Women's Wheels!
Get to know Dorothée Pullinger, the woman who defied all odds and became a pioneer in car engineering.
16:53 29 January 2016
Dorothée Pullinger is recognised as the first in the field of car engineering to have designed and manufactured the Galloway car, with women drivers in mind. Dorothée has been inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame a few years ago because of her contribution in the field of automotive and car engineering.
Dorothée was born in France in 1894, a time when the world of engineering was the domain of men.
Her father, Thomas Pullinger, was a car designer and Dorothée had always wanted to follow his footsteps. She worked as a draughtswoman at the Paisley works of Arrol-Johnston, a car manufacturer where her father served as manager.
In 1984, Dorothée was rejected when she tried to join the Institution of Automobile Engineers simply because she was not a man. Her 84-year-old son Lewis said that his mother had it tough with Edwardian Britain.
"Life is a challenge and you go for it.”
"You follow the things you believe in. In her youth, women didn't go into engineering - they were in the house doing the cooking, doing the housework.
"She wanted to do the things that her father did.
By 1920s, Dorothée became a manager of Galloway Motors, a subsidiary of Arrol-Johnston. She then persuaded her father to provide employment to many local women. She managed the production of the Galloway car, which were described as "a car built by ladies, for those of their own sex".
Dr Nina Baker, Glasgow councillor who inducted Dorothée into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame, said: "To understand the differences, you need to have in your mind one of the big clunky cars of the early 20th century.
"They were designed with men in mind. I am about 5ft 4in - a typical height for a woman of that period - and if you sit in one of them, you could hardly reach anything.
"In those days, the gear lever and the brake lever were on the outside of the car - across the doorway. If you were getting into a car with a long skirt, they were a real nuisance."