Macho culture in UK motor industry

Posted on March 12, 2012 by foxysteph

I can’t resist downloading the latest Annual Accounts from leading car manufacturers and UK dealership Groups to spot how many female Executive Directors they employ.

The way I see it – how can the motor industry improve its macho image in the minds of so many influential women (customers and potential employees) until it starts to recruit women ‘like us’ at the top and throughout the organisation, affecting the business culture and working conditions for all.

25% female by 2015?

I would love to see the UK motor industry leading the field here towards Lord Davies’ aspirational 25% female Board representation by 2015. But I can’t see it happening as things stand, because it’s a rare Board to have more than one female Executive Board member and she is more likely to be in a supporting (Human Resources or Secretary) role than one that can lead the business strategically.

And speaking from personal experience (gained in the shipping industry) it’s hard to be the only female NED in a sea of males who prefer the status quo!

Whether it’s an Executive or Non Executive Directorship in the motor industry, how good it would be if more Chairmen would determine to create a more female friendly working environment so that less determined but just as talented women staff could find it easier to make it to the top in future.

As things stand, the female talent is going into other more female friendly industries – what a waste of some of the best qualified graduates in the UK.

I am also surprised by the number of CEOs who tell me, always proudly, that they run a female friendly business. Leaving aside the paucity of females on their Board for now, when I ask their female Senior Managers, few agree. I tend to trust the women more than the CEO here who invariably thinks that women want to be treated the same as men. Which is a fundamental mistake in terms of customer service!

According to the 30% club; a group of chairmen voluntarily committed to bringing more women onto UK boards…
+ 15% of FTSE 100 board directorships are held by women
+ 18 FTSE 100 companies have no female directors at all
+ Nearly half of all FTSE 250 companies do not have a woman in the boardroom
+ Based on this progress it would take 70 years to balance the sexes in our Boardrooms.

Clearly we can’t wait that long if we want the motor industry to thrive in our lifetime…

A female friendly industry makeover

I believe the UK motor industry needs to set ambitious Board and workforce diversity recruitment targets that are then reviewed on an annual basis. Tactics that work well for some (in terms of Board diversity and skills/results) can become best practice benchmarks for others. And I hope that the industry would then see new opportunities to polish its lacklustre image in the minds of female motorists.

No quotas though. Who wants to be that token female Non Executive Director tolerated by men and who treat her as such?

FOXY Steph

PS: What a waste of so much highly qualified female talent when the likes of the motor industry is perceived to be so male dominated that most women don’t want to work there.

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FOXY Mum Stacey Solomon stands down

Posted on March 5, 2012 by foxysteph

Having been named Celebrity Mum of the Year 2011, Foxy Bingo and Stacey Solomon have enjoyed a close working relationship in the past year, including the Foxy Mum of the Year campaign; a nationwide search to find Britain’s best real-life mum – which Stacey launched last month.

However, following stories in the newspapers in recent days, Foxy Bingo has taken the decision to sack Queen of the Jungle and X-Factor singer Stacey from her position of judge on Foxy Mum and from the voting shortlist for Foxy Bingo Celebrity Mum of the Year 2012.

Apparently this is because she was caught smoking on camera…

Stacey has apologised to the people at Foxy Bingo and is sorry and embarrassed as a result.

FOXY Bingo understands Stacey is doing all she can to stop smoking and in recent times she has cut back dramatically. They say she’s disappointed but accepts Foxy Bingo’s decision.

Foxy Bingo would like to place on record its thanks to Stacey for all her efforts so far on the Foxy Mum campaign.

FOXY Lady Drivers Club would like to place it on record that it has nothing to do with FOXY Bingo or Stacey Solomon. But, from an outsider’s point of view and with a FOXY opinion as always, this does seem a tad harsh on Stacey. Coming as it does from a gambling website?

FOXY Steph

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Say farewell to fairness for females in future…

Posted on March 2, 2012 by foxysteph

How much did you say?

How much did you say?

Dear Mr Cameron

Please remember that many foxy ladies are formidable female voters who can potentially secure or lose you your political future.

And that too many are struggling to balance the family budget and have yet to realise that their critical car insurance premiums are set to soar later this year, simply because they are female.

This could well prove to be a tipping point for motoring mums and daughters when it comes to voting time.

In a nutshell, if anyone thinks equality means fairness for females, please think again. I’m talking about car insurance costs come December 2012 when HM Government is allowing car insurers to charge women the same premiums as men, having been told to do this by the EU, in the name of ‘equality.’

By ‘equality’ they mean that women drivers are to pay more for their car insurance than male drivers. Despite statistics confirming that young women, in particular, are considerably safer and less accident prone motorists than young men who account for 98% of dangerous driving convictions and cause the majority of fatal and serious road accidents.

But isn’t motor insurance supposed to be about underwriting risk and rewarding no claims experience? I had always thought so but clearly not. Otherwise I know which gender I’d prefer to underwrite from a commercial point of view.

On the contrary, this ruling allows insurers to ignore risk, to reward testosterone-prone boy racers with lower car insurance premiums and to penalise women drivers of all ages by requiring females to pay more than in the past and to contribute towards the cost of accidents we didn’t cause.

This might be called ‘gender equality’ in the EU but it certainly isn’t fair on women drivers in the UK.

Shame on you, Mr Cameron and your Office of Fair Trading lawyers. You know it’s unfair on females and that women drivers paying more for their car insurance are purely transferring money from stressed family budgets into the coffers of allegedly ‘poor’ motor insurers.

Whatever happened to the logic of underwriting insurance on the basis of risk? Which is why women drivers have been paying less for car insurance than riskier male drivers for as long as I can remember…

But say farewell to fairness for females in future as soon as it comes to motor insurance premium hikes that are on the horizon from December onwards.

Fortunately there is still time to fend off this discrimination before it starts to cost you female votes Mr Cameron…

FOXY Steph

FOXY Lady Drivers Club is the female voice of motoring. We are championing this important insurance issue on behalf of UK women drivers. To support our efforts please either join us, LIKE the FOXY Lady Drivers Club page at Facebook or email Steph Savill steph@foxyladydrivers.com to add your support and/or to raise awareness of this unfair treatment of female motorists in the UK.

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What will be the Womens’ Car of the Year?

Posted on March 1, 2012 by foxysteph

Female judges from eleven countries (two in the UK) have submitted their own personal shortlist with the aim of identifying the ‘car of the world for women’ in 2012. They all share a professional automotive background with a few racing drivers and journalists in there for good measure.

Some 300 models were then whittled down to form a female friendly list of 32 cars in terms of global popularity and judges are now required to allocate points per car by criteria…

Clearly these are ‘female industry’ oriented awards (ie family car, luxury car, sports car and economy car) more than ‘female motorist’ lifestyle motoring awards (as in first car, motoring mums, business women, solos perhaps) but one important concession to women this year is the criteria called ‘child friendliness’ because women are more likely to have children in their cars than men. Presumably this won’t penalise scores for (most) sports cars…

Twenty female judges are now finalising their secret ballot votes to be collated by Grant Thornton in New Zealand. The car with the most points in each category wins that category award and the vehicle receiving the most votes overall will win the 2012 Women’s World Car of the Year’s supreme award.

The awards will be announced later this month and involve the following shortlisted models.

ECONOMY CAR
VW up! Kia Rio
Kia Picanto Honda CRZ
Honda Civic Mazda 3 Skyactiv
Ford Fiesta Econetic Hyundai Accent Diesel

FAMILY CAR
Ford Focus Audi Q3
Kia Optima Subaru XV
Mercedes-Benz B-Class BMW X1
Mazda CX5

LUXURY CAR
Range Rover Evoque Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Audi A6 Bentley Continental
Audi A7 BMW 6 Series
BMW 3 Series Peugeot 508
Jaguar XJ

SPORTS CAR
Porsche 911 – 991 Jaguar XKR
Audi RS5 Renault Megane III
Ferrari FF Ferrari 458 Spider
BMW Series 1 M VW Golf R
Lamborghini Aventador Mercedes-Benz SLK
Mercedes-Benz CLS AMG

Despite running a motoring club for women I must confess I don’t know all and haven’t driven many of these cars. Sadly I am clearly not in the income bracket for most of the luxury or sports car contenders…

Having said that, I am surprised to see the BMW 1 series in the Sports Car category, we’d certainly have voted Mazda’s MX5 in there, the VW Up is too new for us to comment and we’d have added some more mundane GM, Renault and Citroen models given the opportunity…

But if marketing and feedback in the UK is anything to go by, a foxy tip would be to back the Range Rover Evoque as the most likely candidate for the most votes and to become the supreme female success car story in 2012.

Keeping her insider knowledge close to her chest, Women’s World Car of the Year‘s Sandy Myhre (from New Zealand) admits

“In past years it’s been quite hard to tell at this stage what cars have a good shot at winning the overall title but this year it’s evident that at least four cars are definitely in the running.”

We’ll keep you posted about the outcome of course.

FOXY Steph

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Thanks for your support…

Posted on February 27, 2012 by foxysteph

As a result of our lobbying partnership with the ProMOTe organisation, HM Government has agreed that the UK MOT model is the safer choice than the EU alternative for UK motorists.

That’s a result worthy of celebration for all UK women drivers. It’s all too easy to do nothing, thinking someone else will do the right thing.

In FOXY’s experience this isn’t always the case, as in the EU ruling that is set to charge women the same insurance premiums as men come December 2012, in the name of equality. Can you recall anyone standing up for female motorists despite the fact that insurance has always been about underwriting risk and women drivers are known to be the statistically safer and lower risk gender on UK roads?

No protest from MPs or from the RAC or AA… And needless to say, we won’t hear this from insurance companies because they will be richer as a result of this ruling.

Well now FOXY will be speaking out about this unfair ruling that will mean women paying for accidents traditionally caused by young men and bolstering insurer profits. This is the next campaign we will be lobbying for on behalf of women drivers. Please add to our female motoring voice by joining FOXY Lady Drivers Club and we’ll keep you posted about car insurance buying advice and where the best deals for women are to be found.

FOXY Steph

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