Damsels in Design: Women Pioneers in the Automotive Industry, 1939-1959

In the mid-1950s, an innovative group of women at General Motors (dubbed the Damsels of Design by marketers) and their counterparts at Ford, Hudson, Studebaker, Packard, and Tucker changed automotive history forever. Read the untold story of the women who excelled in the Mad Men era of automobile and industrial design. Recruited by top CEOs at automotive companies, they developed many of the products we take for granted today. Learn about Helene Rother, who designed the instrument panel, hardware, and seat construction for midcentury Cadillacs; Elizabeth Thatcher Oros, the first female trained in industrial design; and discover the history behind the child safety seat latch and car doors with lights. An extraordinary story of exceptional women, Damsels in Design sheds light on those who have too long been in the shadows. AUTHOR: Constance Smith holds a bachelor of fine arts and a masters’ degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute. After joining GM’s Advanced Studio, she worked on the development ofTN LCDs. SELLING POINTS: . Profiles of mid-twentieth-century women designers who competed with men at the largest US automakers . Documents their work at General Motors, Studebaker, Hudson, and other companies between 1939 and 1959 . Some of their designs save lives, such as the child safety seat latch 425 colour and b/w images