Alana Barragan says she was so put off by the high-pressure sales pitch she encountered while car shopping at AutoNation Honda in Fremont, California, that she didn’t buy one. After discussing the experience with a manager, he spent the next hour trying to hire her.

Barragan now sells about 18 vehicles a month for the store and finds women are some of her best customers. But car shoppers are hard pressed to find many salesmen like her. Even as women make or influence the majority of auto purchases in the U.S., retailers have failed to attract and retain female employees, according to CDK Global, which advises dealerships on sales strategies.

“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get into this,” Barragan said of joining AutoNation Honda in January. “I could be more open and honest to customers and give them an experience that I would want. The customers appreciate that.”

Women make up about 19 percent of U.S. dealership employees and most of those are support staff, according to the latest estimates from the National Automobile Dealers Association. The annual turnover rate for the few women who do sell cars is 88 percent, CDK says, meaning would-be buyers interested in negotiating with a female dealer may find themselves fresh out of luck.

“By dealerships not attracting and retaining women in the workforce, they are potentially missing out on a huge sales opportunity,” said Grace Wepler, senior market research analyst for CDK.

Low Recruitment

The lack of women on car dealers’ sales floors starts with lackluster hiring efforts. More than 60 percent of female dealership employees surveyed by CDK in May said their companies weren’t doing anything to help recruit more women.

When women do get recruited, many say they find dealerships still aren’t a welcoming place. More than half who CDK surveyed have been in their current position for six or more years, suggesting upward mobility is an obstacle. And 57 percent reported experiencing gender bias, like having to endure boorish, sexist banter.

“A lot of people are intimidated by the industry because it’s a male-dominated field,” said Barragan, 31, who previously sold appliances at Sears. “Initially the guys tried to say, ‘Oh, let me help you, let me do that for you.’ You just have to stand up to them and show them your confidence and say ‘I’ve got this.’”

Kathy Caron, general manager of Hopper Buick GMC Dealership in Ontario, Canada, described the industry as “a boys club” and said women don’t seek out jobs in dealerships because they’re intimidated by that fact.

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