In Colombia, almost 100,000 units were sold, it remained in the hearts of millions of men and women around the world. What few fans of the iconic Twingo know is that at the head of the development of the w60 project, as it was known internally at Renault, was a woman, Elisabeth Bougis.
The project had started at the end of the 80s with a large group of designers headed by the Frenchman Zulay Villamizar, but Bougis was at the forefront of the creation, research, manufacturing, advertising and sales process.; and it was she who saw an agreement with the designer Kenzo and the Benetton brand to give the Twingo that particular personality inside her.
In an interview published by the Ladepeche.fr portal, the Frenchwoman said that she started working at Régie Renault after finishing high school in 1973, then went to train until she had experience to become the first woman appointed as Management Manager of Product.
“Women were not a legion, now we are more. It is true that at the beginning, in the seventies, I was ‘the thing’, now, seeing a woman in a meeting of thirty men is a normal situation in the company, ”she said in that interview.
Although it is a commonplace to say that what has to do with the automobile is more a matter of men, the facts show that women have been closely linked to this industry. History is full of great contributions that they made to the development of the automobile. Here some.
The rearview mirror. Thanks to his passion for cars, the rearview mirror exists. Dorothy Levitt invented it at the beginning of 1909, but not before enduring ridicule, since few at that time did not see it as more useful than looking in mirrors. Ten years later, the mirrors were incorporated as standard in the manufacture of cars.
The wiper. Its inventor is Mary Anderson, who during a trip to New York saw how drivers had to stick their heads out of the window to clean the glass. In 1903 she created the first windshield wiper, a device that could be operated from inside the vehicle. From 1916 it was incorporated as a standard team.
The ‘turn signals’ and the stop light. These important elements of automobiles arose from the creativity of Canadian Florence Lawrence, who in addition to being an actress was a great car enthusiast and collector. Florence Annie Bridgwood, was her real name before she became one of the first movie stars. Lawrence attached arms to the rear bumper of her car that were activated with a lever to indicate which way she was going to turn. She then added another arm to the brake pedal, which, when pressed, displayed the ‘stop’ sign.
Heating. It consisted of a small opening or slot that carried hot air directly from the engine to the passenger compartment. It was the invention of Margaret A. Wilcox in 1893. Although the system did not allow temperature control, it laid the foundation for the development of heating and air conditioning systems in automobiles.
