In the 1950s, more and more women were driving, and car companies decided to manufacture cars that they thought would somehow meet more “feminine needs.”
Among the cars were:
- Dodge La Femme
- Chrysler La Comtesse
- Pontiac Parisienne
- Chevrolet Impala Martinique
- Cadillac Eldorado Seville Baroness
They could all be purchased in pink (and some in lavender).
The La Femme, a car marketed for “the discriminating, modern woman,” even came with its own matching pink handbag, lighter, compact, lipstick, boots, and cape, along with places to hang or store them within the car.
Most of the cars were simply regular models with femininetrim options and floral interiors, but they were often marketed as easier to drive.
Car literature was careful to point out that nothing under the hood was pink (you know, just in case it might make a husband or mechanic feel less manly to work on it).
The cars were not a success, but that didn’t stop automakers from sending literature to dealers telling them to market the pink vehicles as wildly popular. Dodge tweaked the La Femme a bit to include gold interior elements, thinking that would make it sell better. It did not.
None of the cars were made for very long, and some think that the failures of the pink “lady” models led to more gender-neutral marketing for ubiquitous-but-pricey products such as automobiles. –WTF Fun Facts
Source: “Dodge’s LaFemme is the First Automobile with A Gender – It’s Female” — Popular Mechanics
