Roofs on cars were considered "feminine" - so the car industry rejected them

No I'm not making this stuff up!

It has been very hot in large parts of England this week. Then the other evening the rain came. I was on my way back from the train station and was very happy to be in a car with a roof.

You see, we can’t take these things for granted.

YES even roofs on cars have to do with gender.

Let me tell you how:

As you know, weather is a thing. It sometimes rains and it sometimes snows. Sometimes there’s a hail storm. Or a sandstorm. Basically, if you are outside long enough stuff falls down on your head, and it’s usually not very pleasant.

At least not for long.

So, if you were creating a car, wouldn’t it be in your interest to make it with a roof?

Yes, you would think so.

BUT NO.

Professor Virginia Scharff has written about how the most significant automotive design innovation of the 1920s was the closed car. “In 1919, less than ten percent of all cars produced in the United States were enclosed models. By 1929, closed cars comprised eighty-seven percent of all cars produced in the United States and Canada” she writes.

And of course the new closed cars were a lot more practical. They were the first all year-round vehicles in a way that the open cars that had dominated the market before World War I were not. But yes, I know what you are all thinking:

-       Haven’t cars been around since the late 1800s?

-       Yes…

-       So, why did it take until the 1920s for us to make them with a roof? Did it not rain at all between 1885 and 1929?

-       Well, this is where gender comes in. You see, it was considered to be a bit “feminine” to want an enclosed car.

-       WHAT? WHY?!

-       Well, an enclosed car is kind of like a house, and the house was considered to be a “female” place so men didn’t want to drive around in something that was reminiscent of a house. Or worse, a “boudoir on wheels”.

-       You MUST be kidding me?!!

-       No, sorry.

Roofed vehicles were described in feminine and domestic terms and it scared male consumers. At least the male consumer that the American automobile industry imagined in their own head - because men did eventually come around to enclosed cars.

Professor Virginia Scharff writes: “Car makers’ assumptions about gender blinded them to the potential market for enclosed vehicles, thus delaying the industry’s effort to meet the technological challenges of producing closed cars.”

At first enclosed cars were more expensive to make. But by the early 1920s that had changed completely. But still the industry was slow to see the potential of roofs. Alfred Sloan who was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors wrote:

“For some reason or other, it took us a long time to realize that the way to keep dry in a motorcar was to keep the weather out of the car”.

Even after men started wanting closed cars, this perfectly reasonable preference was often described as HIM being henpecked by his wife.

Actually, the history of cars is full of these things. In my book Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored In An Economy Built For Men (which is coming out next week in the UK!) I write about how electric vehicles were also considered female and how this actually contributed to us building a world for petrol-driven technology.

However that’s a slightly different story.

For now, let’s just be grateful to have a roof over our heads!

Happy Thursday!

Katrine

Ps. If you want a FREE copy of Mother of Invention my editor Grace is feeling particularly generous this week. If you live in the UK and want to have a chance to win a copy just share this newsletter on Twitter tagging @wmcollinsbooks