So far we've looked at women who race cars, but what about women who design them?

Like motorsports, automotive design is a field traditionally dominated by men, and until recently a female perspective was considered a hindrance during the design process rather than an aid.

Fortunately, this is no longer the case throughout the industry. At Volvo (www.volvo.com), for instance, talented female staff are encouraged to experiment and innovate, and women-led focus groups are commissioned to give a feminine viewpoint on new designs at an early stage.

Over 50% of Volvo sales in the USA are to women drivers, and Volvo president Hans-Olov Olsson puts this down to employing female staff, being receptive to their ideas and integrating them into his cars.

It is thanks to Olsson and his forward-thinking contemporaries that female designers like Camilla Palmertz got their start in the industry.

And it's thanks to them that there are many more cars on the market today which appeal specifically to the female driver. So thank goodness for cheap motor insurance: ladies may all have to start saving up for new cars!

The virtual pregnant crash dummy'
In 2002, new cars came equipped to provide a safe driving environment for just about every kind of human passenger. Years of research with computer models and crash dummies meant that every conceivable physiology - from full-grown adult to new-born baby - was catered for.

Besides the obvious safety benefits of such adaptable cars, owners also stood to gain from cheaper motor insurance, as insurers recognised they were involved in far fewer serious accidents due to a combination of their superior driving skills and the new technology.

But researchers at the Volvo labs in Gothenburg, Sweden, had realised that one sort of passenger had yet been overlooked in the quest for a car for all seasons: the unborn child.

While in terms of compensation for an accident we can rely on our motor insurance, women need safer cars in the first place to cut down on accidents (and cut down on their motor insurance premiums, too).

Thanks to the research done by Camilla Palmertz and her team, new cars will be safer for pregnant women and their babies.

The Volvo YCC
Palmertz’s research into pregnancy was pioneering and her findings are referenced and relied on by modern car designers everywhere.

But her car safety work was also a springboard into the project for which she will be chiefly remembered: the Volvo YCC.

In December 2002, Palmertz and seven of her female colleagues at Volvo approached Olsson with a proposal for a new concept

car – a one-off vehicle designed to showcase new ideas and technologies.

The YCC – ‘Your Concept Car’ – would be designed by women, for women; a unique concept in automotive design at a time when tailored motor insurance for women was only just becoming popular.

Camilla Palmertz, then a biomechanical engineer at Volvo, was part of the team assigned to study the effects of a car crash on pregnant women and their babies.

Surveys carried out in Sweden and the US had shown that many expectant mothers were concerned the standard three-point safety belt was uncomfortable and unsafe.

Once the research was complete, Palmertz would be able to respond to their fears with definitive answers, rather than the well-meaning but somewhat unfounded opinions of other authorities (although their unanimous recommendation to keep wearing seat belts turned out to be correct).

So Palmertz and the team at Volvo created the first ever sanctioned computer model of a pregnant crash dummy.

This made it possible to study the impact of a collision on internal organs, specifically the woman’s uterus and placenta, and the movements of the baby itself.

Palmertz concluded that the safety belt, if worn properly, posed no significant risk to mother and baby.

“It’s important to wear it in the right way,” she said. “It should be between the breasts and as low as possible over the hips. The lap section of the belt mustn’t be allowed to ride up in front of the woman’s tummy.”

However, while the standard safety belt poses no added risk to a pregnant driver or passenger, there is an aspect of its design that leaves them vulnerable to injury in an accident.

Because the belt does not support the abdomen, there is a risk of damage to the placenta in certain types of crash – and that could lead to the baby not getting enough oxygen.

But Palmertz is confident that her research will find a way to prevent these injuries, too.

“I’m certain that there’s room for further development of the three-point belt, to make it more comfortable and to provide even better protection,” she said.

The proposed unveiling would be at the 2004 Geneva Auto Show, to a massive international audience.

Olsson gave the YCC his blessing, but he admits others at Volvo were sceptical. “Initially, [the female designers] had to face a lot of resistance,” he recalls.

“There were some who questioned, ‘Will this work? Will they really be able to produce?’”

The answer was a resounding “yes”. The project,

worked on at any one time by between 120 and 140 people, 80% of whom were women, was one of the timeliest and best organised in Volvo history.

Palmertz’s designs took as their inspiration a survey of about 400 female staff at Volvo, who were asked what desirable features their current cars lacked. Their responses yielded four main wants: better storage, easier parking, female-friendly ergonomics and easier maintenance.

To tackle the storage issue, the design team moved the handbrake out from between the front seats, allowing room for a briefcase or handbag. Also, because most of the women surveyed admitted using their back seats more often for luggage than passengers, Palmertz incorporated fold-away 'cinema-like' seating that made the space more practical.

Larger windows, stretching the full width and length of the boot, allow for maximum visibility and thus easier parking. The YCC comes equipped with an electronic parking sensor and even a computer-assisted parallel park for those of us still having trouble!

The car is an ergonomics dream. Palmertz's previous work with safety systems is all resident in the YCC, along with many other delightful feminine touches - interchangeable seat covers with co-ordinating carpets, for example, or the oft mentioned pony-tail space built into the car's head rests.

Regarding maintenance, the new designs have caused their share of controversy among female motoring groups. Palmertz and the team elected to seal up the car's engine in such a way that only an engineer could access it, relocating the window-washer reservoir (the only reason they could see for lifting the bonnet on existing models) next to the fuel cap.

Many are concerned this 'hands-off' approach will lead to more garage trips, more break-downs and more women motor insurance claims, as ladies are actively discouraged from learning about their cars. But as we have said, the YCC is a concept car rather than a production model - and it's unlikely that Volvo will include this feature on any upcoming family saloons or sports cars.

Recently, the YCC won the 2006 "Design S" Swedish Design Award, one of a fistful of such accolades to have been awarded in the two years since its launch.

Whether its often radical ideas for women's car design are used in future or not - and the YCC's success suggests that they will be - it marks as important a turning point in worldwide car design as the first tailored women's motor insurance policy did in the field of car insurance.

Olsson sees the project as a glimpse of the future for female motorists, and a rallying call for women who are interested in automotive design.

"I hope it will inspire a girl of 16, who is now wondering 'What do I want to do?'" he said. "If we can achieve that, I am very happy."