Does it surprise you to see a female HGV Class 1 driver? It shouldn't, of course, but the occupation is so male-dominated that to see a woman deftly handling a 40-ton truck is still a surprise.
I have the same reaction when I see a female car salesperson. When I was selling motors in the late 1980s, I don't recall encountering a car saleswoman. I was reminded of this gender imbalance the other week when shopping for a car with Mrs Evans. Of five dealerships that we visited, only one appeared to have a female on their sales team. Of course, the others, if there were others, may have been busy on test drives when we visited but still, men were dominant.
This impression is supported by the findings of a survey carried out by What Car?. It found that almost 70% of car buyers had never bought from a female sales person.
Although respondents didn't mind who, male or female, sold them a car, almost 90% did feel that more women should be encouraged to work in showrooms, a big ask given that almost one third of female respondents believed car retailing is inherently sexist.
I'm pleased to say Autocar is doing its bit to reward and encourage women in a sales career with its Autocar Great Women: Rising Stars 2021 competition, which includes a category for saleswomen.
The National Franchised Dealers Association, which represents main dealers, couldn't tell me how many female salespeople its members employ. Instead, rather than focusing purely on gender, the organisation says it's keen to increase diversity in general. I won't argue with that but my point remains that 30 years since I last sold cars, buyers are still more likely to be sold a car by a man than by a woman.
Does it matter? For what it's worth, on our recent car-buying expedition Mrs Evans and I found it much more pleasant to be sold a car by a woman than a man. With one exception the men were either slightly detached or too tiresomely animated and worse, we didn't wholly trust them (one completely misrepresented the condition of a car).
In contrast, the young saleswoman we met, and who worked at a Peugeot dealership, was mature, composed, articulate, an excellent listener and, we felt, totally trustworthy. Sadly, my wife didn't warm to her 208 GTi Line auto and bought a Mini instead – from a man... surprise, surprise.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Sales people, as some posters here prefer to call them, have to deal with all walks of life who come into their showroom looking for a shiny new motorm they are supposed to be friendly and help the potential customer to buy the car there interested in with the right spec , and this is crucial , a fair price that suits both,ok, I know, nearly everyone thinks they're getting ripped-off, a bum deal, and you can buy a car these days with little human contact, look at the car online, spec it up to what you want, get prices from dealers on line, buy it, get it delivered to your Door, sales person making a fortune these days?, I don't know, but, you only get what you give, if your not nice, then don't expect the salesperson to do you any favours in the future.
what next? what colour do you want your car salesman to be? what is their sexuality. How old are they? As long as they are inteligent and can do a good deal i dont care
Is Autocar jumping on the Woke SJW bandwagon? I have dealt with both male and female salespeople and it hasn't bothered me. I'm more interested in the car and can I get a good deal.