The First Female Motorsport Trailblazers: Women Driving Change in the Belle Epoque

Throughout the course of motorsport history, women have had to fight to earn their place in a sport that some still think isn’t fit for them. In late 19th century France, a trio of pioneering women lead the way in the fight for the rights of women drivers, both in races and on the road. Their achievements are a testament to the fact that women have always belonged, and will always belong, in motorsport.

How long did it take, after the birth of motorsport, before a woman thought “I want to do that too”? The answer is only four years. As it turns out, the history of women in motorsport is just as old as the history of motorsport itself: women were already competing in motor races before racetracks even existed. To think that, almost 130 years after a woman first took part in a motorsport event, some people still don’t think women belong in this sport.

During the Belle Epoque, three French women fought for women’s right to drive, both on the streets and in competitive events. Their battle was much bigger than that: they were fighting for women’s right to independence, freedom, and self-determination. 

Hélène van Zuylen

Hélène van Zuylen at the start of the 1898 Paris-Amsterdam-Paris. By Carle de Mazibourg, from Les Sports Modernes: Paris Illustré.

Just four years after the first international motor race, Hélène van Zuylen competed in the 1898 Paris-Amsterdam-Paris Trail under the pseudonym Snail, becoming the first woman to take part to an international motor race. Admittedly, she managed to do this thanks to personal connections: her husband, Baron van Zuylen, was the co-founder and president of the Automobile Club de France (French Automobile Club).

Zuylen was born into the prominent Rotschild banking family, and disowned by her mother for marrying a Catholic. She was not just a racecar driver but also a fairly proficuous writer, who authored a number of poems, short stories, novels and plays, in part under the pseudonym of Paule Riversdale.

Zuylen wasn’t just the first female racecar driver, but she was also the first queer female racecar driver: a testament to the fact that, just like women have always been a part of motorsport, so have queer people. She was notably in a long-term relationship poet Renée Vivien, who considered herself married to the Baroness (their relationship was kept under wraps, as Zuylen was married at the time).  Vivien co-wrote many of Zuylen’s literary works. After Vivien’s death, Zuylen founded the Renée Vivien literary prize for young women poets in her honour.

Camille du Gast

Camille du Gast at the 1901 Paris-Berlin. By Jules Beau (Collection Jules Beau).

Camille du Gast, “one of the most accomplished widows in France”, was known to be a well-rounded sportswoman: a hot-air balloonist, parachute jumper, fencer, rifle and pistol shot, tobagganist, horse trainer, and of course, racecar driver. In 1897, she became one of the first women in France to obtain a driver’s license.

Du Gast became the second woman to take part to an international motor race at the 1901 Paris-Berlin, where she and Baroness van Zuylen were the only two women entrants. A year later she applied to enter the New York-San Francisco, but was refused on account of being a woman. In 1904 she became the first and only woman official of the Automobile Club de France. That same year she was set to race for Benz in the Gordon Bennett Cup (an international competition between car manufacturers), but the French government barred women from competing in motorsport events due to “feminine nervousness”. Du Gast, as the only female racecar driver at the time, was the only person affected by the ban. She took to motor-boat racing instead, and a couple years later she crossed Morocco on horseback by herself. So much for feminine nervousness.

Aside from being a sportswoman, du Gast was an activist for women’s and animal rights: she served as vice-president for the French League for the Rights of Women, established centres for orphans and impoverished women, and was president of the French Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Anne de Rochechouart

Anne de Rochechouart, founder and first president of the Automobile Club féminin de France, 1927. By Agence de presse Meurisse.

Although she never raced competitively, Anne de Rouchechouart, Duchess of Uzès, deserves a mention, as she was the very first woman in France to obtain a driver’s license in 1897. And she was the first woman to receive a speeding ticket, too: in 1898 she was fined for driving at 15 km/h in the Bois de Boulogne, a park in Paris, exceeding the speed limit by 3 km/h.

In 1926 she founded the Automobile Club féminin de France (Female French Automobile Club), the women-only equivalent of the Automobile Club de France, which did not allow female members (apart from Camille du Gast, apparently). The Duchess also created the official magazine of the Club, the Revue de l’Automobile Club féminin. The magazine served as a platform for women motorists to exchange ideas and tips on road safety, car maintenance and road trips, but also to showcase the achievements of women in motoring and advocate for the rights of women drivers.

These women broke barriers in motorsport as well as in society, living very unconventional lives for their time, each in her own way, and claiming their place in a sport that is still, all too often, seen as not fit for women. Theirs are not just the stories of pioneers of women’s involvement in motorsport, both as drivers and as enthusiasts, but of women who fought for what they cared about and for their right to self-determination, and should be remembered as such.