AskUs: Bibliographies

Women and the Automobile Bibliography

This bibliography was compiled by staff of the Benson Ford Research Center’s Archives and Library Department based on materials in our collections. If you have questions about these resources, please use our Submit a Question feature. If you are interested in duplication, please see our Duplication Resources FAQ. Please also see bibliographies for: Women in Racing, Women Automotive Designers, Ford Motor Company Women Workers.

Archival

• Acc. 951 Ford Motor Company Non-Serial Publications Collection
  • box 28 The Lady and Her Motor Car
  • box 54 The Woman and the Ford
     
• Acc. 1764 Henry Austin Clark Jr. Papers
  • box 22
    • Women’s Crusade for Seat Belts: Press Releases and Crusade Planning Guide, 1963-1964
    • Woman Driver Consultant for National Cooling System Maintenance Week, undated
       
• R.C. 40 Scrapbook Collection
  • box 9 "My Florida Vacation," Jennifer Varcak
• Acc. 2013.151 John Margolies Roadside America Collection
  • box 5 Travel Log of a Coast-to-Coast Automobile Round-Trip, July 9-August 13, 1935
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• Acc. 175 Automotive Product Literature
  • Includes sales brochures and materials specifically tailored for women buyers
  • Examples
    • Lincoln, 1940 – Lincoln Continental "Motor Diary of a Modern Woman...With a Happy Ending"
    • Ford.1932-1933 “Dash and Spirit--Beauty And Good Taste For The Woman Motorist"
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• Acc. 657 Automotive Non-Ford Advertisements
  • Includes advertisements specifically tailored for women buyers
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• Acc. 19 Ford Motor Company Advertisement Collection
  • Includes advertisements specifically tailored for women buyers
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• Acc. 285 Henry Ford Office Papers
  • box 46 B20 H-I25 (includes Hugh Baird, Seattle dealer, re: saleswomen), 1922
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• Acc. 6 Edsel B Ford Office Papers
  • box 298  B (includes Mrs. J. A. Battle, “only woman Ford dealer”), 1936

Trade Catalogs

• Standard Sales Presentation: The Woman Buyer. Dodge Brothers, Inc.
  • P.B. 1927
     
• Car Talk in a Woman's Language: The Inside Story About your Car and its Engine, Written by Women Expressly for Women! Champion Spark Plug 
  • P.B. 1956
     
• Automobile Instruction for Men and Women. Young Men's Christian Association 
  • P.B. 1924
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• Automobile Garments and Requisites: Imported and Domestic Models for Men and Women. Saks & Company
  • P.B. 1904
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• Tire Talk for Women. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
  • P.B. 1968

Periodicals

• Ford Dealer Magazine. May-June 1966. (Issue is devoted to women and how to sell to women.)

Ford News

• Popularity of Model A among women. 8:11:83:2-3
• Wealthy Indian women with her 7 Ford cars, 21:1:26:1-2
• In the News: Trio of Women Tour.... 13:11:210:1
• French Women Drive Smartly (Fashion design), 17:7:10:1-2
• Pictures Of The Month (Caravan of De Luxe types driven by women), 11:14:2:1-2
• Accent on June (Driving fashion for women), 17:6:10:1-2
• A Chat With Women Drivers: The Turning Point, 18:1:11:1-2
• A Chat With Women Drivers 18:3:56:1-3
• A Chat With Women Drivers: Car Economy, 17:8:7:1-3
• A Chat With Women Drivers: Keeping Your Car Young, 17:10:203:1-3
• "We Hopped From Bike To Automobile."..(Popularity with women), 18:2:37+:1-2
• Why Women Prefer The Ford V-8, 14:2:22:1-4
• Before You Tell Your Husband How To Drive (Women's influence), 17:7:11:1-3
• Number of women drivers in Connecticut, 3:20F:4:4, 4:14L:4:4
• Annual Field Day of Women's Safe Drivers' School, 10:11:122:1-3
• Women appreciate our Courteous Service, 10:14:165:2
• "Who says a woman doesn't know her own mind" Ford V-8 for 1940, 20:1:24:1-3
• Sketch of a woman thinking about a Ford car, 18:11:241:1-2
• Beauty By The Way, 18:6:140:1-2
• Custom Built for the Ford V-8, 15:4:79:1-2
• Dress Your Car For Summer Driving With Genuine Ford Accessories, 17:6:23:1-3
• Enter, Madam! The De Luxe Ford V-8 For 1938, 18:5:120:1-2
• Milady and Her Car, 11:12:supp.: 1-2
• The Quaker City Ladies' Motor Club, 12:4:11: 1-2
• Almost Press Time (Letter to Henry Ford about oldest woman driver), 20:6: 142:2
• Congresswoman Drives Her Ford, 1:11F:J:2-3, 2:5L:5:2-3
• Prominent Woman Gets Fordor, 8:21:198:2-3
• Snapshot of Ford Folks (World's smallest woman owns Ford V-8), 16:11:210:4

Ford Rouge News

• How Not to Get Out of a Car, 2(26) Dec 20 '47. Supp.

Vertical File

• Automobile Industry and Trade / Automobiles / Women
• Dealers / Women

Books

• The Passenger Car Industry: Report of a Survey Made by Charles Coolidge Parlin, Manager, and Fred Bremier, Assistant, Commercial Research Division, The Curtis Publishing Company. (Chapter VI: Increasing Ownership and Use of Motor Cars by Women.)
  • 338.4 C981 1932 (REF)
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• The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor. Levitt, Dorothy.; Byng-Hall, C.
  • 629.283 L666 1909
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• A Woman and Her Car. De Roulf, Patty
  • 629.28 D278, 1974
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• Woman and Her Car. Henslowe, Leonard
  • 629.28 H526 1914
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• Woman and the Motor Car: Being the Autobiography of an Automobilist. Aria, Mrs. (Eliza Davis)\
  • 629.2 A696 1906
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• A Reliable Car and a Woman Who Knows It: The First Coast-to-Coast Auto Trips by Women,1899-1916. McConnell, Curt
  • 796.7 M129 2000
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• The Mystery of a Motor-car: Being the Secret of a Woman's Life. Le Queux, William
  • 823 L433, 1906
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• A Woman's World Tour in a Motor. Fisher, Harriet White
  • 910.41 F533 1911
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• Eat My Dust: Early Women Motorists. Clarsen, Georgine
  • 388.342 C613 2008
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• America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled. Roberson, Blythe
  • 917.304 R649 2023
     
• Veil, Duster and Tire Iron. Ramsey, Alice Huyler
  • 917.3 R183 1961
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• Aloha Wanderwell Call to Adventure: True Tales of the Wanderwell Expedition, First Woman to Circle the World in an Automobile. Baker, Aloha Wanderwell.; Hall, Idris Galcia
  • 910.41 B167 2016
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• Driving Women: Fiction and Automobile Culture in Twentieth-century America. Clarke, Debroah
  • 813.509355 C597 2007
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• Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age. Scharff, Virginia
  • 305.42 S311 1991
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• Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car. Nichols, Nancy A.
  • 303.4832 N621 2024
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• Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars. Parkin, Katherine J.
  • 629.28 P247, 2017
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• Pink Cars and Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver's Seat. Brockmole, Jessica
  • 381 B864 2025
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• What Every Woman Should Know About an Automobile. Eaton, Hunter
  • 629.222 E14, 1932
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• Lyn St. James's Car Owner's Manual for Women. St. James, Lyn
  • 629.28 S143 1984
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• How to Love the Car in Your Life. Ford, Anne; Ford, Charlotte
  • 629.28422 F699 1980
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• The Greasy Thumb Automechanics Manual for Women. Wyatt, Barb.; Zolot, Julie
  • 629.287 W975 1976
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• Life on the Line: One Woman's Tale of Work, Sweat, and Survival. De Santis, Solange
  • 331.48292 D278 1999
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• Feminism in the Labor Movement: Women and the United Auto Workers, 1935-1975. Gabin, Nancy Felice
  •  331.48292 G113 1990