Attracting Women to the industry is about more than gender politics.

We’ve had a very positive response to the event report (alluded to in our last blog) that we sent out to our delegates and speakers at the end of last month.

I mentioned in the last blog that we were going to use the event to ask delegates to vote on some key questions concerning the need to attract more women to our industry.

No surprise: our (nearly 70) delegates were in strong agreement that the industry needs to do more to appeal to the female contingent that comprises 47% of the working UK population. They were in agreement that our ability to increase the appeal of the automotive industry lies in the hands of the education system, the government, the industry and themselves, as example-setters.

You can see one version of the results and get a bit of a sense of the evening here, in our Ennis & Co Women in Automotive event overview.

It was a very positive and forward-looking event. Anecdotally, many delegates and speakers said they felt the industry to be as rewarding, encouraging and open to them as to their male counterparts, and the consensus that the industry has become much more diverse in the last 10 or 15 years was clear. In a changing world, the same benefits that might make the industry more appealing to women might also attract more men (for example, flexible working benefits), and the need to attract more strong students to STEM-related subjects is a wide ranging one.

Sure, maybe more boys than girls of school age envisage themselves working within the automotive industry, but I know that right now there are a couple of generations of professionals (irrespective of their own gender) who are actively looking to change that.

Watch this space.

Lynda Ennis
Founder
Ennis & Co

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