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Equality in the Motor Trade: Opportunities for Females

05-03-2020
Industry news

The theme for this year’s International Women’s day is #EachforEqual. The idea being that an equal world is an enabled world, something we can all contribute to, simply by choosing to have a gender equal mind set and through our individual actions and behaviours.

Whilst the Automotive Industry has historically been dominated by men, the last decade has seen a shift in attitude with Automotive retailers, manufacturers and its supply chain all striving to attract more females to the industry and increasing the number of females in senior roles.

Already there are lots of impressive women making an impact in key positions across the Motor Trade and organisations such as the UK Automotive 30% Club who are working hard to encourage gender equality as well as to inspire women to choose the Motor Trade as a career.

Every year, Autocar recognises the top 100 female rising stars in the UK Car Industry and topping the 2019 list was Emma King, Ford’s senior purchasing manager who was recognised for pioneering their $11 billion investment in Electric Vehicle Batteries. Also on the winners list were Hilary Andrew, Aston Martin’s Vehicle engineering leader, Camilla Scanes, Audi’s Media relations manager and Buki Okoro, a Manufacturing process engineer at Ford.

It’s undeniable that women are innovating across all divisions of the Motor industry but more needs to be done to make these types of roles both accessible and appealing to women in order to close the gender gap.

As specialist recruiters for the Automotive industry we too have an important part to play in terms of supporting women in to their dream automotive career. Our staff have been trained to ensure all job descriptions are written in a way that is non biased, we remove any reference to gender when putting candidates forward to our clients and we promote jobs at all levels to both men and women based entirely on their skills.

A diverse and equal workforce makes good business sense. The Delivering Through Diversity report by Mckinsey found significant correlation between businesses with a more diverse leadership team and increased financial performance.  In fact, companies in the top quarter for gender diversity in their executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform their competitors on profitability. 

If you’re a female looking to start or further your career in the Motor Trade our team of friendly automotive recruiters at Perfect Placement are on hand to help.

Get in touch today to discuss your next career step.