What do women want?  Carmakers have been echoing Dr. Freud’s question for half a century—ever since the electric starter eliminated brute strength as a driving prerequisite and gave women the freedom to motor around easily.

Between then and now, automotive designers have come up with some downright goofy answers. In 1955, for instance, Dodge rolled out its first production vehicle aimed exclusively at the women’s market, La Femme. Essentially a Dodge Royal Lancer in drag, La Femme came in “heather rose” (that’s pink to you and me) with a special jacquard interior. One compartment on the driver’s side contained a “stylish rain cape,” hat and umbrella in a matching pattern. Another held a “stunning shoulder bag” in soft rose, complete with compact and lipstick.

We can laugh at La Femme now, and apparently women in the ’50s did, too. The car tanked in less than two years. But the question of what women want nags automakers even more urgently these days. Women now account for more than 57 percent of car purchases and influence 80 percent of all vehicle purchases. Carmakers can’t afford to ignore numbers like those, and they’ve responded by hiring and listening to more women.

Designing Women

“There’s definitely a greater representation of women in positions of design responsibility,” says Noelle Schiffer, vice president of marketing for the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association and co-chair of the marketing committee for the Automotive Women’s Alliance, a networking and support organization for industry professionals.

She’s quick to add, however, that women are still underrepresented in automotive engineering for a variety of educational and economic reasons. Currently, women account for about 13 percent of the design-related professionals.

Despite their relatively small numbers, women designers have made a big impact. A few years ago, for example, Liz Wetzel became General Motors’ first chief designer, responsible for Buick’s sport-utility vehicle-minivan crossover, the Rendezvous. She brought a young mother’s perspective to her job, redrawing the original plans to include a column-mounted shifter and center console with lots of storage space. She also insisted on a lightweight liftgate and a lower ground clearance to allow more graceful entry and exit.

“More and more,” Wetzel says, “we are bringing the voices of women consumers into the mix.”

Defining the Markets

As one sign of enlightenment, carmakers have come to the realization that there really isn’t a “women’s market.” In fact, there are lots of women’s markets, defined by age, income, family status, geographic region and a host of other factors.

“The real question is how do people use their cars?” says Dave Reuter of the Ford Motor Company. “How does design reflect different experiences or needs in life?”

According to Reuter, many people are surprised to learn that 60 percent of Mustang V-6 buyers are women. Whereas more men opt for the muscle-car appeal of the V-8, he says, women like the less-powerful version because it’s “fast, fun and, above all, affordable.” Similarly, 70 percent of the principal buyers of the Chevrolet Cavalier coupe are women.

What’s Inside Counts

Although such market segmentation makes generalizations dangerous, women probably have had the greatest influence on interior design. Women seem particularly conscious of their driving environment, and that attention shows up not in “richly textured jacquard fabrics” but in eminently practical considerations, such as seat adjustability.

“I’m five foot four, so my team kept teasing me that I was designing the Explorer just for me,” says Elizabeth Johnson, ergonomics engineer at Ford. “But a lot of things I like, other people will like, too.” That means a driver’s seat with more travel fore-and-aft, adjustable safety belts, lower running boards, and grab handles on the roof pillars instead of overhead, where they’re easier to reach.

Sometimes the woman’s touch shows up as subtler but thoughtful details. For example, the mothers on Ford’s minivan design team complained that the bright dome light woke up their kids sleeping in the back seat whenever they opened the door at night. They solved the problem by replacing the harsh overhead light with dimmer footlights, similar to the lighting along movie theater aisles. The change shows up on later-model Windstars and will carry over to its replacement, the Freestar. Women also insisted on more storage space, including map pockets galore on the doors to hold CDs, kids’ video games and lots of other stuff besides maps.

In addition to a practical interior, safety drives many women’s purchases. It accounts for the popularity of stereotypically macho SUVs among females. “I definitely like all that real estate inside,” says Schiffer of her Chevy Tahoe. “But safety is the key for me. I will not get stranded somewhere with toddlers. I want my family to be safe. And I’m willing to buy more gas and put up with negative comments about my being less than altruistic to have it.”

In the marketplace or at the drawing table, women have taught carmakers a valuable lesson: Good design is good design, regardless of gender. If only the folks who created La Femme knew what women really want in a car. Safety. Reliability. Practicality. Affordability. And it doesn’t even have to come in pink.