Ewy Rosqvist, rally queen: gender, identity and car racing at the beginning of the 1960s

Abstract

Ewy Rosqvist, born in 1929, is one of Sweden’s most internationally successful rally drivers. The peak of her career was winning the Argentina Grand Prix in 1962, defeating 286 carriages, all with male drivers and co-drivers. This article analyses how the press represented Ewy as a female rally driver, challenging historical notions of women’s weakness and passivity. The results show how the ‘gender trouble’ was negotiated through representing Ewy as a competent driver who was also genuinely feminine as soon as she got out of the car. Furthermore, I discuss Ewy’s subjective experiences, using her autobiography and my interview with her from 2013. The results indicate that she used the opportunities her femininity offered, while at the same time not accepting being limited by her gender – hence occupying conforming as well as subversive approaches. In hindsight, she attributes her accomplishments more firmly to her own individual skills and competitiveness, demonstrating the time-bound character of ‘doing’ femininity.

Notes

1. Ewy Rosqvist’s married name is Rosqvist-von Korff. I refer to her here as Ewy Rosqvist – her name in 1962 – or simply Ewy.

2. For a discussion on blonde hair as a symbol of ‘Swedishness’, see Tolvhed (2008); Dyer (1997); Mattson and Pettersson (2006).

3. In a study of military work in Sweden 1945–1975, Fia Sundevall finds that the word ‘Amazon’ has a negative connotation, making clear that this was not the kind of woman they wished to foster within the military (Sundevall 2011). For discussion on the use of the word, see also Cahn (1995); ch. 6; and Hjelm (2004)