Why are there no car saleswomen?

[AhBiscuits]

I mean I know there probably are some.
I'm buying a car and visited 3 big car sales places lately. I've seen dozens of car salesmen but not a single female staff member at any of them. Don't women want to sell cars?

I bought my last two cars from saleswomen and they were both brilliant.
I think - and I know this is a big, big generalisation - cars aren't as interesting for women as for men in terms as things to sell.

We're too honest (usually).😙

I have never seen one either

I think so. Salesman put it on hard and tell you what they think you want to hear. The majority of women don't possess such 'skills' - I think car sales is for a specific kind of man, usually.

There are.

Our local dealerships have multiple women selling cars! Perhaps you've just picked three odd ones?

I worked briefly in car sales. I was shocked at how much the salesmen live up to their stereotype. Car sales is quite boring and it’s not well rewarded in most dealerships. I didn’t face any misogyny while I was there but the men are not the most mature (by a long stretch) and I would imagine it’s difficult long term.

There are some out there. But probably similar percentages to female firefighters, mechanics and plumbers. Seems to still be a very gendered job.

a woman sold me my last car. In dealerships I think it depends on the brand and whether it’s got a macho image or not. I have a Mini. She had a really souped up cabriolet version and let me test drive it for a day.

There are. Unfortunately a lot of the males dominating the industry are arseholes which causes the women to move on. My sister has intermittently done car sales and she's hard as nails but even she finds them hard to stomach. (I say this as a daughter of a car dealer as well who is the nicest man in the world!)

I worked in a dealership and there were 4 female salespeople and 1 man. Even the service advisors were more female than males. But all the mechanics etc were male.

Me and my husband own a small
Independent garage. We would love to employ female sales people, in fact we would prefer it, but also totally understand why there aren't many. I have worked briefly in car sales years ago and as a PP said the male sales people live up to the stereotypical image of a used car salesman in a lot of cases. They're inappropriate, vulgar, chauvinistic and over promise to customers to get the sale, particularly the middle aged 'old school' ones. We would much prefer to employ women. The motor industry has a bad reputation for very good reason and is generally very old fashioned. It's not a pleasant environment to work in if you're not thick skinned, for me it wasn't anyway. We are trying to change that by the way! There are also some very good employers out there now though and some decent garages treating customers really well, and also their staff. Hopefully the motor industry is finally making the long overdue changes it needs to move forward, and these dinosaurs finally go out of business.

I was a receptionist in a dealership years ago and the amount of sexist pigs that were there was unbelievable!

I was groped, spoken down to and disrespected (kept asking what I wear at night for my husband) unfortunately and had to quit because my female manager did not believe me when I came forward telling her of my treatment.

The men salesmen believed the only female wasn't good enough to sell cars. She soon quit.

Very male dominated and in my experience filled with misogynistic DH's

At my local Mini nearly all the sales team are women

I’ve come across one and she did a real hard sell and wouldn’t give up and completely put me off buying a car from that dealership.

I've come across two.
One has been doing that job for many years and still phones up , even though we haven't bought a car from her since before Covid
The other one was only young ( early 20s) and she said she liked it , but it's long days and lots of pressure to get sales
She was new to it all and I had the impression she might not last purely because it's so competitive and they do get bogged down with reaching sales targets constantly
I know I couldn't do that job

I've met several car saleswomen over the years with our various car purchases. Of course it's still a predominantly male industry but there are women who I have always found to be less pushy than their male counterparts.

Because generally women aren't encouraged into male dominated roles, cars are for men etc.

Just like you don't see many men who work in nurseries.

Sexism basically.

I used to work in this industry and the hours are brutal - 60-70 hour weeks. Not written down, but definitely expected. This is a huge factor in the lack of diversity in sales teams.

I wish there were more women in car sales. When I bought my current car, the salesmen who addressed my husband and not me - it was my car FFS. The one who left a message for my husband on the phone instead of me, got a bit of an earful when he tried for a second time. I pointed out that I had made the appointment, I had done the test drive and I was making the decision and he’d lost a sale due to his misogyny.

There are. I bought my second car in the early 80s from a main dealership female salesperson. The current car we bought last year from a Volvo main dealership was from a woman salesperson. Can't say they were better or worse than males - they all have the same job to do, the same targets to meet etc.

I think a lot of places put pressure on the salespeople to achieve a certain number of sales etc, and it might be more difficult for the women to do that, if some of the male customers are sexist and don't think a woman knows enough about cars, etc. - they might be less likely to buy it when she is selling, and wait for a man.

As well as the other reasons that people have mentioned about the environment being difficult for women, women not encouraged into it, any interests in cars not be as encouraged in younger women and girls etc. And the more it becomes known as a male thing, the more likely it is to be the men in a couple who end up taking the lead on car buying, or women take a male friend with them, etc etc. Not because women couldn't be as interested or knowledgeable about cars, but if they aren't as encouraged to, or if they face being talked down to etc, then it becomes self-perpetuating.

I might prefer a women salesperson actually, might feel less intimidated about asking questions, but unless that becomes a bit of a USP for a showroom, they might not get as many sales.