Women behind the Wheel - Part 1: The Eddie Stobart Case

"Women, eternal goddesses", sang Franz Lehar in Viennese theatres in the early 1900s, when gender equality was still a long way off. Yet there is a profound sense of truth in the brilliant operetta: men who elevate women to goddesses admit that "it is difficult to study women" and add that "they are a mystery". Today, now that we have finally understood that to study them we need only look at what they can do in any field, very well of course, we will try, in a series of short stories that will follow weekly, to recount what they have been able to do in the world of cars and mobility.

Let's start with a rather extreme but emblematic case: if it is not surprising today, it was then, and the message it sent was powerful. So what are we talking about? Women who drive powerful articulated lorries for a living. It was in the 1970s when the British transport company Eddie Stobart began recruiting women for a job that seemed the opposite of what was considered suitable for a lady: driving large lorries, coordinating loading and unloading, refuelling with dozens of litres of diesel, driving in all conditions and weather, day and night, and often stopping in a secure area to sleep in the cab. But Stobart was right, and continues its strategy of absolute equality today, recruiting and training female driving and logistics specialists. Not only women, of course, but they are very welcome.