Women drivers in 60's

Hi I'm writing a novel about Sheffield in the 1960's. I need to have a woman who can drive. I know that was a rare thing for a working class woman in the 60"s. How and why would a woman have learnt to drive. What are your stories about women driving then?

Women like midwives often drove. Successful Tupperware reps got a car when they

became area reps (they were often women)

Women teachers almost always had cars.

Farmers wives.

Women delivery drivers.

What do you mean by working class though?

Poor people of either sex didn't have cars in the 60s but poor is not always working class.

Remember the Driving Test wasn't introduced until 1935.So there would be plenty of women who had driven during the war ,maybe in their 20s,without ever taking a test, just learning on the job as it were. Those women would be in their 40s and 50s at the time your novel is set, and still driving around the city,maybe in their husband's cars most of the time - a two car family was something of a rarity in the 1960s as I remember.

My gran learnt to drive, my grandad never did. I guess that would have at been at some time during the 60's, although it might have been 70's... But for the sake of a story I'm sure you could stretch it.

They only had the 1 car of course.

Hi

When I lived in Sheffield in the 60's, none of the women I knew drove. We didn't have a car and my family always identified (proudly) as being working class, it is only as I look at the photos now, that I guess we were poor, but we never felt that way and I still remember living a very "rich' happy childhood. Thank you so much for the replies...love them

most of the drivers war time forcers or land army where ladys and still on the road 20yrs later

My mum learned to drive in the 60's. She passed her test, in 1966 I think, when we moved house but she wanted to keep my older siblings at the same primary school. After the house move it would have been two bus rides and a long walk away. She had an Austin A40 which fell apart in less than a year to be replaced by a second hand Triumph Herald which she loved and kept for ten years. My dad had a car but he worked on the opposite side of town and had a 7am start.

My brother has just told me she paid £20 for the Austin so no surprise that it died and £120 for the Triumph.

I passed my test aged 17 in 1960 and was allowed to drive my Dad's car. It was an Austin A30 bought at a time when you could have any colour so long as it was black!! We were definitely working class, that car was his dream come true achieved by hard work and saving. Kept in a garage but still covered over with a blanket, washed and polished every Saturday and it knew its own way to Clumber Park on every fine Sunday! And I don't think it ever did more than 30mph.I remember vividly one of the first times I drove it Dad asked me to call for petrol - probably to make sure I knew what to do. It was in the days of being served by a pump attendant and after he'd filled the tank, he asked me if my water was o.k. I thought he was being rude - I had no idea that cars had water in them. I also remember driving it back into the garage one time having forgotten to put the aerial down first - they stuck up from the roof of the car and it rattled all the way into the garage. I was horrified that I might have damaged it but all was well. It seemed very plush back then, by todays standards I guess it would seem very basic - with its indicator, a little arm that stuck out from the car or, as you were taught back then, putting the window down and indicating which way you wanted to turn with your arm!! Happy memories!

Some great memories here. We had a Ford Prefect in the 70's...great little car, I think that managed to get up to 50mph on a good day!

---------- Post added 23-05-2015 at 08:15 ----------

So a midwife she is.... which of course leads me to the question. What was it like to be a midwife in the 60's? Any stories?

In the 60's i only knew two 'mature ladies' who could drive a car. Seems these days most women of middle age drive.

In the 60's i only knew two 'mature ladies' who could drive a car. Seems these days most women of middle age drive.

Surely most adult women these days drive. Young, middle aged or elderly...

Surely most adult women these days drive. Young, middle aged or elderly...

Yes, drive their husbands/partners round the bend! But where would we be without them?

My mother learned to drive in the early '50s and, wrinkly67, I also recall as a child being driven out to Clumber Park in the back of a Morris Traveller while she practiced. Shortly after passing her test her work involved driving to various customers and in the winter of 1962 on her return to Sheffield from Derbyshire she skidded in the company's Ford Anglia van, hit a wall on Baslow Road just below Owler Bar and ended up upside down in a field. Fortunately only her pride was hurt!

My father learned to drive in the early '30s and never needed to take a driving test. Having said that he was one of the safest and most considerate drivers I have ever known. So my family tended to follow the usual trend in those days of the husband driving first, followed by the wife.