Pink Cars and Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver's Seat

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Jessica A. Brockmole

Pink Cars and Pocketbooks

How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver's Seat

Jessica A. Brockmole

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Paperback

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English

Johns Hopkins University Press
17 December 2024

Gender studies, gender groups; History of engineering & technology; Road & motor vehicles: general interest

A fascinating history of how the automotive industry and consumers battled to define what women wanted in a car.

Since the commercial introduction of the automobile, US automakers have always sought women as customers and advertised accordingly. How, then, did car culture become so masculine? In Pink Cars and Pocketbooks, Jessica Brockmole shares the untold history of women's relationship with automobiles: a journey marked by struggle, empowerment, and the relentless pursuit of independence.

This groundbreaking work explores the evolution of women's automotive participation and the cultural shifts that have redefined their roles as drivers, mechanics, and consumers. Brockmole traces the rise of gendered marketing of automobiles over the course of the twentieth century. Auto companies created ads that conformed to commonly held ideas about women's relationships with automobiles. As the century progressed, marketing to women became less informative and even more gendered: the automotive industry portrayed women as passengers, props, or reluctant drivers, interested primarily in aesthetics. And yet, by the 1970s, female drivers were communicating directly with each other, forming clubs, and teaching each other through women-focused repair manuals.

By examining market research studies, advertising archives, trade journals, women's magazines, newspapers, driving handbooks, and repair manuals, this book shows how women bought their way into the automobile and masculine car culture. Brockmole uncovers the stories of pioneering women who defied conventions, such as trailblazer Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive across the United States in 1909, and Barb Wyatt, whose contributions to automotive manuals broke new ground. Women have always been users of technology, and this book illustrates how the auto industry evolved—as well as how it chose not to evolve—in response.

By: Jessica A. Brockmole
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 19mm
ISBN: 9781421450568
ISBN 10: 1421450569
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 17 December 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

"Figures Introduction 1. Igniting Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company and the Drive to Market Women ""Good Bye, Horse!"": Women and Early Automotive Advertisin Women at Work and at the Wheel 2. Researching Finding the Consumer: Early Market Research Curtis Publishing Company Questions the Dealers: 1914 Automotive Study Curtis Asks About the Ladies: 1916 Automotive Study Motoring Women Have Their Say: 1920 and 1932 Automotive Studies 3. Marketing ""LINE Is Everything"": Dorothy Dignam and Marketing in the 30s ""All This—and Victory Too!"": Wartime Automotive Marketing 4. Selling ""What Makes Women Buy?"": Postwar Women and What They Wanted ""Milady Wants Beauty!"": The Postwar Auto Industry and What They Gave ""Show Business on Wheels"": Selling and Spectacle 5. Communicating ""Six and the Single Girl"": Selling Cars to Changing Demographics of Women ""In Woman Language"": Automotive Columns and Women's Magazines ""Women Teaching Other Women"": Maintaining, Repairing, Understanding Cars Conclusion"

Jessica A. Brockmole is a historian and independent scholar. She is the author of three novels, including Woman Enters Left and At the Edge of Summer.