During the 1910s, 77% of electric vehicles directly appealed to female consumers. This reflected traditional gender roles and the Victorian idea of “separate spheres”, promoting the idea that women had limited mobility needs and needed safe, easily operated vehicles.
In the short term, this was a successful strategy: car manufacturers that advertised to female consumers survived much longer. One of the most well-known examples, the Detroit Electric, produced more than 13,000 cars during its lifetime and was the only major electric car producer to survive into the 1920s.
A significant shift occurred when prolific inventor Charles Kettering introduced electric starting ignition in the 1912 (petrol-powered) Cadillac. These electric starters were initially conceived as “effeminate”. But practicality won and they were introduced as a standard in the immensely popular 1919 T-Ford.
When petrol cars emulated “feminine” qualities such as windscreens and electric starters and made them appeal to both men and women, the electric was in a tough spot. It had become heavily invested in traditional gender roles that were becoming increasingly obsolete.
So, did gendered marketing doom the electric car? Not at first. Arguably, the lack of infrastructure was the biggest problem, initially, and differences in range and speed became increasingly problematic with the rise of countryside touring. Gendering came as a response to these developments.
However, gender did matter once we ask why the electric car did not exist longer. In particular, the link of electric cars to a conservative gender order helps explain why they did not bounce back despite being cheaper to operate due to falling electricity prices. Reducing technology choice to a question of gender meant that the electric lost the battle in the public imagination of what cars and mobility could become.
The most useful ‘feminine’ features were adopted
As the historian Virginia Scharff pointed out, US petrol car makers simultaneously saw that windscreens, the starting ignition, and other “feminine” additions to the car were not just good for women, but universal.
Things are now quite different: women buy half of all new cars in the US. Meanwhile, there is a widening gender gap in political attitudes towards sustainability and renewable technology, as evidenced in several studies, where sustainability is often viewed as feminine.
In this context, it is a curious irony of history that the CEO of one of the world’s leading electric car producers has been so vocal in favour of bringing back masculinity and traditional gender roles, amid a rise of what some have termed “technofascism”.
The history of electric vehicles rather illustrates that social constructions of feminine and masculine can be barriers to progress and innovation. It also poignantly shows that we do not always end up with socially optimal technology and that “tech leaders” are as unable to foresee the long-term consequences of technology choice as anyone else.
If history is any guide, innovation needs to be based on principles of universal access and inclusion. Democratic influence can help ensure that technological transitions benefit a large majority of people regardless of their gender, class or ethnicity.
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Josef Taalbi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
