Driven Women: How Two Frenchwomen Changed the Face of Driving

In April 1898, Anne de Mortemart, the Duchess of Uzès, drove proudly through the streets of Paris in a Delahaye Break. As one of the early clients of automobile pioneer Émile Delahaye, Mortemart was the first woman in France to obtain a driver's license.

The Duchess passed her "car driver" examination in a belt-driven vehicle created and manufactured by Delahaye a few years earlier. At the time, the French press reported that the Duchess took her exam wearing a little black hat, which she wore slanted over her ear, and that she maneuvered very cleverly throughout her test.

Confident behind the wheel, it was only a month and a half later that Mortemart also received the accolade of being the first woman driver to receive a speeding ticket. The Bois de Boulogne, a popular Parisian garden, park, and social site, had a speed limit of 12 kmh (7.5 mph) along its promenade route. The Duchess, driving in her Delahaye Break, traveled the road at 15 kmh (9.3 mph) instead.

A Tour de Force Behind the Wheel

Active in the suffragist movement and a number of charitable and humanitarian causes, Mortemart went on to found the Women's Automobile Club of France and became Vice President of the Aeroclub Ladies' Committee. Her commanding character and disregard for tradition inspired other women to find their seat behind the wheel as well.

A Sisterhood of the Beautiful Era

The Duchess was well known during France's Belle Epoque, or Beautiful Era, as one of three prominent and pioneering female motoring celebrities. Another was Camille du Gast, an accomplished and adventurous French widow.

Gast is credited as being the second woman to participate in an international motor race and the first woman to compete consistently in motor racing at the international level. Her taste for adventure didn't begin with auto racing though.

In 1885, Gast parachuted 2,000 feet from a hot air balloon, cementing herself in the people’s eyes as a public figure with a penchant for taking risks. In addition to being well known as a talented balloonist, she was also a skilled fencer, skier, and rifle-shooter.

Thrill-Seeking from Behind the Wheel

Not long after her balloonist feats, she started to take an interest in racing cars. In 1901, she drove an impressive 25 hours in an international auto race from Paris to Berlin, finishing in 33rd place out of 122 entrants. Gast continued to race until 1904, when the French government banned women from competing in auto sports. Undeterred, Gast turned to motorboat racing instead. That same year, she became an official of the Automobile Club of France — the only woman to hold such a position.

When Gast got tired of thrill-seeking, she devoted her life to charitable causes, particularly animal welfare and spent her final years caring for animals at a Paris refuge for stray and injured dogs.

As tireless humanitarians, both the Duchess of Uzès and Camille du Gast defied convention and broke barriers for women across France as champions for both, women's rights and the motor car.

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