AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY: Women Behind the Wheel
Nobody Drives Miss Daisy
As long ago as 1888, Bertha Benz, wife of famed German engineer Karl Benz, set out on a 66-mile journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim to road test (and draw attention to) her husband’s invention, the ‘motorwagen.’ The invention had always worked well, but Mr Benz had never pursued marketing it — and the family was facing financial ruin after investing all they had in the project. Her test drive became the first long-distance journey by automobile. In addition, during her trip, she realized the braking system did not work as well as it should; she consulted with a blacksmith to fashion what they called ‘brake linings’ — the great granddaddy of current-day brake pads and shoes. In 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route was approved as a ‘route of the industrial heritage of mankind.’
It was silent film star Florence Lawrence who, in 1914, decided drivers needed a way to let others know their intentions; she fashioned the ‘mechanical signaling arm’ and later a rudimentary brake signal — both of which have become standard safety features on vehicles worldwide. Her mother, Charlotte Bridgwood, an inventor in her own right, patented an automatic windshield wiper in 1917 — after fellow inventor Mary Anderson’s previous prototype manual wiper became too exhaustive.
Start Your Engines
Sara Christian was the first female race car driver in NASCAR history, competing at the Charlotte Speedway in June, 1949.
Helle Nice won an all-woman Grand Prix race at Autodrome de Monthery in 1929 and became known as the “Bugatti Queen” as part of Ettore Bugatti’s racing team in 1931, competing as the only female on the Grand Prix circuit for several years.
Anne Hall and her sister, Mary Newton became known as the “mad Newton sisters” for their speed and driving skills and were among the most famous female race car drivers in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, winning several races both separately and as a team.
Denise McCluggage, a sports journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, became interested in racing in the 1950s when she bought her first MG TC sports car. She took first place in the GT Category of the Sebring 12-hr in 1961 and again at the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally with a Ford Falcon. She is the only journalist included in the Automotive Hall of Fame.
Pat Moss, sister of Formula One legend Stirling Moss, is one of the most notorious female race car drivers of all time. She took first place at the European Ladies’ Rally Championship five times; the Coupe des Dames at Monte Carlo eight times and scoring Mini Cooper’s first big rally victory at the Tulip Rally of 1962.
Janet Guthrie was the first woman to compete in NASCAR Winston Cup stock car race in 1976 and first woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 in 1977. She was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006.
Lyn St James started racing in 1973. She was the first woman to win a solo North American professional road race at Watkins Glen, New York, in 1985. She was one of five women to successfully qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and the first to win the 500 Rookie of the Year award in 1992.
Michele Mouton won Rally of Spain in 1977 and Rallye Sanremo in 1981, becoming the first woman to win a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. She was Vice-champion in the 1982 FIA World Rally Championship and winner of the German Rally Championship in 1986.
Milka Duno’s second place finish in the Venezuelan GT Championship in 1996 was the beginning of her successful career in racing. She won the Miami Grand Prix in 2004, making her the first woman to win an international sports car race in North America. In 2007, she finished in second place in the 24 Hours of Daytona — the highest finish for a woman in the history of the race.
Shirley ‘Cha Cha’ Muldowney is known as the “First Lady of Drag Racing.” She was the first woman to be licensed by the National Hot Rod Association and the first to drive a top fuel dragster. She won a staggering 18 NHRA national events and retired in 2003.
Danica Patrick is one of the most popular and successful women in the history of racing. She’s the only woman to have won the Indy Japan 300 in 2008 — the only woman’s victory in an IndyCar Series race. Her third place finish in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 is the highest ever for a woman. In 2013, she became the first female NASCAR driver to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole.
Driving the Industry
Today, in addition to racing, women are driving some of our most innovative new vehicle designs.
Michelle Christensen, a self-proclaimed ‘car geek,’ became the first woman to lead a ‘supercar’ design team with the heart-stopping Acura NSX. [One, please.]
German designers Juliane Blasi and Nadya Arnaout were charged with the BMW Z-4 re-design — another spectacular car and success for the female design team.
Driving the Market…and the Future
According to Forbes Magazine contributor and CEO of The Female Factor, Bridget Brennan, women are now the world’s most prolific consumers, through a combination of buying power and influence. With a global income topping $18 trillion by 2018 and representing 80% of all consumer purchasing, millennial women are in the ‘driver’s seat’ of nearly every sales market — including automobiles. If she isn’t buying a vehicle directly, she is influencing the decision. The trend isn’t going unnoticed.
Modern trailblazers like Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors — the first female CEO of a major global automaker — are taking their business expertise, social and environmental concerns, and their understanding of millennial consumer buying trends and forcing a makeover of what was a trillion-dollar boy’s club — the automotive industry itself. Female execs like Barra are overseeing production of a new generation of socially and environmentally responsible vehicles that are safe, reliable, affordable and, of course, beautiful.
In short, Fellas, the new Gal with the corner office knows what she’s doing and, with her success, more will follow — and probably at high speed, if history is any indicator.
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