Marketing is tricky, but it's a huge part of how consumers make money-parting decisions, so every company that wants to sell anything must play the marketing game. Automakers included. While automakers today may have access to our internet browsing records, previous buying patterns, and pretty much any other data you can think of, things were very different in the 1950s. Still, Dodge was keen to try out a fresh new idea in an attempt to win over a frequently overlooked segment of the market. Women.
While men certainly loved their cars, women weren't so captivated. Instead of trying to manipulate them into liking what was already out there, Dodge decided to go about it the other way, and market a car specifically with the female motorist in mind. What followed was worth including in a list of the cringiest car marketing: the 1955 Dodge La Femme.
The La Femme was a tweaked version of Dodge's Royal Lancer hardtop. How did Dodge tilt the car toward women? It used a coat of pink paint (called Heather Rose), and pink floral fabric for the seats. Oh, and a range of exciting new accessories came with the La Femme, such as matching change purses, cigarette lighters, and wet-weather gear. But slapping a layer of pink onto a contemporary Dodge didn't captivate the female population of America as well as Dodge's marketing department hoped.
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This was not a cheap product, but a luxurious car targeted toward more affluent motorists. So the plan was never to have a La Femme adorning every driveway in the U.S., but Dodge surely hoped to see more than 1,000 sales in the first year. Still, that was the outcome, and sprucing up the available color scheme (pink gave way to orchid), plus tweaking the accessories, didn't help for the '56 model year, and roughly another 500 found homes. With about 1,500 sold across the model's first two years (some estimates claim that around 2,500 were made in total), the La Femme was discontinued for the 1957 model year. The women's Dodge was officially a flop.
Despite the interesting backstory and exclusivity, Dodge La Femme models aren't hugely desirable even today, and they don't command massive prices when examples crop up for sale. One smart-looking example sold at Sotheby's in 2015 for $29,700, while a restored model with some flaws sold on Bring A Trailer in 2024 for $13,850. Since the mechanicals are identical to other, more popular Dodge models of the era, at least recommissioning one should be fairly straightforward. That is, unless, a full interior retrim in those bizarre fabrics is required.
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While the La Femme was a commercial disaster, it did at least highlight the importance of addressing women's needs in the automotive space. At around the same time, a group of female designers dubbed GM's Damsels of Design enjoyed much more success under the leadership of Harley Earl. And they managed to capture women's needs as motorists without feeling the need to paint anything pink.
The Damsels of Design were a group of 10 women who looked to be the answer to the car industry's sexism problem. They introduced numerous ideas over the years, such as seasonal and interchangeable Corvette seat covers, the fitting of GM's first ever retractable seat belts, and innovative storage solutions for children's toys. In 1958 — just a year after the La Femme's demise — Earl organized the Feminine Auto Show in GM's Styling Dome, and it was here that the all-female design team displayed some genuinely innovative ideas still used today, like childproof doors and light-up vanity mirrors.
As designer Suzanne Vanderbilt put it later, in a speech quoted in Motor Trend, "We particularly enjoyed proving to our male counterparts that we are not in the business to add lace doilies to seat backs or rhinestones to the carpets, but to make the automobile just as usable and attractive to both men and women as we possibly can." An approach that no-doubt would have helped the ill-fated La Femme to capture more attention.
