The National Automobile Dealerships Association (NADA) reflected on how 2020 has highlighted women in the industry, particularly with adding more seats for women on its board of directors.
Before the year ended, two new women members that joined the board included Sandra Fitzgerald-Angello, who was chosen to represent dealers of Maryland, and Colleen McDonald, representing women dealers in metropolitan Detroit.
They joined three experienced female dealers already serving on the NADA board. This included Valerie Bowen, at-large board member representing women dealers in the Central Region; Michelle Primm, the longest-serving woman on the NADA board and at-large member representing female dealers in the East region; and Annette DiLorenzo Thayer, NADA’s Dealership Operations Committee Chair, representing dealers in Mexico.
"These women are vital to the organization’s leadership and have proved indispensable players, influencing policy and driving the auto retail industry forward,” NADA Director of Media Relations Juliet Guerra said in a repress release.
“As we near the end of Women’s History Month, NADA honors these women, who have made dealerships a great place for women" to developing a career and succeed professionally, she added.
Last year NADA made two goals. First, it wanted to expand the number of at-large seats reserved for female dealers and for minority dealers, each from two to three. Second, to make one more board seat reserved for another female to fill in later this spring as an at-large member representing the west.
The automotive sector is dominated by men in terms of the number of workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and only 9% of workers in the automotive repair and maintenance industry are women.
While according to the most recent study conducted by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, women continue to represent approximately 20% of the segment.
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