Motor Girls: How Women Took the Wheel and Drove Boldly Into the Twentieth Century

Macy builds on Wheels of Change, which examined the connections between women’s rights and the mobility offered by the bicycle, as she chronicles the history of the automobile and the paths that led women to become motorists. Against a backdrop of captivating archival photographs and excerpts from periodicals, she introduces several “Motor Girls” who made strides behind the wheel. In 1909, Alice Ramsey became the first woman to drive a car across the United States; she was followed by numerous other cross-country female drivers and racers. A section on WWI demonstrates how the war necessitated that women pilot ambulances and other automobiles, further solidifying that woman could, and wanted to, drive vehicles. Using the lens of automotive history to inform a greater narrative about women’s liberation, Macy capably shows how threads of the past are intertwined. Ages 10–up. (Feb.)