automotive history Archives

Female Firsts in Automotive History

Posted on August 31, 2025September 3, 2025by 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.

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

Auto Museums

A Visit to the Dahl Auto Museum

Posted on August 23, 2025August 30, 2025by Chris Lezotte

Our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair took us home through Wisconsin where we had the opportunity to visit the Dahl Auto Museum in La Crosse. The museum was founded by the Dahl family, who have owned dealerships in the area since 1911, making them the eighth oldest Ford dealership in the country. The museum is attached to their current automotive compound, surrounded by other Dahl auto-related businesses. It is a small museum but very well executed; the exhibits are informative, attractive and well-maintained. There is a lot of historical information on the walls as well as on placards next to the automobiles. The cars are lined up pretty tightly in the museum; the staff member informed us that the 40 cars revolve as there is not enough space to put them all on the floor at once. The museum is dedicated to the history of the Dahl’s involvement with cars as well as the accompanying history of Ford Motor Company. The museum also includes an extensive collection of hood ornaments from various automotive brands.

In terms of women’s representation, it is found primarily as consumers through advertising, symbols in hood ornaments, stereotypes, and as historical markers. There is also one interesting car story attached to a pink 1957 Thunderbird convertible.

1957 Ford Thunderbird convertible, passed down from one Dahl woman to another

The car was originally purchased by Henry Dahl’s aunt Loraine in 1957 and has been in the family ever since. It resurfaced in 2013 when it was restored and presented to Andrew Dahl’s wife Jamie at her 40^thbirthday party which took place in the museum. The car is driven only in the summer; it is normally displayed in the museum during the winter months.

Another car of interest was the 1911 Ford Model T ‘Mother-in-Law’ Roadster. The car got its name due to the single spare seat added between the rear fenders. Because the seat was isolated from the passenger and driver, and completely open to the elements, it was dubbed the ‘mother-in-law’ seat, no doubt due to the back-seat drivers jokes of the time. By the 1920s the extra rear seat was repositioned into the body of the car and was thereafter known as the ‘rumble’ seat.

The hood ornament collection included the Nash Flying Lady, created especially for the 1950 Airflyte by renown pinup artist George Petty. In the creation of this ornament, Petty combined the popular Petty girl with Airflyte styling. The real life model for the hood ornament was Petty’s daughter Marjorie Petty-Macleod. As noted in Curbside Classic, ‘Nash struck a marketing coupe with Petty’s involvement, and brought some of that known Petty Girls glamour into Nash.’

Other ‘feminine’ hood ornaments in the collection included the 1920s Windswept Girl, the 1926 Butterfly Lady Swirl, the Packard Goddess of Speed, 1920s Diving Nymph, and three versions of the 1950s Cadillac Flying Lady.

The promotional materials in the museum included a number of ads for electric vehicles that featured women. Women were considered the perfect market for electric cars due to the automobile’s cleanliness, slower speed, and limited range. However, after the introduction of the internal combustion engine, women decided they too wanted to go further and faster which led to the eventual failure of electrics. Ford ads for the Thunderbird and Mustang on display also featured women as consumers and drivers.

I had made a point of visiting the Dahl on this trip. There were a number of posts during Women’s History Month which featured female automotive innovators, such as Florence Lawrence, who developed the auto signal arm extension that influenced the development of turn signals, Mary Anderson who patented the windshield wiper, Charlotte Bridgwood who improved on Anderson’s design by adding an electric component, Helen Rother, the GM designer who was the first hired in such a capacity in Detroit, and Margaret Wilcox, the original designers of the automobile heating system. Unfortunately, as I discovered, the spotlight on these industrious women was apparently limited to the month of March.

The Dahl Auto Museum was a pleasant diversion on the drive home. There are some beautiful cars, much historical information, and a very helpful and knowledgeable staff member to answer visitor questions.

Car Chicks Car Culture

Pink Cadillac

Posted on July 31, 2025August 3, 2025by 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.

Appearances Auto Museums

Speaking at the Studebaker

Posted on July 17, 2025July 25, 2025by Chris Lezotte

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting at the Studebaker Museum Speaker Series in South Bend, Indiana. The event is held once a month in the museum’s Wiekamp Auditorium. The presentation topics vary widely, often touching on both South Bend and automotive history. I was asked to speak on the rather broad topic of women and the automobile. Since I am currently working on a book project focused on women’s representation in automotive museums, I thought it would be an appropriate subject for the talk. As I was putting the presentation together, I made sure to include Studebaker artifacts whenever possible, an effort that did not go unnoticed by the audience.

There was a nice crowd in attendance, mostly seniors from the area, as well as a few fellow SAH members. Women made up a good portion of the audience, which I was surprised and pleased to see. Although I am pretty nervous in these situations, the presentation went pretty well with only a few glitches. The audience seemed interested in the topic; the women in particular asked good questions and came up to speak to me afterward. They appeared appreciative that my project focused on women, something that in the context of automobile culture they rarely experience.

I left not only relieved that the presentation was over, but also gratified that the topic resonated with so many women in attendance. This positive response served as a form of gratification that I am on the right track with this project, as well as a little encouragement to keep moving forward.

Many thanks to the Studebaker for providing me with this great opportunity to present my work.

Presentation Video.

Car Chicks Car Culture

From People’s Car to Chick Car

Posted on June 30, 2025July 3, 2025by 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.

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.

Auto Industry Women Writing Cars

A Trip to Kettering

Posted on June 5, 2025June 5, 2025by Chris Lezotte

One of my tasks after joining the Society of Automotive Historians was to form a relationship with a university with an automotive presence. The objective was to share knowledge and resources; the SAH hoped to establish a home base with a renowned Michigan based research institution to both store and share its considerable publications, records, and archives. After investigating a number of possibilities, a partnership was formed with Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. Kettering, formerly known as the General Motors Institute [GMI], prides itself as one of the country’s premier STEM institutions, ‘known around the world for educating great and successful leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, scientists, and business people.’ In return for the storage of its archives, the SAH proposed a number of educational opportunities for Kettering University students, which included funding a travel grant to conduct research at the Kettering Archives.

The first SAH/Kettering Travel-to-Collections Grant was awarded earlier this year to Jennifer Eaglin, PhD, an associate professor of history at Ohio State University. A native of Ann Arbor, Dr. Eaglin’s interest in cars came through her father. As she noted, it is hard to be from Michigan without some automotive connection. Dr. Eaglin used the grant to conduct further research for a current book project – ‘Auto Americas: An Hemispheric History of the Automobile.’ After a week at the Kettering Archives, Dr. Eaglin presented her research to a group of Kettering faculty, students, staff, and interested guests. Two SAH members, myself included, made the trip to Flint for the presentation.

Dr. Eaglin’s past projects include her first book which focused on ethanol as a source of alternative energy for Brazilian automobiles. Eaglin’s body of work moves beyond the United States to consider automobility as a collective Western hemisphere experience to incorporate all the Americas. Her research questions for this particular project include what makes the American experience collective; how did the auto industry expand in similar ways across the Americas; how did these experiences differ; how does understanding this this process explain the Western Hemisphere’s continued disproportionately heavy dependence on automobiles in the 21^st century compared to the rest of the world. While United States automobility is centered primarily on cars, Eaglin’s more expansive approach changes the focus to more universal modes of transportation such as buses and trucks.

As someone who is interested in the woman-car connection, I was especially thrilled to see that a female scholar was the initial SAH/Ketttering Travel to Collections Grant recipient [although I had nothing to do with the selection]. Although Dr Eaglin’s work is not focused on gender in any way, it is encouraging to have someone in her position conduct research that focuses on the automobile. For generations, the field of automotive history has been dominated by male scholars. As an individual who not only researches but teaches automotive history, perhaps Dr. Eaglin will inspire a new generation of scholars – young women and men – to further the practice of automotive history research.

Women & Car Advertising Women & Car Writing

Pink Cars and Pocketbooks

Posted on April 30, 2025May 15, 2025by Chris Lezotte

In the short time I spent at a Detroit automotive advertising agency, I became acutely aware of how men’s ideas of women’s automotive interest overruled any consideration of what women actually desired in a car. The women who worked in automotive advertising, as well as the women who were the target of automotive advertisers, were routinely considered lacking in automotive knowledge, unfamiliar with the driving experience, and subject to the influence of male automotive “experts.” It was assumed that the female consumer would buy the vehicles the male-dominated auto industry deemed suitable for the woman driver, and it was believed that the woman in the creative process would rely on male-directed research rather than her own car experience. George Green, a retired advertising executive who worked on the General Motors account, admits that automakers routinely “denigrated the female market,” and made little effort to learn about the woman car buyer (qtd. in Gerl & Davis 210).

Admittedly, the notion that the auto industry was complicit in the intentional disregard of women’s automotive interest was based on my own agency experience rather than any established research. While automobile advertising has been analyzed as a text – i.e. what it symbolizes, what it means, what it says about the woman driver – how that advertising came to be had never, to my knowledge, been addressed in scholarship. Until now.

In Pink Cars and Pocketbooks, historian Jessica Brockmole uncovers the multiple market studies focused on the female consumer that were overlooked and under-appreciated by the automotive industry for nearly half a century. Through her investigation into decades of advertising archives, trade journals, women’s magazines, and newspapers, Brockmole chronicles how women, dissatisfied and discouraged with how they had been repeatedly misrepresented by automotive marketers and decision makers, took it upon themselves to become more informed, experienced, and knowledgeable about cars. She relates how through the formation of women-centered car clubs, driving handbooks, and do-it-yourself repair manuals, these women ‘bought their way’ into the masculine car culture and became empowered consumers and drivers. As the author declares, because of the unwavering efforts of a determined group of female consumers, “[women] no longer have to rely on the auto industry to decide what and how much they can know about cars. They no longer have to accept how the auto industry limits their relationship with cars or defines who and what a ‘woman driver’ is” (205).

Pink Cars and Pocketbooks offers an unusual, resourceful, and never-before-told history of women’s relationship with cars. In this painstakingly researched and engagingly written work of historical scholarship, Brockmole uncovers how savvy female consumers, through the sharing of automotive knowledge, challenged gender prescriptions and took control of their own automotive futures.

If you’ve ever wondered how automakers so utterly misread women with the introduction of the Dodge La Femme, I heartily encourage you to read this book!

Brockmole, Jessica A. Pink Cars and Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver’s Seat. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025.

Gerl, Ellen J. and Craig L. Davis. “Selling Detroit on Women: ‘Woman’s Day’ and Auto Advertising, 1964-82.” Journalism History 38.4 (2013): 209-220.

Car Stories Events

Women & Car Night at the DIA

Posted on March 30, 2025March 30, 2025by Chris Lezotte

This past week I attended a lecture at the Detroit Institute of Arts which featured Nancy Nichols, author of Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car. The book is an overview of women’s automotive history through the personal car experiences of its author. Women Behind the Wheel is significant for a number of reasons. Although men have been writing about their automotive experiences for decades, women’s relationship with the car is rarely examined. Nichols’ book not only succeeds in addressing that lack, but is relatable to any women who has ever owned a car, particularly those of the baby boomer generation. Second of all, it draws attention to the longstanding gendered practices of automotive production, marketing, and ownership which reflect and perpetuate cultural attitudes regarding women and cars. In addition, automotive history is most often focused on specific automobiles and the men who built them; consequently women’s participation in automotive culture is considered less. Nichols’ well-researched manuscript contributes new knowledge through a rarely viewed female lens, and considers how the automobile has contributed to women’s lives in both empowering and dangerous ways.

Finally, as a scholar who has made the investigation of the relationship between women and cars the subject of her ‘third act,’ it has always been my hope that my work would encourage others to explore this little-explored connection in new and engaging ways. While I was pleased and honored to see some of my scholarship cited in Nichols’ book, I was also rather overwhelmed when, after introducing myself, Nancy called me out as the ‘original’ and asked to give me a hug. It was quite a thrill and as I drove home, felt perhaps that the work that I do, while in a very specific niche, does have some value.

As a journalist, editor, and former broadcaster, Nichols’ writing is both accessible and engaging. I would encourage any woman with [or without] a personal connection to cars to read Women Behind the Wheel.

Auto Museums

A Trip to Ohio

Posted on March 22, 2025March 25, 2025by Chris Lezotte

I spent an afternoon last week visiting two car museums that were very close together in location and very similar in terms of collection philosophy. The Millbury Classic Cars and Truck Museum in Millbury, Ohio, and Snook’s Dream Cars, located 26 miles south in Bowling Green, are each the offshoots of private collections passed on from father to son. While the Millbury focuses on vehicles from the 1960s and 1970s, Snook’s collection includes cars from the early auto age and prewar era. Because each assemblage of vehicles reflects the personal preferences and vision of each owner, it is not surprising that there are very few artifacts in either location that recognize women as participants in American automotive history. Fortunately, I discovered a few that made the trip to Ohio worthwhile.

The Millbury Classic Cars and Trucks Museum opened its doors in May 2024. It is a large structure consisting of three garages, each added on as the collection expanded. The museum is a family project; the owner’s mother-in-law helped with the wood staining on the walls, while his son helped locate cars to fill the collection. The museum is unique in that provenance is not a requirement for auto inclusion; in fact, the majority of the vehicles are not original but have been modified or customized in some way. Rather than rely on donations, most of the cars were acquired through auction. Because the cars were purchased rather than donated, the accompanying placards have a lot of technical information about the car, but no identification or stories of previous owners. The collection also includes a vast array of auto memorabilia, including gas pumps, signage, and toys. Replicas of movie cars are also a prime attraction.

‘Daisy Duke’ display with 1974 Plymouth Road Runner

Women’s representation in the museum is primarily as mannequins, called upon to place an automobile in a particular cultural or historical moment in time. They are part of a family in a Scooby-Do Mystery Machine-themed 1974 Chevy G10 custom van; riding in the passenger seat of a 1975 Volkswagen Bus; sitting shotgun in the 1979 Pontiac Trans Am of Smokey and the Bandit fame. The only vehicle devoted to a woman is a replica of the yellow 1974 Plymouth Road Runner driven by the fictional character Daisy Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard television series. A group of mannequins ‘for sale’ featured a dark haired woman in a racing suit, no doubt a salute to Danica Patrick.

Snook’s Dream Cars was opened in 2002 with the goal of sharing ‘cars for all ages.’ The automobiles on display are all in working condition; the museum’s on-staff mechanic gave us a short tour of the four-bay shop for maintaining collector cars within the building. The museum features a recreated 1940s era Texaco gas station, a showroom of extensive automobile memorabilia, and a car collection presented within period scenes ranging from a 1930s general store to a racetrack from the 1960s. The car collection consists of models from the 1930s, and includes coupes, convertibles, sedans, roadsters, and race cars.

Women were represented in the museum as important historical markers, such as the year in which Amelia Earhart disappeared, as well as the year in which Lyn St James became the first female rookie of the year at Indy. Two of the vehicles with female connections were a 1933 Cadillac owned by Mary Clark of the Kimberly-Clark Company, and a 1954 Kaiser-Darrin. As noted on an accompanying poster, ‘[Henry J.] Kaiser’s wife loved the look of Darrin’s sports car, and convinced her husband to go with the design for a limited production’, which suggests she had a significant amount of automotive influence over her husband.

Stereotypes of women drivers were found on the covers of automotive magazines on display, as well as assorted print advertisements in the ‘for sale’ bin. Symbolic women were also present as hood ornaments and award figures.

*Automotive Digest* cover featuring the stereotypical ‘backseat driver’

While there weren’t as many representations of women in the two Ohio museum as I had expected, I am hoping that delving deeper into the artifact origins will provide some new insight into women’s automotive history.

Auto Museums

The Hot Cars of Phoenix

Posted on February 28, 2025March 8, 2025by Chris Lezotte

While on a recent trip to Phoenix to capture some Cactus League spring training games, I made a visit to the Martin Auto Museum. The Martin Museum is located in an older strip mall, in a building that felt like it was a supermarket or discount store in a previous life. The museum features over 170 vehicles, including classic cars, hot rods, customs, and imports. It also contains a fair amount of auto memorabilia, signage, and a few antique gas pumps. The museum was founded by Mel Martin as a means to share his expanding collection and to ‘pass down his sizeable amount of knowledge to the generations that follow.’

The Martin Auto Museum is very focused on education; its website provides automotive history lesson plans for grades one through twelve. Younger grades are encouraged to create personal and family automotive histories through scrapbooking. Automotive history is incorporated into higher grade levels, with topics that include automobile types, automotive safety, the Arsenal of Democracy, the assembly line, as well as the representation of cars in song, film, art, and literature. The focus on education is clearly evident in the automobiles on display, as each is accompanied by a lengthy and often technical description of the car. While this practice allows for the dissemination of automotive knowledge, it lacks the personal stories that often accompany old cars. Consequently, the displays are somewhat sterile, as there is little opportunity for the visitor to connect to the car in a personal way. This focus on the technical rather than the personal eliminates any possibility of recognizing women’s relationship to cars. Without this social connection, the featured women in the Martin Museum exhibits are limited to famous women, women with relationships to famous men, women in motorsports, and unidentified women in photographs and film.

The woman who receives the most attention is Bertha Benz. Benz and her car, an 1886 Benz Motorwagen [replica], are featured in nearly every automotive museum I have visited. The attention is well deserved, as Benz, whose dowry financed the automotive enterprise of her husband Karl, drove the Patent-Motorwagen No. 3 on the first long-distance internal combustion engine [ICE] road trip to demonstrate the automobile’s feasibility and well as to garner publicity for Karl’s growing company. Greta Garbo is featured in two displays, as an owner [along with Mae West] of a 1930 Duesenberg Model J Torpedo Convertible as well as a 1925 Lincoln Model L. As the Lincoln placard reads, the photo ‘captures the elegance and timeless beauty of both the car and the actress.’ The conflation of characteristics of women and cars is a common promotional technique. The 1933 Buick Series 90 Limousine, formerly owned by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, is also on display. The description which accompanies the vehicle includes links to further information not only of the car, but also the lovely queen.

Popular culture connections include the custom car created for the film The Late Show which co-starred Lily Tomlin. The Cars & Stars Trivia video display features stills from famous car movies; unidentified female stars appear in scenes from American Graffiti, The Italian Job, Thelma and Louise, Fast and Furious, and Rebel Without a Cause.

The other category of women on display in the museum are partners of important or famous men. Photos of the founder’s supportive wife Sallie are found on walls and in glass cases. The female partners of rockabilly star Garlin Hackney and American ‘rodder’ Dain Gingerelli are also pictured but not always identified.

While the descriptions that accompany the cars often suffer from TMI [too much information], there were two vehicles that included no information whatsoever. Two midget cars on display had the names of what could be presumed to be the female drivers and/or crew team painted on the sides; however, there was no information about the cars or the women who raced them. Perhaps this was an exhibit in progress; however in its current state it appears as a missed opportunity to include women in the museum’s automotive history offerings.

Midget racer driven by Mary Hall and Carrie Drovo

Unlike the majority of museums, Martin visitors are invited to sit in the most of the cars which provides the opportunity to pose for photos. I found myself behind the wheel of a 1964 Ford Thunderbird convertible doing my best Thelma and Louise impression. This car is sponsored by a woman, but again, there is no information about the particular history of this vehicle so we are left to wonder about the sponsor’s connection to the car.

The vehicles in the Martin Auto Museum are varied and beautifully restored. The museum’s policy of allowing visitors to sit behind the wheel is unique among the museums I have visited. However, the lack of personal stories attached to each car misses the opportunity to connect to museum visitors in nostalgic, engaging, and meaningful ways. And perhaps more significantly, it leaves women out of the driver’s seat.