Recruiting: where are all the women?
3rd April, London: Episode seven of the new Auto Trader podcast Women in the driving seat, hosted by Editorial Director, divorced mum of two and award-winning motoring journalist Erin Baker is released today. The series aims to rip up the rule book on the female-empowerment narrative by sharing personal as well as professional experiences, examining the space where both collide, and the challenges, fears and successes happen.
Episode seven covers Julia’s reasons for founding the Automotive 30% club (the official reason and the real reason - which may or may not have something to do with perimenopause), how the auto industry is built for the default male employee and how careers advisors need to open their minds to all future possibilities.
All episodes in the series feature a Podcast Pit Stop – a quick fire round covering the professional and personal including; Lark or owl? Circuit or circuits? Phone by the bed or phone downstairs?
Join Erin as she puts two automotive trailblazers in the driving seat.
Podcast preview
Julia Muir:
“Thinking about how our members can make an organisation where women who are mothers who can thrive.”
“We don’t attract a broad range of people…the obvious place to start was to stop losing the women from the industry.”
“We need the best people to rise to the challenge.”
“You start to think, this is all so wrong, there’s so much injustice…might have coincided with perimenopause… you start to look at the world in a different way.”
“My release is always humour, when you start to feel the pot bubbling you have to have a release, you’ve got to laugh about it.”
“I’ve had a very senior leader taking me to one side…and very aggressively, almost violently, pushing his finger into my face saying you need to stop this you’re rocking the boat women need to know their place women were happy until you started turning them all against us”
“What’s the culture of the organisation, who’s leading it, do they get this? Do they understand it’s about high performing teams?”
“Caroline Criado Perez…We design cars around men and because of that, women are 17% more likely to die in a car accident…We also designed our whole industry around the default male employee.”
“We have to think about a different profile of employee.”
“Companies... stop creating huge, long lists of criteria that you don’t then stick to.”
Catherine King:
“The truth is things don’t happen overnight.”
“It’s all very well having a dream job… can I actually write car reviews?”
“I sent that email saying you know, if there’s an opportunity please can I have a go?”
“The culture had been so supportive along the way so that feedback isn’t someone being horrible to you it’s someone trying to be helpful.”
“PRs and fellow journalists, they see we need more diversity in the role, everyone was very friendly and welcoming.”
“I remember going to the careers office and saying I really like cars I’d like to do something with cars please and the looked at me like.. are you sure?.. I felt like it wasn’t a sensible option or even an option at all.”
“Take any opportunities that really appeal to you… don’t say no to them, just be really open… even if it doesn’t look like an obvious path… go out and try.”
Auto Trader’s new podcast Women in the driving seat releases new episodes every Thursday.
Notes to editors
ABOUT ERIN BAKER
Erin Baker is an award-winning motoring journalist and Editorial Director of Auto Trader. She writes a monthly driving column for Vogue, is a World Car of the Year judge, consults for Goodwood and hosts She's Electric, a national roadshow bringing women and electric cars together. Erin is passionate about narrowing the gender gap, both in the automotive industry itself and between car brands and female consumers, through more targeted language, marketing and experiences. She is a divorced mother of two boys.
ABOUT AUTO TRADER
Auto Trader Group plc is the UK’s largest automotive platform. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2015 and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index.
Auto Trader’s purpose is Driving Change Together. Responsibly. Auto Trader is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture, it aims to build stronger partnerships with its customers and use its voice and influence to drive more environmentally friendly vehicle choices.
With the largest number of car buyers and the largest choice of trusted stock, Auto Trader’s marketplace sits at the heart of the UK car buying process. That marketplace is built on an industry-leading technology and data platform, which is increasingly used across the automotive industry. Auto Trader is continuing to bring more of the car buying journey online, creating an improved buying experience, whilst enabling all its retailer partners to sell vehicles online.
Auto Trader publishes a monthly used car Retail Price Index which is based on pricing analysis of circa 800,000 unique vehicles. The same data that powers the Index is used by the Office for National Statistics to make the UK’s official measures of inflation more robust, as well as the Bank of England to feed the broader UK economic indicators.
For more information, please visit: plc.autotrader.co.uk
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