At 03:25 PM 2/10/2013, Joy Hecht wrote:
>My theory was always that it was a sexist item, assuming women were the
>passengers, and that women wanted to look at themselves in the mirror.

It's commonly called a vanity mirror, and either appears or has
lights added to it at higher trim levels of a vehicle.  Some have
lighted ones on the passenger side and unlit ones on the driver
side.  For what it's worth I've only ever seen women using them,
whether on driver or passenger side.  No doubt this is because I
don't spend a lot of time in company of men who wear makeup other
than on stage, and who therefor have no particular use for a quick
"makeup-fixing" mirror.  I think my '89 White Star has none on the
driver's side.  It definitely has a lighted one (that if permitted
will light automatically when the visor is flipped down) on the
passenger side.  Come to that the women I spend time with tend to
wear makeup less rather than more, for both individual and
institutional reasons.

Incidentally, in the city of Manchester NH and the country of New
Zealand ca 1985 I noticed what seemed an unusually high proportion of
couples where the woman was driving.  I mentioned this to one of my
(business) hosts in New Zealand and he just grunted and said "Women's
work."  I didn't get to ask anyone in Manchester....

Yours,
David