Taking the wheel : women and the coming of the motor age

The twentieth-century rise of the automobile collided head on with Victorian prescriptions for the proper role and place of women in society. Gender conventions cast women as too weak, dependent, and flighty to manage the fiery motored beast. Overcoming that stereotype was as difficult for women as gaining access to the vote, the professions, and education, yet their personal feats of driving in both war and peace demolished the gender barriers against their taking the road. After women proved once and for all that they could drive under the worst conditions in World War I, they adapted the automobile to their domestic roles in urban society during the 1920s. Written with flair and verve, this volume displays Scharff's erudition in social, cultural, gender, and technological history. The twentieth century rise of the automobile collided head on with Victorian prescriptions for the proper role and place of women in society. Gender conventions cast women as too weak, dependent and flighty to manage the fiery motorised beast. Written with flair and verve, this volume displays Scharff's erudition in social, cultural, gender, and technological history.

scharff Looks At Women's Struggles To Be Accepted As Drivers.

booknews

scharff's Entertaining And Erudite Look At The Gendering Of Automobility Was Originally Published In 1991 By The Free Press. Annotation C. Book News, Inc., Portland, Or (booknews.com)