All the women of the car. It is not a slogan but the magnificent story that tells the other side of an industry that has always been considered the most masculine, and macho, of all. It is a story that began well over a century ago, with the birth of the automobile.
A story of passion, ideas and revolution. Because if the engine is invented by a man, Carl Benz with his Patent Motorwagen, it is his wife Bertha, the great supporter of the invention, thanks to the first 106-kilometer journey in 1888 from Mannheim to Pforzheim with which she managed to optimize all the (few) functions of the medium. In short, to make the journey possible. Which only a woman could do. Therefore, a decisive contribution from the beginning, even if often hidden by history. Like some great and revolutionary ideas that have made the car comfortable and suitable for technical and social evolution.
Did you know, for example, that many accessories, indispensable today, such as the heating, the rearview mirror or the windscreen wipers, have a feminine history? And that the road is also marked by a woman’s mind, to be exact that center line that divides the carriageways? The latter, a solution conceived and desired by a certain June McCarroll after a serious accident in 1917, due to a heavy vehicle that invaded the very lane she was traveling on. And to think that at first her idea was totally ignored. As well as that of Mary Anderson, when she imagined the first windshield wipers. And she who knows how many more will have ended up in the drawer, perhaps because the last word belonged to a man.
The stories we tell in this issue of “Motor” tell of just this. Together with an even more important story that concerns the heart of the automotive world. That is the industry, where the real power is concentrated. Male still in the majority, but certainly no longer male-dominated. A difficult world for a woman to climb even if in the last few years three of them have conquered the absolute top of a car manufacturer. And not just any company: Mary Barra has taken the helm of GM, the largest American manufacturer, Wang Fengying has been appointed CEO of the Chinese manufacturer Great Wall and Le Thi Tun Thuy has led, since the end of 2021, the Vinfast automotive division of Vietnamese conglomerate VinGroup. “An American, a Chinese and a Vietnamese, with the last two who have succeeded in countries historically little inclined to the pink quotas”, she says in her reportage Margherita Scursatone.
Women who open a new chapter in four-wheeled history. With them a series of top-tier managers, responsible for important brands (Linda Jackson of Peugeot, Beatrice Foucher of DS, Stefanie Wurst of Mini, Anna Gallagher of Jaguar, just to name a few) destined to leave a new mark in the industry automotive. Today more and more attentive to sustainable mobility, the environment, interior design, comfort and convenience. In short, the future will be increasingly pink. And maybe rosy.