Author: Marie Claire
Date: 04/04/2019
Publisher: Marie Claire
Link: https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/life/work/cars-650207
Sadly, we know the entire car industry – from the cars themselves, to marketing, dealerships, magazines and motor shows – is still a male-biased environment, where women and unconfident buyers are given little support and guidance.
One might, at a stretch, understand this approach if only men bought and drove cars. But there are 11.8 million female licence holders in the UK, a number that’s growing faster than that of our male counterparts. Women have always been the influencer behind the majority of car purchases in this country (around 80 per cent), but increasingly, we are now the primary customer, buying our own cars with our own money, for our own pleasure. We have more disposable income than ever: in the US, women now own 60 per cent of private wealth, and you can bet your bottom dollar a similar stat is heading here.
So, why do women still find the car-buying experience such a negative one? According to a recent survey by Auto Trader, 94 per cent of women don’t trust dealerships, 83 per cent don’t trust manufacturers, and 40 per cent ‘dread’ the buying process.
Thankfully, all is not lost. The cars themselves are forcing changes. Petrol and diesel-powered sports models are disappearing, replaced by hybrid and pure electric vehicles. The days of adverts that show women splayed across the bonnet of a V8 sports car are fading. Instead, we are embracing electric cars, which are more focused on lifestyle than performance. The emphasis is not on horsepower any more, but sustainability. Also, the conversation is shifting from engineering to interiors, as the car evolves into ‘the third space’, after the office and home, in which to hold our conference calls, or help the kids with their homework.
The car industry knows it must respond to the female consumer, who, right now, feels utterly disenfranchised. If it doesn’t, women will take their hard-earned cash away from dealers and buy online. They’ll be swayed by social platforms, too, where the likes of Google and Uber, who are both trialing their own autonomous cars, will reach them first.
In reality, our wish list is not dissimilar to men’s. Cost, space, practicality and safety all feature high on the demands of both genders, but we want to be respected and recognized for our spending power, not patronized. We want to see car reviews done by women, by people like us, and we want to buy from companies that share our values and take diversity seriously themselves. We’d also like to see the stories that are told around cars brought in line with how we live, rather than in the dry way they’ve always been told in car mags aimed at men.
I hope that in five years’ time, women will talk about cars as they do about fashion, health or anything else. And no dealer will say ‘I expect you’ll want to check with your husband’ ever again.
Similarly to looking into the vehicle experience of POC, I wanted to find an article that discussed the experiences that women had with automobiles. I found several articles explaining the relationship between gender and automobiles, from how they are marketed, to common stereotypes, to what working in industry is like, but this article in particular stood out because it, to a slight degree, addressed the idea of autonomous vehicles and identified a potential direction in which they may be marketed towards women. I think the statistics in this article are important to note too because it gives us more context on the end users we are probably going to wind up working with, and knowing that the new primary consumer of vehicles are women will be something we will have to consider when approaching this project.
Claire, M. (2021, February 25). Cars and sexism: Why the industry needs to make cars for women. Marie Claire. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/life/work/cars-650207.
