It is no surprise that the automotive industry tends to be more male-dominated. At Inchcape, we not only recognise this but are also committed to reversing it.
We spoke with Karen Blanco, Vice President of People for Inchcape Americas, who shared insights on the challenges and opportunities for gender equity in the industry.
How has gender equity evolved in this sector?
I joined this industry in 2019 when I started at Inchcape, and in my regional role, I have had the opportunity to witness how we now have more women in the workforce and how we are taking action to, for example, double the representation of female talent from 15% to 28% globally within four years.
An interesting fact we observed is that, on average, 4 out of 10 car buyers are women. Therefore, we need better representation in our leadership positions to influence decision-making, as well as across other areas of the company, as we value having diverse perspectives at all levels of the organisation.
The challenge is significant, and we know there is still a long way to go. However, on a day like today, it is also important to acknowledge the growing number of women who have joined Inchcape year after year at all levels.
I have had the pleasure of seeing more female colleagues in workshops, such as Laura Gómez, a Jaguar Land Rover mechanic in Colombia, as well as professionals leading areas traditionally dominated by men, like Karen Madrigal, Head of Heavy Vehicles in Costa Rica, or Pía Vera, our Subaru Manager in Chile.
Why are women important in the industry?
We need to better understand our customers by achieving greater gender representation in our stores, workshops, and offices. At Inchcape, we aim to actively attract, recruit, and develop people across all aspects of diversity to reflect our customer base and the communities in which we operate. In most of our key markets, nearly half of our customers are women.
What are Inchcape's goals in terms of gender equity?
To increase the percentage of women in leadership positions to 35% by 2026 through initiatives that foster an inclusive culture, talent development, and attraction. To empower our female leaders, we have implemented the "Women into Leadership" programme, and thanks to the positive feedback from participants, we are building the "Aspire Women" programme, focused on career development for our female talent at all levels.
The global vision of these programmes is to actively attract, recruit, and develop people across all aspects of diversity, reflecting our customer base and the communities in which we operate. At the same time, it aims to ensure that everyone feels valued and can fully contribute to the company, generating a breadth of input, ideas, and thinking to enhance business performance and decision-making. Differences drive ideas and innovation.
What challenges and opportunities do you identify for Inchcape?
Including more women in the industry is both a challenge and an opportunity. We need to make working in this fascinating sector, which offers many opportunities, more attractive. People teams and leaders have a key role to play in this.
There are many opportunities: defining our Inclusion and Diversity plan, including improving gender equity; using a gender perspective to attract, develop, and retain leaders who select teams that provide equal opportunities for women as candidates in processes; implementing programmes to enhance internal female talent; forming partnerships with educational institutions to encourage women to enter the industry, among many others.
What advice would you give to women who want to build a career in this industry?
I encourage them to learn about Inchcape, its vision for the future of mobility, and how they can have a challenging and interesting professional career where they can help us shape the future of our company.
We would like more women to join our company and help us create more robust solutions with their ideas, as diversity of thought will lead to better results and organisational climate.
I encourage them to be curious, ambitious, surround themselves with women who inspire them, and trust in their talent and our ability to drive change.