12:00 pm, January 30, 2024
The Automotive 30% Club is celebrating after today revealing it is well on its way to achieving its aim of having 30% of key leadership or decision-making roles filled by diverse women by 2030.
It said it had reached 27%, so is now just three percentage points away from its target and with six years left to reach it.
Club founder Julia Muir added that 41% of the participating companies were already at or above 30%.
Membership has also reached 29% female representation in the total workforce – significantly higher than the industry average of 19.8% according to latest SMMT figures, said the club.
The figure is set at 30% as that’s seen as the tipping point at which the majority within a group will incorporate views and different perspectives of the minority, meaning the benefits of gender balance begin to kick in.
Results from the club’s female representation survey – which was carried out last September and saw 64 member companies taking part, equalling a 96% response rate – were released today as well.
It showed that the automotive industry’s best sector for best female representation in key leadership and decision-making roles was finance and leasing with 37%.
That was followed by the ‘Others’ category – a combination of 21 firms to avoid small sample sizes and affecting anonymity – at 33%, manufacturers at 24% and dealerships at 23.5%.
Muir said: ‘It’s fantastic that so many of our members are already at 30% six years before our target date of 2030.
‘It’s encouraging to see these companies collaborating and sharing best practice and taking an inclusive and meritocratic approach where people are thriving irrespective of their gender.
‘I’m very confident that all these members will achieve the club’s 30 by 30 goal.’
She added: ‘The management levels with the least female representation are still the board at 20% and operating committee at 22%.
‘But it’s reassuring to see that the current male incumbents of those roles are working hard to ensure that female talent is not lost from the sector or excluded from the top team in the future, with an impressive 28% female representation in their direct reports level.’
Last Tuesday, the club named its 17 winners of this year’s Inspiring Automotive Women award.
Pictured at top is a workshop group at the Automotive 30% Club’s 2023 conference
