Which women have influenced the car industry?

Despite females’ low representation in the industry, they have played and still play a role that affects us daily. It is worth revisiting some of the trendsetters who gave us world records, wiper blades and Kevlar fibre (to name a few).

Bertha Benz

Bertha Benz Karl Benz invented the first car in 1886 and registered his patent in Germany. The public was pessimistic about his ‘horseless carriage’. Thanks to his wife’s courage, the public’s perception of the automobile changed. Bertha and her two sons drove the world’s first car the 106 km from Mannheim to Pforzheim — the first long-distance motorcar record. It was a courageous undertaking in the day and not without drama requiring improvised repairs en route.

Wilhelmine Erhardt

The early motoring scene was a male domain. In 1899, Wilhelmine Erhardt made a statement by driving one of the Eisenach factory cars with her husband from Innsbruck to Munich (a very mountainous and demanding route). In 1901 she partook in a mountain race through the Hainich mountains and narrowly missed a podium finish.

Margaret Wilcox

Wilcox (born in 1838) is regarded as one of the first female mechanical engineers and held many U.S. patents. Hailing from Chicago with its cold winters, it is no wonder she pioneered and patented the original car heating system (1893). A combustion system with warm water pipes under the vehicle floor kept things cosy.

Mary Anderson

When next you are driving in the pouring rain and using your state of the art windscreen wiper, thank one Mary Anderson. In 1903, she noticed in New York how drivers struggled in the rain. She promptly designed a windshield wiper system. The U.S. Patent Office issued her patent #743,801 for a ‘Window-cleaning device’ for automobiles ‘for removing snow, rain, and sleet from the glass in front of the motorman.’ Her device featured a lever close to the steering wheel. When used, it would activate a spring-loaded swing arm with a rubber band. Mary never made a dollar from her patent, but by 1913, the windscreen wipers were standard equipment on all automobiles.

Alice Huyler Ramsey

In 1909, the 22-year-old homemaker and mother completed a 6,000 km journey from Manhattan (New York) to San Francisco (California) — in a four-cylinder, 21 kW Maxwell DA. Alice also founded and chaired the original ‘Women’s Motoring Club’ in the United States.

Florence Lawrence

Floraence Lawrence Born in 1886, Florence was an actor and car fanatic. She was also the first person to come up with the idea of using manually operated flags on either side of her car to indicate her intention to turn (elementary turn indicators). Florence also used a ‘stop’ sign from her car window to show that she was about to slow down. She never patented any of these inventions but left the motoring world a critical safety legacy.

Clärenore Stinnes

Clärenore Stinnes (born in 1901) believed that men and women are equal. She told a journalist, ‘We’re not better, but at least as good.’ At the age of 26, she started an attempt to circumvent the world in a car. She took 25 months to drive 46,758 km through 23 countries — through heat, ice and mud and with no petrol stations or road maps. Clärenore drove her 25 kW Adler Standard from Germany to the east: the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Gobi Desert, China, Japan, over the Andes and across the USA. She then sailed back to Europe.

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr An Austrian-born (1914) American actor and inventor, she and George Antheil developed a radio guidance system in the 1930s that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping. The U.S. Navy only adopted the technology in the 1960s. We use the principles of her wartime invention in our cars with Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi. Hedy’s discovery led to her induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Gladys West

Few of us realise that our car GPS is exact due to Gladys West’s impressive work in the 1950s. An African American mathematician, she worked for the United States Naval Weapons Laboratory. Her computations helped decide the precise location of satellites, and now, thanks to her, we can navigate easily.

Stephanie Kwolek

In 1968, the German Patent Office received a patent application named ‘Compound and fibres or threads made thereof.’ Today, we use Stephanie Kwolek’s invention (a super-fibre) in car construction and space travel. She worked at DuPont in Buffalo (New York), researching fibre for car tyres when she made the discovery. Her study involved manipulating strands of carbon-based molecules to form larger molecules (polymers). Carbon fibre was born — five times stronger than steel, fire-resistant and stable (especially important in high-performance tyres). Carbon fibre reinforced tyres run quiet, are light and feature high dimensional stability.

Lella Lombardi

The only woman to have scored championship points in the apex of motorsport — Formula 1 — is Lella Lombardi. Born as a butcher’s daughter in Italy (1941), she drove in twelve F1 races, from 1974-76, finishing 6^th in Barcelona.

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick The most successful female U.S. race car driver hails from Wisconsin. Between 2005 and 2018, Danica Patrick competed in 116 IndyCar races (she won in Japan) and 191 NASCAR races. In 2013, she became the first woman to secure a pole position at Daytona 500.

Michelle Christensen

Christensen is the first woman to head a ‘supercar’ design team, working on Honda’s expensive NSX project. Jutta Kleinschmidt In 2001, Jutta Kleinschmidt became the first woman to win the challenging 6,600 km Paris-Dakar Race in her Mitsubishi Pajero. She has 20-years of Paris-Dakar experience, initially on a motorbike, and later she also drove for Volkswagen and BMW.

Mary Barra

Barra was the first female CEO of a global car manufacturer (General Motors).

Alicia Boler Davis

The first African-American woman to become a G.M. manufacturing plant manager was Alicia Boler Davis. Currently, she is Executive V.P. of Global Manufacturing at General Motors.

Barb Samardzich

The Ford Europe COO is Barb Samardzich.