hi! there's lots of room for more input to represent other countries/cultures, but meanwhile, get started on these related posts

Were women ever forbidden to drive automobiles, in the US and Europe?

How common was it for women to drive cars in the mid 20th century?

Of course they could- in fact it was not Karl Benz the inventor of the thing but his wife Bertha who is credited with making the first journey of any distance by car.

On August 5th 1888 she and her teenage sons set off- allegedly without Karl's knowledge- in a Motorwagen to visit her mother some 100km/60miles away. It took her about 15 hours, and involved a fair bit of pushing up hills and some roadside repairs, but it proved the car was more than a rich man's toy.

There's an account here .