March is Women’s History Month. You may not know the name of Alice Huyler Ramsey but she is a woman to be remembered. She was born in 1886, attended Vassar College, and lived in a time in the early 1900’s before the paving of roads. Although she loved horses, in 1908 her husband bought her a green Maxwell DA runabout and she quickly found a passion for driving. As a 22-year-old housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey, she entered driving endurance races and did well in them. At one event, being one of only two women in the race, she met a man who worked for Maxwell. He proposed that she take a cross country trip as a stunt to increase the female market. Having a love for driving, Ramsey accepted the offer for an all-expense paid cross country trip.
Ramsey set out from Manhattan in her Maxwell on June 9, 1909. For her and three other women, a 16-year-old friend and her two “conservative” sisters in law, it proved to be quite a summer. Only 152 of the 3800-mile coast to coast roads were paved. Knowing this, they headed west donning hats, goggles, and dress dusters in the 30-horsepower runabout that had a maximum speed of 42 mph. Along the way, Ramsey changed treadless flat tires, spark plugs, and made other repairs. Once when the car broke down, passersby shouted at the women, “Get a horse!” The ladies drove on, headed for San Francisco. They slept in the car when it got stuck in the mud and, while out west, drove through a manhunt for a killer and were later surrounded by a Native American hunting party. They got bedbugs at a motel, ate at local restaurants, and dined outside on food from general stores. They kept to their trail using flimsy maps and mostly followed landmarks and telephone poles to find towns as local onlookers watched them in awe as they rolled by. It was an adventure made of mud and dust.
On August 7, 1909, after a 59-day journey, they arrived in San Francisco. They had traveled inch by inch on a fantastic, record-breaking journey. Ramsey was now known as a pioneering woman and this was the start of her love for cross country motoring. She continued with many more trips, including in the Swiss Alps, until her death in 1983. Alice loved to drive!
Before this time, the myth was that women were incapable of driving and taking care of cars. If you are a woman and are driving today, thank Alice Ramsey for leading the way for you to do so. You might not think that her journey was a huge achievement but can you imagine today if you were asked to drive at top speed of 42 mph to California on dirt roads? No AAA calls, no GPS, and no AC – only open air and lots of dust!
Since Alice Ramsey’s 1909 groundbreaking trip, women have taken to operating not only cars but trucks, 16 wheelers, ambulances, firetrucks, cranes, planes, tanks, and ships. There is no limit to the power of a woman behind the wheel. Little did Alice Ramsey know that by her love of driving, she would break the glass ceiling (in this case glass windshield) for women behind the wheel.
Before her death, Alice Ramsey in 1960 was named the First Lady of Automotive Travel by the Automotive Manufacturers Association. And, she was the first woman to be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
There are many women that have followed their passion to open the doors for others to follow. Be it politics, medicine, inventions, finance, athletics, or writing, by their pain and struggle, they have cleared the road for women to become who they are and who they can be. There are so many women to be remembered as being the first. For example, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the US to be granted an MD degree in 1849. Turned away from multiple medical schools, she obtained entry by disguising herself as a man. “It was to my mind a moral crusade,” she wrote at the time. “It must be pursued in the light of day, and with public sanction, in order to accomplish its end.” Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African American woman in the US to earn an MD degree. For eight years, she practiced as a nurse then completed her medical education at the New England Female Medical College in Boston in 1864. She said, “I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the suffering of others.”
Other “first” women:
Joan Benoit – Athlete, coach
First Olympic Women’s marathon champion – 1984
Sarah Breedlove/Madam C. J. Walker – African American entrepreneur,
Political, social activist. Developed line of hair products for black women
First woman to become a self-made millionaire in the US – 1905
Gwendolyn Brooks – Poet, author, teacher
First African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry – 1950
Elizabeth Sutliff Dufler – New Jersey freed black slave, landowner, successful businesswoman, entrepreneur, and founder of the second-largest clay company in the nation
First person to realize the value of clay in Little Ferry, New Jersey – 1847
Aretha Franklin – Singer, songwriter, pianist, “Queen of Soul”
First woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – 1987
Katharine Graham – Newspaper publisher, business executive
First woman to become a Fortune 500 CEO – The Washington Post – 1972
Helen Hayes – Actress, advocate, honored with a US postage stamp
First woman to win the EGOT award – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony – 1977
Helen Keller – Author, disability rights and political advocate
First deaf and blind person to receive a BA degree – Radcliffe – 1904
Patsy Mink – Politician, “equal pay for equal work” activist
First woman of color elected to US Congress – 1965
Toni Morrison – Writer, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
First African American woman to win a Nobel Prize in literature – 1993
Pauli Murray – Civil rights activist, gender equality “Jane Crow” advocate,
lawyer, priest, legal trailblazer, and author (read about her!)
First African American to earn a Doctor of the Science of Law – Yale – 1965
First African American woman to be ordained an Episcopal Priest – 1977
Jeannette Rankin – Politician, women’s rights advocate
First woman to hold a federal office in the US House of Representatives – 1916
Katherine Switzer – Athlete, author, women’s advocate, television commentator
First woman to run the Boston Marathon – 1967
Harriet Tubman – A true shero, escaped slave, abolitionist, political activist,
suffragette and so much more
First woman to lead a major military operation in the US in the Civil War – 1863
So, ladies start your engines. You may be or may have been the “first” to do something, in the world or in your family. Think about it. We bet you were!
Delight in Women’s History Month 2022
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.” – Maya Angelou
This blog is dedicated to everyone offering humanitarian assistance to those fleeing and those remaining in Ukraine today. We salute your heroism.
