Stephanie May of Women Automotive Network

0:00 Introduction

Today in The Garage, we’re recording live at AutoTech Detroit. And our guest today is Stephanie May, director of the Women Automotive Network. Women Automotive Network is an incredible forty thousand member strong organization of international members across the world, And they produce incredible programs for networking, mentorship, and helping both women and also companies in general be successful. It’s a really interesting conversation, and I hope you’ll really enjoy. Let’s go.

0:38 Meet Stephanie May

Welcome to The Garage. I’m John Heinlein, Chief Marketing Officer with Sonatus. We’re recording live at AutoTech Detroit, and that’s the background noise you may hear during the episode. Our guest today is Stephanie May, Director of the Women Automotive Network. Stephanie, welcome to The Garage.

Thank you. It’s amazing to be here.

We we’ve, been talking more for more than a year now, I think, and we had a chance to meet this, again, last night at the AutoTech Awards. I was so inspired by, so many of the stories you shared that I really wanted to have you on the podcast. So let’s start by introducing you personally and your background.

Yep.

Tell us about you.

Stephanie May, Women Automotive Network. I actually have a background of history and sociology.

That was my passion, all throughout my youth, and my university degree. Then I fell into events, and I haven’t looked back really. I actually used to work for the Informer team with their LTE and 5g series. I’ve come full circle now.

I’ve done auto events, IT, and now I feel like I found my home with the Women Automotive Network. I love my job. It’s my passion. It’s my people.

It’s my community.

That’s great. We’ll get to that next. You’ve got to tell us a fun fact about you to get to know you first.

So I absolutely love Vietnam and Vietnamese food. I went and studied, and taught English there after uni.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So I I love That’s a two-fer fun fact!

Yeah. That’s a good one. So I’ve I I also love Vietnamese food. My wife, traveled to Vietnam years ago.

I have not yet made it. I’m very disappointed. I’m hoping I’ll get to go. But I love love Vietnamese food as well.

There’s some in the Bay Area. We have amazing amazing Vietnamese food.

In fact, I mean, really dozens and dozens of unbelievable places. So and what’s your favorite?

Pho. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah.

I know it’s traditional, the soup is great.

I’m also a big fan of bun, which is sort of a noodle salad with meats, and that’s also very good.

But I’m not sure what it is.

You can never miss never go wrong with a good P ho. Mhmm.

2:38 Overview of the Women Automotive Network

So tell us about the Women Automotive Network. And, explain to us what the goals of the organization are and and what’s your role.

Yeah. So we’ve been around since twenty nineteen. We are a global community now of forty thousand individuals.

Four zero thousand. That’s great.

There’s quite a lot of zeroes on there, and it’s an amazing, growth, in just six years. And it it literally is a global community over a hundred countries, and we work with those individuals on their own career journeys, and then we work with corporate companies to, attract new talent, retain their current talent, which is probably the biggest thing that we do, and then obviously provide those amazing personal and business networking opportunities at all the events that we do.

3:21 Current Gender Representation in the Automotive Industry

That’s that’s fantastic. So for those of our listeners who may be less familiar with the automotive industry, you know, what’s the percentage of women in automotive today?

So globally, it’s still only approximately twenty percent. And if you break that down further into the specifics, it’s about thirteen percent in engineering.

That’s not very much.

No. It’s incredible. And I think to build upon that, it’s not just kind of attracting, that talent, it’s keeping it. So we did a recent poll with our community and forty nine percent still considered leaving.

Forty nine percent considered leaving Yeah. Automotive. Yep. And what are some factors that are that are causing that?

I think it’s like we’ve been discussing for a while now. You know, “you can’t be what you can’t see”, that whole kind of role model side of things, no aspirations, still being the only woman in the room. You know, it’s lonely, especially the higher up the ladder, that you get. You’ve got to be really, really resilient and enjoy your job, and then obviously be supported.

We exist, because there are unique challenges, whether it be from whatever minority group that we wanna support, you know, motherhood, traditional care bearing, menopause, et cetera.

Yeah. I mean, I’m on a a number of different, organizations that, they’re looking to to help build, a broader, diverse pool of talents. You know, you know, you have so many amazing, talented women that, data shows that they tend to fall away from science and engineering in general. And you mentioned a minute ago, you can’t be what you can’t see. I mean, a lot of the statistics say that if you’re going into a career when everyone you see there is different than you, it’s not going to make you as comfortable to engage.

5:05 Challenges Faced by Women in Automotive Careers

Yeah. And I think also to build upon that, people are also seeing those senior leaders. They’re not seeing the right work life balance, and they’re thinking, I don’t even want to get there. You know, I’m quite happy at the director level because even when I do make it to the top, that’s not what I want. And I think especially with the younger generation coming in, they know what they want. They want that life, work- life balance.

I think it’s it’s such an interesting, thing you’re probably trying to solve because I look at it purely from a perspective as there’s such amazing talent out there. And how do we make sure more of that talent wants to work in our industry? It’s a great industry.

Technology is a great industry. And how do we make sure people feel like that could be a place for them?

I mean, I wish I had the answer. You know, it’s a million dollar question because we all all drive a car. You know, we all it’s it’s the future. Yeah.

It’s just absolutely everywhere. You can’t get rid of it, and I still don’t understand why people don’t want to join it. And especially automotive at the minute, every single year, there’s a new technology, there’s a new development, you know, it’s not even automotive. It’s mobility.

You know, what is the future gonna be look like? It’s incredible.

Yeah. You know, this, automotive the automotive industry is really, having a resurgence. There’s a lot of interest in, you know, not only in this area but across the world in automotive as in a new destination for technology.

We’re seeing software defined vehicles making cars more exciting Yeah. Bringing more technologies in. And we’re gonna need lots of smart, smart engineers and and not only engineers, but just smart, smart participants in general.

Yeah. A hundred percent.

6:42 Women Automotive Network’s Initiatives and Events

What are some of the things that the Women on an Automotive Network OEMs, kind of, some of the events and some of the things you do?

Okay. So we have a huge social media presence, like you said, to kind of that daily motivation, daily blogs, news articles to kind of just keep talking about what’s happening, both in the automotive world, but also with these individuals.

We run a mentorship program twice a year. So this is cross country, cross job function, really, really personal, connecting those with who need it. And then the big thing, which obviously we still love, is our events. So we’ve done Germany since 2019. It’s our second year collaborating with Autotech, for our Detroit event, and we are super excited for our new Mexico event in December .

New Mexico? Yeah. That’s great! Not New Mexico. As in, like, Mexico City or New Mexico?

Oh, that’s fantastic. Yep. In in where is it being held?

Mexico City.

That’s phenomenal. Yep. Mexico is a huge automotive, development area.

I mean, so we are a global community, and we just wanna make sure now that we’ve got that footprint.

So last year was Detroit. This year’s Mexico. Next year, Asia. And then who knows?

That’s fantastic. And you just mentioned mentoring. I wanna go back to that as well. I mean, I’ve been, mentoring for years.

I mean and I’ve had mentees who are men, I’ve had mentees that are women. But it’s, it’s so important to have someone to help guide your career path. And I think lowering the barrier to people finding a mentor and having experienced leaders that they can meet with, I think, is so valuable.

Exactly. And I would ask you, did you enjoy the experience?

Oh, of course, I did. Absolutely. And I and I and I always encourage other people to mentor in the same way. This is what we hear. You know, one of the best ways Yeah. To learn is to teach. Mhmm. And I I found that, everyone wins when you when you collaborate and you build the next generation.

That’s what we find.

The the mentors, they get so much out of it that they wanna come back. Have you ever done reverse mentoring?

Tell me…what is that? Tell me.

So kind of the other way around.

So So you being the senior person and you having a mentor that’s a younger generation or a new. It’s interesting, I think I see what you’re saying. And and I was gonna make a similar point that when when I’ve been a mentor in the past, it’s helped me to realize challenges or issues or questions or things that I didn’t know that I didn’t know.

Right.

Right? And so I learned new things. I learned, oh, I didn’t realize that was a problem for you, or I didn’t realize that was or I didn’t realize that you were perceiving this situation in that way.

And it helped me to learn. Yeah.

How to do my job differently and be better at what I’m doing as part of the process. I think that’s kind of reverse mentoring effectively.

Exactly. Yeah. Unofficially, obviously, when you mentor, you’re still on that learning, journey. But sometimes we help senior leaders, and we connect them with the younger generation, on a more official platform. But, yeah, mentoring is always a two way, growth opportunity, I think.

9:36 Upcoming Mexico Event

And so first thing, shameless plug for your Mexico event. When is that happening? Do you happen to know?

Can I actually say it’s second of December [2025]. Yes? And we are not just excited about the margaritas, obviously, but the seniority and the buzz and, obviously, I think, like, the passion and the hunger down there. So CEO of BMW, CMO of, Daimler Truck, you know, from the top down, everyone is engaged. And that’s really what you need because that’s where real change happens when the leadership understands why the whole organization needs to be involved in the conversation. That’s right. Yeah.

So so it’s December second [2025] in in Mexico City, is it? Yep. Mexico City is phenomenal. I was just in Mexico City a few weeks ago.

Oh, I’m jealous. Phenomenal, phenomenal city. Okay. Very vibrant city. If people want to learn more about, your organization, how do they get how do they find out more?

10:26 How to get Involved with the Women Automotive Network

Womenautomotivenetwork.com, or again on LinkedIn, women automotive network.

It’s so wonderful to see you. I’m glad we ran into you, yesterday at the awards, and I’m so glad we could help raise awareness of this important work you’re doing. Thank you so much for everything you do.

Thank you. And when we do APAC, we’ll have to, talk about you being in Vietnam, maybe.

That would be great. Maybe it’ll be a excuse to go. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

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