Bet you’ve never even heard of her …
august 2023
Ever heard of Lillie Elizabeth Drennan? Probably not. What about Luella Bates? Gladys West?
As you know, I’m a big footie fan. I go watch my team, Aston Villa, at every opportunity and I love to enjoy a nice cold beer down the pub while watching a match. Over the past few weeks, people all over the world have been enthralled by the Women’s World Cup.
And I love it. It’s so great to see more people giving the Women’s World Cup the attention it deserves. But Gladys, Luella and Lillie aren’t footballers… They’re women who throughout history have contributed to freight.
Lillie Elizabeth Drennan was the first woman in the USA to own a trucking firm back in 1928. She was also the first woman in Texas to hold a commercial driver’s license. Luella Bates is thought to be the first woman to be a licensed truck driver. She was hired as a test and demonstration driver for the Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. And Gladys… well the world of freight wouldn’t be what it is today without her. As a mathematician, she worked on the development of satellite geodesy models that were then incorporated into the Global Positioning System. That’s right. Gladys’s work helped to bring you the GPS that the world of logistics relies so heavily on today.
Did you know that in the EU the workforce in logistics is still around 70% men? This is an 8% decrease since 2018 so we’re moving in the right direction, but that’s still a heavily male-dominated industry. But perhaps not for long! In fact, I’ve already started to see shifts with women-lead networks popping up and more women joining the industry.
Do you think we’ll end up with a more balanced workforce? Could it be that more women are catching on to how awesome it is to work in freight? And importantly, who do you think will win the Women’s World Cup?
I’d love to hear your thoughts…