Spotlight on the contribution of women in motoring: 7 incredible women you should know about
20th Feb 2026
Celebrating International Women’s Day
Throughout March, Haynes Motor Museum is celebrating International Women’s Day with Enthusiast Talks spotlighting seven influential women in motoring history.
Social history lovers and enthusiasts can discover some of the incredible women who proved that pioneering in the automotive world was not only for men. Every Wednesday in March, visitors can join our volunteers for informal walk and talks starting from Museum Reception at 11:30am and 2pm. Here are the women who will be showcased.
Here are seven incredible women in motoring you should know about.
1) Bertha Benz embarked on the first ever automotive road trip in 1888
Bertha was born in 1849 as the third of nine children. Her parents believed in education and sent her to school. She met engineer Karl Benz in 1869 and invested her dowry in his business. Karl Benz designed the Motorwagen, which was patented in 1886, but associates were not convinced of its success.
To dispel the doubters and encourage her husband, in August 1888 Bertha Benz drove 106 km with her two sons. In doing so, she proved the roadworthy ability of the car and ultimately fuelled the success of the first motorcar.
2) Margaret Wilcox filed the patent for the car heater in 1893
Margaret was a prolific inventor, but it was illegal for a woman to file patents, so her earlier ideas were patented by her husband. Her heating idea was originally for railway carriages and later adapted for cars. It was first introduced by Ford in 1929.
There are various examples of these heaters in Haynes Motor Museum, including the 1937 Oldsmobile, 1940 Buick, 1950 Rover P4, 1954 Austin Somerset and Sunbeam Talbot, and 1957 Austin A35.
3) Mary Anderson pioneered and patented the windscreen wiper in 1903
Mary was born in 1866 in Alabama and became a successful entrepreneur in real estate and cattle farming. She observed a tram driver in New York having to get out to clean the windscreen, which led her to design a lever operated blade – the windscreen wiper.
Contemporary car manufacturers did not see the idea as commercially viable. Her patent expired in 1920, but shortly afterwards cars were produced with windscreen wipers. These were factory fitted to Cadillacs from 1922. We have examples including a 1931 Cadillac and Duesenberg, 1934 Ford Model A and 1939 Delahaye.
4) Florence Lawrence invented the turn signal and the brake signal in 1914
Florence was born in Ontario in 1886. She had a successful acting career and later went on to own her own cosmetics business. Alongside her career, she and her mother were brilliant inventors, and Florence eventually became president of her mother’s company, Bridgwood Manufacturing. In 1917, her mother invented and patented a type of windshield wiper.
Florence was also an enthusiastic motorist and bought her first car in 1913. Her ingenuity led to the creation of the first car turn signal, known as the auto signaling arm, as well as a brake signal operated by the footbrake. Unfortunately, these inventions were not patented, so she never made any money from them.
Trafficators can be seen on the Museum’s 1934 Morris 10/4 and Ford Model A, 1935 Morris Minor van, 1937 Oldsmobile and Lagonda, 1938 Morris 8, and 1939 Delahaye.
5) Pat Moss Carlsson proved that women can compete as a rally driver
Pat Moss, younger sister of Stirling Moss, was born in 1934 to two motorsport parents. When she was 18, her boyfriend, Stirling’s manager, introduced her to rallying. In 1954 she competed in her own TR2, and in 1955 she switched to driving for MG.
In 1955 she took part in the Tulip Rally driving an MG Magnette. In 1958 she finished 4th in the RAC Rally in a Morris Minor known as ‘Granny’. She also came 4th in the Liege-Paris-Liege Rally and won her first European Ladies title. In 1960 she won the Liege Rally, and she and her co driver Ann Wisdom beat their partners Peter Riley in a Healey 3000 and Eric Carlsson in a Saab 96.
In 1960 Pat was awarded the RAC’s Driver of the Year. The rules banning women from the Club’s banquet hall had to be suspended for her to receive the prize. A further success included her 1962 Tulip Rally win in a Mini Cooper. She later married rally driver Eric Carlsson in 1963 and joined the Saab team.
6) Suzanne Vanderbilt was a pioneer in automotive design at General Motors
Harley Earl, Head of Design at General Motors, hired Suzanne Vanderbilt as part of a group of female designers after recognising that women were playing a bigger part in buying decisions about houses and cars. They became known as ‘the Damsels of Design’ following a PR stunt from GM’s PR department.
In 1958 GM introduced the first female Auto Show, the Spring Fashion Festival of Women, where female designers shared their ideas. Innovations included a retractable seat belt, glove compartments, light up mirrors and child safety locks controllable from the driver’s seat.
Vanderbilt later became Chief Designer for Chevrolet and then Design Assistant in charge of interior soft trim for all GM lines until her retirement in 1977. Her work was especially evident in her three patents for an inflatable back support for seats, a safety switch on auto instrument panels and a motorcycle helmet design.
7) Margaret Calvert redesigned the British road sign system
In 1957 Richard Kinneir was appointed head of signs for Britain’s roads. Jock Kinneir won the commission to design the signage system for Gatwick Airport, and he hired the talented Margaret Calvert as his assistant.
In 1964 Kinneir made Calvert a partner and renamed his practice Kinneir Calvert Associates, and together they designed and implemented Britain’s road signage system. By 1965 the new system had become law, establishing the clear typography and symbols still used today.
Kinneir and Calvert also designed Rail Alphabet, the typeface that replaced Gill Sans in British Rail’s new visual identity programme coordinated by the Design Research Unit. In 1980 Kinneir Calvert Associates completed the Tyne and Wear Metro signage project, and Jock Kinneir published his book Words and Buildings: Art and Practice of Public Lettering.
In 1987 Calvert was appointed head of graphic design at the Royal College of Art, a position she held until 1991. Her 2012 typeface New Transport was adopted for the Gov.uk website, and in 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to typography and road safety.
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