Maria Weston Kuhn ’23
PHOTOS COURTESY MARIA WESTON KUHN ’23
Since 2020, Kuhn has been spearheading a movement to make car safety testing guidelines that work better for women. Its focus is the She Develops Regulations In Vehicle Equality and Safety (She DRIVES) Act, which would mandate stricter safety testing measures for new vehicles in the United States; in particular, the use of a crash dummy that more accurately reflects women’s proportions.
Immediately, Kuhn was doing press interviews from remote farms in Patagonia and managing communications with a secondhand iPad. But she says it was one of the happiest surprises of her life.
“I had not expected to see the bill introduced and passed out of committee as early in the session as it was,” she says. “I’m really proud of that.”
For decades, car manufacturers have primarily relied on a crash-test dummy that’s based on a man’s body. The current “female” dummy, if it is used, is simply a scaled-down version that doesn’t account for differences in bone density, fat distribution and other physiological characteristics. And while women currently make up the majority of licensed drivers, only one test performed by the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration’s New Car Assessment Program uses the female dummy in the driver’s seat.
That bias has left women at greater risk of serious injury and death — a fact Kuhn is all too familiar with. After her family was involved in a head-on collision in December 2019, she and her mother were seriously injured, while her father and brother were not. When she returned home from the hospital, she found a clipping from Consumer Reports that her grandmother mailed to her.
“I remember reading it with trembling hands and learning about this disparity that was killing and injuring thousands of women every year,” Kuhn says. “I decided in that moment that I would do everything I could to help.”
With a background in political science from her major and experience interning on Capitol Hill, Kuhn understood what it takes to effect change through legislation. She began by publishing op-eds in outlets like Ms. and Fast Company, but she also knew that spreading awareness wasn’t enough. She was contending with longstanding gender discrimination, plus the challenges of advocating for a more substantive, and therefore costlier, testing program.
“I realized that there were so many institutional and historical forces against our movement that I was never going to be able to finish this by myself. I needed a team,” she says. “I knew that I had to start an organization.”
Kuhn at work with some furry friends in Patagonia.
The issue has bipartisan support, with senators across the political spectrum endorsing and co-sponsoring the bill. Since Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) introduced it and it passed through the Senate Commerce Committee, Kuhn and Drive Action Fund have been working to get Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to bring it to the floor for a vote. To keep things moving, they simultaneously drafted an accompanying bill for the House of Representatives.
“Passing the bill in the Senate would be easier with more co-sponsors, so we’re trying to meet with as many folks as possible,” Kuhn says. “We’re also continuing to work with the press to build momentum, keep people talking about the legislation and make sure it remains a priority.”
Kuhn and her volunteer team have also leveraged social media. The fund’s videos regularly get thousands of views; Kuhn suspects it’s because the topic of women’s safety is striking a chord. “I think it speaks to something that’s true of many issues that affect women and girls across the country,” she says. “And there’s power in recognizing that there’s an institutional force behind this.”
Kuhn will start law school at NYU in August, but she has no intention of stopping her advocacy. “I’ve been working on this through different stages of my life, and it’s been an honor to do it,” she says. “It’s been my purpose. So whatever comes next, I’m here to keep working on it.”
