When Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old single mother, called for a June 17 protest with a Facebook page, she was arrested and jailed for nine days in May, bringing new attention to a movement that’s been growing among Saudi women — the right to get behind the wheel.

Yesterday, I set up my Twitter feed to keep track of the ongoing discussion about the right to drive among Saudi women. The results proved that this issue remains a hot bedded topic, with updates nearly every minute throughout the evening and through today.

The issue skyrocketed across the blogosphere when Hilary Clinton piped up with new comments this week, becoming more forthcoming after calling for “quiet diplomacy.” “What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right,” Secretary of State Clinton said at a news conference. “The effort belongs to them. I am moved by it and I support them.”

While much of the conversation has been focused on cultural differences between Saudi Arabia and the United States, and the delicate politics involved, this issue resonates in the role of women internationally. In the grand scheme of things, women haven’t had really had equal rights for all that long. Saudi Arabia is a reminder of how oppressive inequality can be in people’s everyday lives.

Life Magazine profiled Anne Rainsford French Bush in 1952, who is believed to be the first American woman to get a driver’s license in 1900. Yet, it would be a number of years until women were zipping around on the freeways. First, they needed the right to vote.

Driving is empowering. It makes the world a bigger place. Driving creates options. Driving is a way out. Driving is independence.

While tradition and attitudes towards gender make this issue particularly contentious in Saudi society, in our country, women drivers are not always perceived as astute as male drivers.

Even in our nation in which women make most of the purchase decisions about cars, and drive over half the cars, men continue to claim superiority to the road. Ask a woman, like myself, who drives performance cars, and the incredulous reactions that men express when a woman is at the wheel of a “man’s” car.  Of course, this issue doesn’t come down to basic rights, but it’s still enlightening.

While research and driving instructors attest that women often make better  drivers, advertising and marketing focuses on the male driver as those who drive for the joy of it, and have historically. Check out this ad for 1955 Dodge La Femme:

Women are often portrayed as flighty drivers and in timid roles. But, in reality, the experience is so much more. That’s what I love about this particular video that I’ve posted below — the pride these Saudi women express driving, and the excitement of having the open road ahead.

(Source: blogs.forbes.com)