Driving? Don’t hurt yourselves ladies!

We may all be a little too used to jokes about women drivers – but it’s no surprise that they exist when in the 50’s, right up until the early 70s, cars were being sold by very sexist advertising.

We can laugh at it now, but the Daimler 104 Ladies’ Model, which had electric windows so that women didn’t have to ruin their nails, and simplified gears so that we wouldn’t get confused behind the wheel, did exist.

As did a warning film about women drivers produced by the British government, a young lady in an advert who marvelled at the Morris Mini Cooper’s winding windows cheerfully stating “I like the way it goes up and down!”, and the Cortina/Reliant Scimitar hybrid’s slogan “Men! Let There Be No Sleepless Nights If the Wife Can Drive!”

Charming.

We put up with a lot, us women drivers! Nice to know that nowadays we’re generally considered safer motorists than our male counterparts.

Labels: Daimler 104, gears, Morris Mini Cooper, motorist, wheel, women drivers