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Paris Nouveau no. 2331 – Les Femmes Chauffeur

Source:
www.delcampe.net (Item no. 0013750423). Click here to view source.

Les Femmes Cocher / 112

Les Femmes Chauffeur / 1

Picture (left): Mme. Decourcelle, the first woman to possess her two diplomas for horse-cab driver and chauffeur.

Allowing women to drive horse cabs may have opened the door to allowing them to drive motor cabs, but Mme. Decourcelle evidently did not have much competition from other women chauffeurs. Female taxi drivers were still a rarity in Paris in September of 1909 when the New York Times reported a sighting:

"Her vehicle was new and elegant; she was clothed in a blue tailored gown, with a blue toque saucily placed upon a knotted wealth of golden hair, and her form was graceful. She appeared, however, too indifferent to patronage, driving with her nose in the air, with a 'touch-me-not' mien hardly in harmony with her assumed desire to gather a harvest of francs."