According to the Women’s World Car of the Year (WWCOTY), women influence more than 80% of new car purchases in first world countries.
It quotes Forbes Magazine as reporting that women are responsible for making 62% of new vehicle purchase in the United States of America.
WWCOTY says it is promoting June 24 as International Women Drivers’ Day to draw attention to women’s importance in the automotive world. It says with car sales at one of their lowest ebbs, women drivers may be the motor industry’s salvation.
The organisation says nearly 50% of new driving licences are issued to women in first world countries. In Germany, 42% of all licences are in the hands of women, the same as in Spain; in the Czech Republic it rises to 48%; in Canada and New Zealand, 49%; in Israel it is 45%, and in Argentina 27%.
The freedom provided by a car is also key to women’s growth in developing countries says WWCOTY.
Three years ago, on June 24 Saudi Arabia lifted the ban on women driving. The last obstacle to women’s mobility around the world was removed says WWCOTY.
WWCOTY says with a reduced market women have become the focus of attention for vehicle brands. It says women make up half of the population in most countries and can give the industry a major shot in the arm. It says connecting with women is the goal because they have not traditionally been the priority target for car manufacturers.
By promoting June 24 as International Women Drivers’ Day, WWCOTY wants women to regain the prominence they had in the early history of the car.
It says mirrors would not exist if Dorothy Levitt (1882-1922) had not used the mirror of her compact to see the cars following her at the beginning of the 20th century; roads would not have dividing lines if June McCarroll (1867-1954), had not been obsessed with reducing road deaths.
According to WWCOTY, we would all have to carry blankets on board if Margaret Wilcox had not come up with a heating system for the automobile and patented it in 1893; and the accident rate would be much higher if another inventor, Florence Lawrence (1886-1938) had not designed the first direction indicators. It says the first person to get behind the wheel of a car was Bertha Benz.
