On International Women’s Day we celebrate 10 women who have impacted and changed the Automotive Industry.Mary Anderson On a freezing, wet winter day around the turn of the century, Mary Anderson was riding a streetcar on a visit to New York City when she noticed that the driver could hardly see through his sleet-encrusted front windshield. Although the trolley’s front window was designed for bad-weather visibility (it was split into parts so that the driver could open it and move the snow or rain-covered section out of his line of vision) the multi-pane windshield system worked very poorly. It exposed the driver’s uncovered face and all the passengers sitting in the front of the trolley to the inclement weather, and did not improve the driver’s ability to see where they were going.Anderson began to sketch her wiper device right there on the streetcar. The prototype that worked was a set of wiper arms that were made of wood and rubber and attached to a lever near the steering wheel of the drivers’ side. When the driver pulled the lever, the spring-loaded arm was dragged across the window and back again, clearing away raindrops, snowflakes or other debris. Mary Anderson was granted a patent for her “window cleaning device for electric cars and other vehicles to remove snow, ice or sleet from the window.” Upon receiving her patent, Anderson tried to sell it to a Canadian manufacturing firm, but the company refused: The device had no practical value, it said, and therefore was not worth any money. Though mechanical windshield wipers were standard equipment in passenger cars by around 1913, Anderson never profited from the invention.Margaret WilcoxMargaret Wilcox was a mechanical engineer who was a recognized woman inventor during a time when women rarely even attended college, let alone graduated with a Mechanical Engineering Degree. In her twenties, Wilcox began working on a way to heat railway cars to make them more comfortable for workers and passengers. She was able to develop a way of moving air across the engine, where it was warmed, and then rerouted into the interior of the car. Not only did her invention make the trip more comfortable, it also kept the windows free of frost and mist, thus making transportation safer and more comfortable for the occupants. Unfortunately, her invention became a safety concern when the temperature could not be regulated. As a result the air in the vehicle would become warmer and warmer the longer the ride. Occupants would be either freezing cold if they turned the heater off, or sweltering hot. Despite these issues, Wilcox’s creation became the basis for present-day car heaters. Dorothée Pullinger Dorothée Pullinger was the daughter of car designer Thomas Pullinger, and she dreamed of following in his footsteps. In 1914, she applied to join the Institution of Automobile Engineers, but was refused because she was a woman (she was finally accepted some years later as IAE’s first female member). Pullinger went on to become the manager of Galloway Motors and championed the employment of local women, even going so far as to host an auto engineering college. At Galloway, she oversaw the development of the sleek Galloway Car, billed as a car “by ladies, for those of their own sex.” Galloway Cars were proportioned for shorter drivers and drivers in long skirts. Pullinger is also a founding member of the Women’s Engineering Society.Suzanne Vanderbilt In the mid 1950s, one visionary executive believed women could have a lasting impact on the automobile industry. Harley J. Earl, then the vice president of design at General Motors, introduced “The Damsels of Design,” a group of industrial designers. With the Corvette, “The Damsels” introduced the first retractable seat belt, and they also developed other innovations, like glove compartments and light up mirrors — features that would remain in GM cars for decades to come. However when Harley J. Earl retired in 1958, Bill Mitchell, the man who took over Earl’s position, said “No women are going to stand next to my male senior designers.” By the early ‘60s, Suzanne Vanderbilt was one of only six women working at GM. In the 1960s she developed a patent for an inflatable seatback, which allowed for a new approach in automotive back and lumbar support. GM considered her invention, but didn’t actually bring the model into production until decades later. Vanderbilt worked her way up through the ranks at GM, advancing to Chief Designer for Chevrolet and finally to Design Assistant in charge of interior soft trim for all GM lines until her retirement in 1977.Hedy Lamarr Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian American actress during MGM’s “Golden Age” who also left her mark on technology. In 1942, during the heyday of her career, Lamarr earned recognition in a field quite different from entertainment. She and her friend, the composer George Antheil, received a patent for an idea of a radio signaling device, or “Secret Communications System,” which was a means of changing radio frequencies to keep enemies from decoding messages. Originally designed to defeat the German Nazis, the system became an important step in the development of technology to maintain the security of both military communications and cellular phones and is the founding of Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth.Mary Barra Mary Barra is the CEO of General Motors and the first woman to lead one of the ‘Big Three’ automakers in the US. Barra began her career with GM in 1980 as a General Motors Institute (Kettering University) co-op student at the Pontiac Motor Division. Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain since August 2013, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development since February 2011. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide.Gladys West Dr. Gladys West earned a Masters Degree in Mathematics from Virginia State before starting her career in 1956 at the Naval Proving Ground, now called Naval Support Facility Dahlgren. She was the second African American woman hired there and one of only four African American employees in total. During her 42 years of service, Dr. West played an integral role in the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Almost everyone is impacted from her work on the GPS, as it is now on cell phones, in most cars, etc.Bertha Benz On the morning of August 5, 1888, Bertha Benz and her two oldest sons quietly left their house and unknowingly changed the world forever. While Bertha’s husband Carl lay asleep, she left a note on the kitchen table informing him that they were leaving to visit her mother in Pforzheim, Germany, some 60 miles away. The trio then entered Carl’s workshop and brought one of his Benz Patent-Motorwagens single-cylinder engines to life, embarking on what would be the first long-distance journey ever taken by automobile. Though Bertha Benz was not the inventor of the Motorwagen, she was an investor in its development. Carl Benz had completed his first Patent Motorwagen in 1885, but was struggling to market it to the public. It was Bertha’s drive that would spark interest in the Motorwagen by proving its potential as a means of personal transportation. Bertha made several repairs to the Motorwagen during the journey, using her garter to repair the ignition and a hat pin to clean a blocked fuel pipe. When the vehicle’s wooden brakes failed, Bertha asked a cobbler to install leather replacements, creating the first set of replacement brake pads. After reaching Pforzheim, Bertha notified Carl of their successful journey by telegraph. Though people were startled by the Motorwagen chugging down the road, the trip received a great deal of attention, just as Bertha had intended. Florence Lawrence Born in 1886, this old-fashioned auto enthusiast and actress is often referred to as “The First Movie Star” and was the first film actor to be named publicly. What most people don’t know is that Florence also invented two key safety components that everyone around the world recognizes and utilizes to this day. After witnessing one too many traffic accidents, and becoming increasingly frustrated by not knowing which direction the driver in front of her was going to take, Florence came up with something she called “auto-signaling arms,” which used a couple of flags on both sides of the car that could be remotely raised and lowered with the push of a button. While no one uses flags anymore, this invention has become a mandatory safety feature for auto makers the world over, and our modern interpretation of Florence’s invention is known as the “turn signal.” The other interesting invention Florence brought into fruition was a sign that flipped up in the back of the car as a warning to cars behind her that she was slowing down. The sign had the word “stop” painted on it and was triggered by the pressing of the brake pedal. In today’s world, we utilize an electronic version of this invention called brake lights. For some reason, she never patented either of these crucial inventions, and after being nearly burned to death in a studio fire in 1915, Florence withdrew from the public eye.Helene Rother Helene Rother Ackernecht was one of the first females to work as an automotive designer when she joined the interior styling staff of General Motors in Detroit in late 1942. She began her design career illustrating books. By the mid 1930s she decided to flee Germany for France with her seven-year-old daughter and began designing fashion accessories via her own studio, the Contempora Studio. By 1941, Rother and her daughter were forced to flee again after Nazi’s had overthrown France’s army. In 1942, Rother responded to a newspaper advertisement for “a designer of fashioned materials” at General Motors. She sent her already full portfolio of designs for jewelry, book illustrations, and more to GM and soon after, Harley Earl offered her a position. As part of the interior styling staff at GM, Rother specialized in upholstery colors and fabrics, lighting, door hardware and seat construction. She would help in updating the interiors for the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac divisions, pushing for more stylized and eye-catching designs. Helene Rother helped shift the standard of automotive design, post WWII, from basic and simple to elegant and unique. This focus on design and quality features helped establish a new segment in the automobile market, as the Rambler is widely acknowledged to be the first successful modern American compact car.
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