For the past six years, NADA has organized a “Women Driving Auto Retail” video contest. Women in the automotive retail industry can submit a short video talking about themselves, how their career started, their responsibilities and what they love about their job. The goal is to celebrate women in the industry and recruit more females to join them.
Walser Automotive Group, which has dealerships in Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas, produced a powerful video this year titled “The Time is Now.” It features women from across the dealership group talking about how they never thought they would work in the auto business — and why that is.
The women outline why the industry is a great place for women to work — career opportunities and growth, a way to provide for their family — and what skills they bring (new perspectives, relationship building, diversity). The video finishes up with a call for changes to be made now.
“Walser’s 2023 submission isn’t a proclamation of why women (or men, for that matter) should work in automotive someday,” Dayna Kleve, director of Diversity, Engagement & Foundation at Walser Automotive Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “It’s a road map to change the narrative for young girls and women today. The time to bring them in is early. It’s often. The time is now.”