Women Behind the Wheel

     For well over a century the automobile has been much more than a means of getting from one place to another. Those who market them tap into people's yearnings,  for status, prestige, adventures, and other such intangibles and play on them, often trapping them into transactions that are not in their best interests.

     In her Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car Nancy A. Nichols describes the more gendered aspects of American car culture. Some of the topics she covers are:

*how cars almost from the start redefined courtship rituals and provided a new venue for sex;

*how advertisers struggled with the challenge of making cars appealing to women without making them seem less manly to guys;

 *how men were pitched driving for excitement and speed, but women were pitched driving for domesticity. "'Despite changes in form, style, and cargo space over the past 60 years,' Lezotte concludes, 'the function of the woman's car has remained the same. And that is to firmly reinforce women's gendered roles as wife and mother. '"

     If you're concerned about the roles of cars and the automotive industry in women's lives Women Behind the Wheel would make a great addition to your summer reading list."

On this summer solstice Eugene and I did a 9 hour road trip. We covered a lot of miles, stopped at a few yard sales, and saw a beautiful young deer 🦌. 

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene. 

Jules Hathaway 

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