The Women of General Motors

Contrary to popular opinion, the automotive industry is not a man’s world! Since the early days of General Motors, there have been women—known and unknown—who have had vital roles in design, engineering, manufacturing, and administration. In this follow-up to Damsels in Design, her book on women designers at GM in the 1950s, Constance Smith presents profiles of and interviews with 85 women who have steered the course of General Motors for almost 100 years. The women featured include Bonnie Lemm, the first woman design engineer at GM; Helene Rother, the first woman product designer hired by GM’s Styling Department in the 1940s; Suzanne Vanderbilt, the holder of numerous industrial design patents and the designer of the first adjustable lumbar seat supports; Mary Barra, who became GM’s chair and CEO in 2016; and many more. Meet these remarkable achievers and discover how they took on a male-dominated industry—and triumphed.