In the auto world, women still battle to crack old boys’ club
detroit — The auto industry is famously male dominated, forcing women in the field to fight sexism, discrimination and unequal pay — though woman car experts say having Mary Barra at the helm of General Motors is a “very significant” development.
In the midst of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, industry experts Maryann Keller, Michelle Krebs and Rebecca Lindland say they have never faced harassment comparable to that described by the accusers of, for example, film producer Harvey Weinstein.
But speaking to AFP on the sidelines of the Detroit Auto Show, one thing was clear: as women, they felt unwelcome in the “old boys’ club” of the automobile world.
All working as industry analysts — with expertise in a world which seems incomprehensible to many — Keller, Krebs and Lindland are regularly consulted on the battle between US and Japanese manufacturers, the ambitions of Tesla or the arm-wrestling of BMW and Mercedes Benz.
But the 62-year-old Krebs, of AutoTrader.com, recalls that when she started, “There was some skepticism that I wouldn’t be sticking around.”
“I don’t know if I was taken seriously initially,” echoes the 74-yearold Keller, who was a financial analyst on male-heavy Wall Street before she became an automobile expert, eventually opening her own consultancy. She remembers “silly events” and “inappropriate remarks” from salesmen, but declined to go into further detail.
Krebs and Lindland, meanwhile, explained some of the discrimination they faced. “I had to make sure that I knew everything because they doubted that a woman would know everything,” said Lindland, who is in her 40s.
“There were a lot of male bondings that I was excluded from,” added Krebs, referencing the golf, fishing and car racing outings enjoyed by her colleagues.
“In the very early days... when you go on car drives you usually partner up,” she said. “Nobody would ride with me.”
A former journalist, Krebs began her auto career in 1980 at a local newspaper in Michigan. “I got a letter from someone in Texas that said, ‘Women have no business writing about cars — they belong in the kitchen making cookies and making mine chocolate chips.’ I never forgot,” she said. — AFP