12:09 pm, December 12, 2024
The Automotive 30% Club has today announced it is within touching distancing of achieving its ambitious ’30 by 30′ goal.
The campaign group, which champions women in the automotive industry, is aiming to have 30% of key leadership and decision-making roles filled by females by 2030.
Five years out from that target, bosses say the figure is already standing at 28% with an impressive 40% of the 72 member companies already at or above the 30% target.
Meanwhile, in another sign of the group’s stellar progress, its membership has now also reached 30% female representation in their total workforce.
Reacting to the achievement, Julia Muir, founder of the Automotive 30% Club, said: ‘It is fantastic that we are advancing steadily towards the critical tipping point of 30% female representation in key leadership roles and are now only 2% away from our goal.
‘We are achieving this through forums where we bring subject matter experts to advise our members, who then collaborate and share best practice.
‘Our members are taking an inclusive and meritocratic approach, removing legacy barriers for underrepresented groups, and people are thriving irrespective of their gender.
‘I’m very confident that all members will achieve the Club’s 30 by 30 goal, set when I founded the Club in 2016.’
Among the group’s 72 members, are nine manufacturers, 25 retailers of varying sizes and ten finance and leasing providers. A further 28 companies fall into a mixed ‘others’ category to protect their anonymity.
A recent survey of members, which had a 100% response rate, found that the category with the best female representation in key leadership and decision-making roles is finance and leasing with 36%, closely followed by the ‘others’ category at 33%.
Meanwhile, the Manufacturers are at 23% and the Retailers are at 21%.
Despite the progress, the outfit says there is still work to be done, especially at board level where female representation currently stands at just 18%, and operating committee, where the figure is 25%.
Muir added: ‘The management levels with the least female representation are still the board at 18% and operating committee at 25%, but it’s reassuring that there is an impressive 28% female representation in the level that reports to the operating committee, indicating a strong future pipeline of female top executives.
‘Our members are racing away with a 21% lead over the sector average.’
Muir discussed her involvement in the Automotive 30% Club during a recent appearance on the Car Dealer Podcast. You can read what she had to say here, or listen to the full episode above.
