How Automobiles Drove the Women’s Suffrage Movement

Left: Overland Automobile Company’s 1908 Roadster is the same model used by suffragists Sara Bard Field and Maria Kindberg for their 4,000 mile tour from California to D.C. in 1916. Right: The duster, circa 1920, was fitted with large pockets to hold maps and other road gear. It became a status symbol indicating the wearer owned a car. / Photo/ Frick Art and Historical Center.

Adorned with banners, “Deeds Not Words” and “No Taxation Without Representation,” the Ford Motor Company’s Model T Touring car was driven by Suffragists prospecting for votes in Nevada in July 1914. They traveled more than 3,000 miles over bumpy, desert roads. / Photo by James Kelly.

The Maxwell Car Company proposed an all-expenses-paid trip to 23-year-old Alice Ramsey of New Jersey to show that the Maxwell Briscoe Touring Car could take anyone — even a woman — across America. Ramsay and fellow suffragists drove from NYC to San Francisco in June, 1909, a trip which launched both the auto and women onto the national scene. / Photo by James Kelly.

Left: The Ford Model T Touring Car with suffragist flag. Right: The so-called Suffrage Suit (circa, 1910) was worn to protest legislation that enforced mandatory corsets and wearing hobbled skirts that severely limited movement. / Photos by James Kelly.

Left: In one of the most famous suffrage tours, in April, 1916, Nell Richardson and Alice Burke drove 10,000 miles from NYC to San Francisco and back in a car provided by Saxon Motor Car Company. The tour was to encourage support for suffrage on the Democratic, Republican and Progressive party platforms. Right: Wool flannel and fur walking suit (1916). As women’s roles changed, skirt silhouettes became straighter and masculine details such as lapels and cuffs emerged on jackets. / Photo by James Kelly.

Written on the back of this 1916 photo: “Maud Younger, seated in the far corner of the car, during one of her speaking tours.” The car is parked in front of a library in Wyoming. / Photo Courtesy of the National Woman’s Party Collection, Washington, D.C.

JUST ABOUT a month ago, Saudi Arabia issued its first driver’s licenses to women and lifted a ban on female drivers, giving them freedom to hit the road.  Coincidentally, automobiles and women’s rights in the United States—in the first quarter of the 20th century—are the subject of a new exhibition at the Frick Pittsburgh’s Car and Carriage Museum. “Driving the Disenfranchised—The Automobile’s Role in Women’s Suffrage” explores how cars became a central part of the struggle to win the right to vote.

That battle began with the first Women’s Rights Convention that took place in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. More than 70 years of activism later, in June 1919, the 19^th amendment granted citizens the right to vote, regardless of gender.

The exhibit points out that it was the introduction of affordable, mass-produced cars, such as the Ford Model T in 1908, that helped propel the women’s rights movement in the early 20^th century.  Suffragists relied on cars for both transportation and publicity, using them in parades and on tours across the country where the car became a stage for speeches. Like it did for Nell Richardson and Alice Burke who traveled from New York to San Francisco and back in their Saxon car, outfitted with flowers and “Vote for Women” banners. The car had compartments for a sewing machine, a pistol (for killing snakes) and evening gowns to wear for speeches. They crossed the country to drum up support for suffragist delegates attending the national political conventions in Chicago and St. Louis. Women drove for votes but cars also gave them the means to change their identity —leave the house, expand their geographic horizons and challenge stereotypes about their lack of mechanical know-how.

Along with historic automobiles, the exhibit highlights period fashions. Modern cars required a more modern wardrobe. The cumbersome dresses and extravagant feathered hats of the Victorian period gave way to more streamlined, functional clothing suitable for women who had broken out of the domestic sphere to become agents for political and social change.

Give a woman a car, and there’s no telling what she can accomplish. Even though it was a silly commercial jingle, I’m reminded of the world of possibilities I felt when I heard Dinah Shore sing “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.” Saudi sisters, now you’ve got a key to your kingdom. We wish you the best.

The exhibit at the Car and Carriage Museum of the Frick Pittsburgh closes Oct. 21, 2018. Hours Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and  Sunday, 10am to 5 pm; Friday, 10am to 9pm. Admission is free. 

—Janet Kelly