Kim Cady, assistant curator of the Car and Carriage Museum will examine the role automobiles played in furthering the cause of women’s suffrage in the United States, particularly during the Progressive Era (1890–1920). The automobile’s central role was to provide a mechanism for women’s identity—a means not only to free themselves from social and geographical limitations but also to go beyond prevailing gender stereotypes about their inherent mechanical naiveté and ineptitude. Female drivers challenged the notion that women ought to remain sequestered in the home. The automobile became an integral part of the suffragist enterprise. Serving as a stage it became the focal point of speeches and a platform for the cause. By the 1920s automobiles would be viewed as the dominant cultural emblem of women’s modernity, independence, and mobility.
