Women In Trucking and Transportation, a Proud History
By Sandy Long
There is a misconception in many people’s minds that women being involved in transportation is a fairly recent occurrence. Granted, women didn’t drive trucks until their invention, but women have a very rich history in the transportation industry.
During medieval times, women often times were involved in the transportation of agricultural products and manufactured goods, driving ox carts to area markets. Some women are documented as being involved in the buying and selling of wool, going from farm to farm to buy fleeces from peasants for a cent or two
below market cost, then transporting the fleeces to the market by horseback and carts where overseas buyers would bid on the wool.
In our own country’s history, women were implemental in getting the wagons across the prairies to settle the west. They would drive the wagons while their husbands rode guard on the wagon train. Some enterprising women were single professionals wanting to escape the binds of society against their chosen
profession. Yes, some were prostitutes, but there were also female doctors, lawyers and journalists that went west to practice their profession in the relative freedom of the west for women driving their own wagons.
One woman, Mary Fields, an ex slave from Tennessee, became a freight hauler, rode for the Pony Express and finished her life as a mail deliverer driving stagecoach, not missing a day, until almost the age of 80.
One of the most well known woman freight haulers was from Missouri, Calamity Jane Cannary. Born about 1852 in Princeton Missouri, Martha Jane Cannary became the head of the family when her widowed father died and she became responsible for her siblings, moving them from UT where they had moved after her mother‘s death.
From her autobiography of 1896, Martha Jane writes of this time:
"While on the way, the greater portion of my time was spent in hunting along with the men and hunters of the party; in fact, I was at all times with the men when there was excitement and adventures to be had. By the time we reached Virginia City, I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age. I remember many occurrences on the journey from Missouri to Montana. Many times in crossing the mountains, the conditions of the trail were so bad that we frequently had to lower the wagons over ledges by hand with ropes, for they were so rough and rugged that horses were of no use."
Calamity Jane learned to ride, hunt and shoot, was an army scout and was feared by the Indians. Wearing mens clothing, she drove teams hauling freight into mining towns and it is rumored, married to Wild Bill Hickock.
Women didn’t only drive wagons, they also led in inventions used in railroads, shipping, bridges and roads. In the 1800’s, Rebecca Lukens ran an ironworks that made hulls for ships and boilers for locomotives and ships. Martha Coston developed pyrotechnic flares used by ships to signal for help.
Mary Riggin invented railway crossing gates, Eliza Murfey invented a lubricating system for train car axles, and Mary Walton invented a noise pollution reduction system for the El in New York City.
It doesn’t stop there. A woman, Mary Anderson, invented the windshield wiper for automobiles. The US Department of Transportation reports that: “By 1923, more than 175 patents were granted to women for inventions related to automobiles, traffic signals, and turn indicators.”
Harriet Quimbley became the first woman pilot in 1911 followed by Bessie Coleman, the first African American female pilot in 1921. In 1932 Amelia Earhart piloted a plane across the Atlantic ocean.
Much has been written about Lillie Drennan, a woman who got her license to drive in 1929 and ran her own trucking company until her death with a six gun strapped to her side. She was known to give her male drivers ‘a kick in the pants’ if they didn’t follow her orders.
During WWI and WWII, women were ambulance drivers, pilots and truck drivers hauling supplies, mail and the wounded. In factories, women drove lift trucks and operated cranes, and some even piloted tug boats in harbors.
As we have seen, women have been involved in transportation for hundreds of years and give us lady drivers of modern trucks and those women involved in other areas of the transportation industry, a proud history to live up to. As the WWII poster of Rosie the Riveter says proudly, “We Can Do It”. We can, and we are doing it.
Ya’ll be safe out there!
There is a misconception in many people’s minds that women being involved in transportation is a fairly recent occurrence. Granted, women didn’t drive trucks until their invention, but women have a very rich history in the transportation industry.
During medieval times, women often times were involved in the transportation of agricultural products and manufactured goods, driving ox carts to area markets. Some women are documented as being involved in the buying and selling of wool, going from farm to farm to buy fleeces from peasants for a cent or two
below market cost, then transporting the fleeces to the market by horseback and carts where overseas buyers would bid on the wool.
In our own country’s history, women were implemental in getting the wagons across the prairies to settle the west. They would drive the wagons while their husbands rode guard on the wagon train. Some enterprising women were single professionals wanting to escape the binds of society against their chosen
profession. Yes, some were prostitutes, but there were also female doctors, lawyers and journalists that went west to practice their profession in the relative freedom of the west for women driving their own wagons.
One woman, Mary Fields, an ex slave from Tennessee, became a freight hauler, rode for the Pony Express and finished her life as a mail deliverer driving stagecoach, not missing a day, until almost the age of 80.
One of the most well known woman freight haulers was from Missouri, Calamity Jane Cannary. Born about 1852 in Princeton Missouri, Martha Jane Cannary became the head of the family when her widowed father died and she became responsible for her siblings, moving them from UT where they had moved after her mother‘s death.
From her autobiography of 1896, Martha Jane writes of this time:
"While on the way, the greater portion of my time was spent in hunting along with the men and hunters of the party; in fact, I was at all times with the men when there was excitement and adventures to be had. By the time we reached Virginia City, I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age. I remember many occurrences on the journey from Missouri to Montana. Many times in crossing the mountains, the conditions of the trail were so bad that we frequently had to lower the wagons over ledges by hand with ropes, for they were so rough and rugged that horses were of no use."
Calamity Jane learned to ride, hunt and shoot, was an army scout and was feared by the Indians. Wearing mens clothing, she drove teams hauling freight into mining towns and it is rumored, married to Wild Bill Hickock.
Women didn’t only drive wagons, they also led in inventions used in railroads, shipping, bridges and roads. In the 1800’s, Rebecca Lukens ran an ironworks that made hulls for ships and boilers for locomotives and ships. Martha Coston developed pyrotechnic flares used by ships to signal for help.
Mary Riggin invented railway crossing gates, Eliza Murfey invented a lubricating system for train car axles, and Mary Walton invented a noise pollution reduction system for the El in New York City.
It doesn’t stop there. A woman, Mary Anderson, invented the windshield wiper for automobiles. The US Department of Transportation reports that: “By 1923, more than 175 patents were granted to women for inventions related to automobiles, traffic signals, and turn indicators.”
Harriet Quimbley became the first woman pilot in 1911 followed by Bessie Coleman, the first African American female pilot in 1921. In 1932 Amelia Earhart piloted a plane across the Atlantic ocean.
Much has been written about Lillie Drennan, a woman who got her license to drive in 1929 and ran her own trucking company until her death with a six gun strapped to her side. She was known to give her male drivers ‘a kick in the pants’ if they didn’t follow her orders.
During WWI and WWII, women were ambulance drivers, pilots and truck drivers hauling supplies, mail and the wounded. In factories, women drove lift trucks and operated cranes, and some even piloted tug boats in harbors.
As we have seen, women have been involved in transportation for hundreds of years and give us lady drivers of modern trucks and those women involved in other areas of the transportation industry, a proud history to live up to. As the WWII poster of Rosie the Riveter says proudly, “We Can Do It”. We can, and we are doing it.
Ya’ll be safe out there!
