Auto Estrogen

If you’re looking for a great selection and have a couple of hours to spare, you’re heading to the mall. Likewise, if you’re searching for a car and you want to see the best the manufacturers have to offer this year, then you definitely want to head to the auto show, in this case the AJC International Auto Show, being held this week in Atlanta. Walk into the GWCC (Georgia World Congress Center) showroom and you feel as if you’re in the Car Mall as you’re greeted with over 600 shiny, top of the line brand new cars from virtually every manufacturer.

So, what’s a woman to do? Shop, of course!

About a year ago a friend of mine told me she was interested in working in the automotive industry. She had been attending auto auctions with her husband and the two had decided they might have an interest in selling cars.

Later she shared an incident in which she applied for a sales position at a car dealership. The general manager reviewed her application and blatantly told her she wouldn’t be interested in working there. The reason: the sales guys wouldn’t work well with her, she’d be competing against them and it wouldn’t be a happy environment. Wow! I was shocked. Pam (my friend) had never worked in car sales before but she does have an extensive, results oriented sales background and could easily hold her own on a car lot.

Several months later a colleague relayed a similar story. She had worked at a dealership for a very short time. Her summary: It wasn’t a friendly environment.

Needless to say, when I was driving and saw the sign SALESMAN WANTED at a car dealership, it got my attention. Prior to hearing the two stories above, I would have thought very little of it, but today I have this question:

How well is the auto industry managing diversity in the showroom?

Walk into any dealership and you see one consistent theme. The bulk of the sales and management staff are male. You’d be hard-pressed to find one behind the receptionist desk though. Why is that? A 2002 study by CNW Marketing Research presented by AWARE (Advancing Women in Automotive Retail) showed that 60% of women working in car dealerships worked as office staff, while only 7.1% are general managers, 4.9% are owners, 4.2% work in new car sales, and 2.1% work in used car sales. Now there’s a discrepancy! Consider the fact that subtle stereotypical advertising like Salesmen Wanted vs. Salesperson Wanted still exists and you see the dilemma.

Car-Buy-Her maintains its position that in order to build woman-friendly environments within dealerships, the auto industry needs to establish better diversity and recruitment programs that make the dealership both attractive and friendly for women. In our report How to Build a Woman Friendly Dealership, we make this point: Until the industry employs a comprehensive recruitment program that includes balancing the employment work force, the industry will continue to lag behind.