In Women at the Wheel, historian Katherine Parkin traces the history of American women's relationship to automobiles, from the early days of electric vehicles to the showrooms of modern suburbia. Parkin presents a measured analysis grounded in rich primary source materials and ventures through a wide range of themes. The resulting book transcends historical narration, offering a meditation on gender roles and power relations.

Parkin divides the material thematically, with chapters focusing on driver's education, car buying, operation of vehicles, auto maintenance, and the relationship between driving and identity. This thematic, rather than strictly chronological, approach allows the author to prove her overarching argument: “In spite of the many changes in women's lives, the historical evidence reveals a significant continuity of cultural and behavioral impulses regarding American women's experience with cars” (p. xx). Rather than focusing on periodization and change over time, Parkin traces the recurring, unyielding power of the patriarchy, as it is manifested in the automotive industry.

As they sought to learn to drive, women struggled against the pervasive stereotypes casting them as poor, nervous, incompetent drivers. When they refrained from driving, they were mocked instead as shrewish “backseat drivers.” Parkin draws upon automobile advertisements, driver's education materials, and popular culture such as television and film, finding ample evidence of these trends.

Car buying occupies a special place in American culture, instilling fear in the hearts of many. Women have historically been devalued by car dealers and the automotive industry: their preferences alternately dismissed and caricatured as concerns with domestic safety and appearances. Parkin finds compelling evidence of these attitudes in the automotive trade and marketing literature. Automotive repair shops have been similarly gendered spaces, with specific automotive terminology and knowledge often used to intimidate women customers.

Women at the Wheel also delves into less predictable topics, with great success. Parkin devotes several pages to a detailed analysis of the dangers posed to women drivers by police officers acting in predatory and criminal ways. She also presents fascinating documentation of the role of women's-only automotive repair clinics and shops during the women's movement. In these passages, she reminds readers that the history of women and cars is really that of women and power.

As a book exploring both women and gender, Women at the Wheel concludes with a chapter on identity that also considers men's relationships to their cars. Frequently sexualized and nearly always feminized, cars have been portrayed not only as men's tools, but as their companions. The over-the-top nature of popular culture references along this theme reminds readers of the seeming omnipresence of the male gaze.

Women at the Wheel does a wonderful job of analyzing the relationship of women to automobiles. In so doing, it raises other questions on related themes. If automobile purchases are lesser only to home purchases, does the real estate and mortgage industry reflect similarly patriarchal patterns? Is the indisputably gendered nature of the American automotive industry unique? More broadly, women have become more financially independent and empowered in recent decades, yet this has not been reflected in automotive industry and marketing trends. Why has the industry's sexist nature shifted so little over time?

Parkin's fine book adds usefully to the literature on women and automobiles, including the pioneering work done by Virginia Scharff, Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age (1991). It also deepens the study of advertising, such as the seminal studies done by Roland Marchand (Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920–1940 [1985]) and Jackson Lears (Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America [1994]), adding a much-needed gendered analysis. The book will be especially useful for scholars and students of business history, women's history, urban history, and sociology. Richly illustrated with sharp reproductions of vintage advertisements, the text is exceptionally clear and highly readable for undergraduate as well as graduate students.