Road to Power

Introduction Dodge's La Femme: Women and Cars

Early one sunny August morning in 1888, a 39-year-old woman slipped out of her home in Mannheim, Germany, while her husband was still sleeping. She left a note for him, and with her sons, aged 13 and 15, climbed into the family car.

Bertha Benz drove south via Heidelberg and through the Black Forest to Pforzheim, a town in southwestern Germany, to visit her mother.¹ During the trip, Bertha's car, called a Motorwagen, had a couple of problems. One was a clogged fuel line, which she fixed with a hat pin. The other was trouble with an ignition switch. She used one of her garters to solve that one.

Bertha's journey, some 194 kilometers to her mother's house and back, was the first road trip ever, and it was taken by a woman. She just happened to be the wife of Karl Benz, the engineer who patented the first internal-combustion-powered automobile. It was thanks to Bertha's financial backing that she and Karl were able found the company that later became Mercedes-Benz.

So much of the mythology surrounding cars in our era has been perpetuated by male-dominated automakers and aimed at male drivers. That's why it became a global event when Mary Barra was named chief executive officer of General Motors in December 2013. It's less known that women have played an important role in the industry's development since its earliest days—and not just as the slinky hood ornaments so often seen in car advertising. The auto's promise of individual freedom, ...