocco, which continued my [interrupted] love affair with the German car maker. Proof of my dislike as well as embarrassment of the Fiat is that I never took a photo of the car or of myself driving it. The only good news is that I learned both financially and personally from my costly and rather embarrassing car-buying mistake. Although over the past 50 years I have enjoyed some vehicles more than others, I never regretted a car purchase as much as that of the 1976 Fiat Spider convertible.