The Gender Neutralization of Auto Dealership Ownership,Management and Employees

More Women Working As Car Dealers

NEW ORLEANS January 30, 2005; John Porretto writing for the AP reported that the clearest evidence to date of women's increasing presence at the helm of U.S. car dealerships could be found over the weekend at the renowned Plimsoll Club atop the city's World Trade Center.

After 88 years of meeting annually to discuss avenues for selling more cars and trucks, the National Automobile Dealers Association held its first full-fledged gathering for women dealers -- a breakfast Saturday that attracted upward of 200 dealers as well as other women with management and sales positions at their respective shops.

Twenty years ago, a similar function might have drawn a handful of women owners, because that's about all there was.

Last year, however, nearly 7 percent of the nation's approximately 20,000 franchised new vehicle dealerships were owned by women, according to CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore. That's up from 2.9 percent in 1990 and 5.9 percent in 2000.

Observers say the growing trend of female ownership is a sign the multibillion-dollar, male-dominated industry is further embracing the realities of the American marketplace, where statistics show that women act alone or have a say in roughly 80 percent of all vehicle purchases.

"People like to see people like them when they come into a dealership," said Barbara Lupient, chief executive of Minneapolis-based Lupient Automotive Group, which owns 37 franchises in 15 locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Lupient and her female counterparts are among 30,000 industry professionals attending the four-day NADA convention, which began Saturday. The gathering gives dealers face time with the executives who run the companies that make the vehicles they sell.

In the past, women attendees were largely dealers' wives, but the brand meetings and training sessions are becoming more populated by women owners, managers and sales representatives.

What's more, though hard statistics are difficult to come by, automakers and analysts say women dealers generally are at least as successful as their male counterparts.

"When we look at the performance of our female dealers, they're at parity with the majority -- which means their profitability, their sales effectiveness is on par with male dealers," said Patricia Roberts, who runs General Motors Corp.'s Women's Retail Initiative, launched in 2001 to increase the number of women-owned car businesses.

Marianne McInerney, president of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, said a listing of the top 20 retail dealers among several foreign nameplates would include strong representation from women.

The number of women-owned, foreign-brand stores grew from 115 in 1997 to 558 last year, according to the AIADA, which represents 7,200 dealers.

McInerney said she expects the number of women owners to reach 600 by year's end and to grow significantly in the next few years. First, she said, companies such as Honda Motor Co. and BMW AG are making aggressive efforts to recruit more women and minority owners. Also, some Asian nameplates continue to expand their U.S. dealer networks.

Since starting its women's retail initiative four years ago, GM has added 63 women owners, bringing its overall number to 262 -- about 3 percent of its 7,400 dealers. Ford Motor Co., the nation's No. 2 automaker behind GM, said its women-dealer rolls have grown from 231 in 1997 to 342 at the end of 2004, more than 6 percent of its dealer population.

In some cases, women dealers are wives who succeeded their late husbands, or daughters who bought or inherited the business from their dads. Barbara Lupient said she began her evolution to the top of Lupient Automotive Group when her husband, founder Jim Lupient, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1988. She's the first female to sit on GM's National Dealer Council.

Roberts said GM's biggest obstacle to increasing its women-dealer ranks isn't finding potential owners -- it's locating car businesses for sale. With Americans buying new vehicles at or near record levels for the past several years, most owners are hanging on to their lots.

"We have more women with capital who want to become dealers than we have opportunities each year," Roberts said.

Art Spinella, president of CNW, said his staffers who visit women-owned dealerships to gather data -- researchers known as "mystery shoppers" -- typically find operations not too different from those run by men. The one exception: stores owned by women typically have more women on the job, not only on the showroom floor but in the service bays and finance and insurance departments.

Spinella said it might make good business sense for some women dealers to note their ownership status in advertisements. The reason: men generally aren't concerned who owns the business, but women are more apt to gravitate to a dealership with a woman in charge.

"It used to be that women-owned dealerships never made mention of the fact that a woman owned it," Spinella said. "That's not always the case now, and for good reason. It tends to work in their favor."