First Woman To Work As An Automotive Designer

Helene Rother (1908–1999) was the first woman to work as an automotive designer she joined the interior styling staff of General Motors in Detroit in 1943. She specialized in designs for automotive interiors, as well as furniture, jewelry, fashion accessories, and stained glass windows. She was responsible for upholstery colors and fabrics, lighting, door hardware and seat construction. She was one of the few women to succeed in a man's job during an era when the vast majority of women couldn't even see a glass ceiling-it was hidden behind steel doors.

She styled the elegant interiors of most of the cars while working for Nash Motors from 1948 to 1956.
Rother designed the Rambler's interiors to appeal to the feminine eye knew because she knew what women looked for in a car and her designs featured elegant, stylish, and expensive fabrics that coordinated in colors and trim. The new 1951 Rambler models were also "given the custom touch" with fabrics and colors selected by Rother that "equaled the best of interiors in American luxury cars of the period."

In 1953, Tide, a magazine covering the sales and advertising industry and trends, wrote: "a most attractive woman, whom I have thus encountered along the periphery of advertising is Madam Helene Rother — pretty and vivacious enough to serve as a prototype of Parisian women. She is an industrial designer with an impressive record."

According to automotive historian Patrick Foster, Rother is one of the important people in the automotive industry who have been overlooked or forgotten. She was not the first woman to work in styling; however, "she was an early pioneer and one of the best."