DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — Automotive – In many industries, the gender gap is a pronounced dividing line between the corporation and the consumer. The automotive industry is closing that gap in France, Brazil and Russia.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance continues to make progress in closing the gender gap, and in the past year the organization has particularly accelerated recruitment and advancement of women in key growth markets.
Russia and Brazil are among Renault-Nissan’s most successful regions for female recruitment and advancement into management positions. In Russia, Renault’s third-largest market, women account for 19% of the workforce and 25% of managers. In 2013, 40% of all new Renault recruits in Russia were women, up from 35% in the previous year.
At Nissan, women account for 15% of the workforce in Russia and 27.7% of managers, one of the highest ratios within the company.
Brazil is another key growth market, where rapid hiring has helped increase the ranks of women managers at Nissan. Nissan has almost tripled the number of female managers in Brazil in just one year. Women now represent nearly 20% of all Nissan Brazil managers. Thanks in part to Brazil’s success, the number of women managers has surged 70% in the last five years throughout Nissan’s operations in the Americas.
“Because of the faster pace of growth and demand for talent, emerging markets represent a historic opportunity to close the global gender gap,” said Renault-Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn. “But make no mistake: Closing the gender gap is our objective worldwide, including in our home markets.”
Globally, Renault remains a leader in the industry in terms of women at the senior executive management level. Two out of its ten-member executive committee are women. Renault now has similar representation of women at all levels of the company. Women comprise 17.4% of Renault’s global headcount, 17% of managerial positions and 16% of Renault’s key 150 executive positions globally.
In France, Renault has one of the highest rates of women at the highest corporate level in the French CAC40 business index.
In Japan, women make up 6.8% of manager-level positions at Nissan, more than double the national average for manufacturers. Nissan aims to have women make up 10% of manager positions in Japan by 2017.
Diverse executive management teams
In addition to gender parity, Renault and Nissan – which sell vehicles in every passenger car segment and in nearly 200 markets worldwide – are also embracing management diversity.
Renault’s management team is becoming more multicultural as the automaker expands its geographic reach. Renault counts 20 nationalities among its key 150 executive positions globally, including French, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian, Russian and German executives. In 2012, more than half of Renault’s sales were generated outside of Europe for the first time ever.
Nissan continues to be the auto industry leader for diversity at the executive ranks. Forty-eight percent of the 100 top positions are held by executives from 17 countries. More than 85% of Nissan’s global sales are already generated outside of Japan.
Renault and Nissan provide an update on gender progress and diversity every year in advance of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, an international symposium that encourages women to overcome historic challenges barriers and seize economic opportunities. This year’s conference takes place Oct. 16-18 in Deauville, France.
The annual gathering, which the Alliance has supported since 2006, aims to level the playing field for women in industry academia, politics and society.
As Premium Partner of the Women’s Forum Deauville, the Renault-Nissan Alliance will have three speakers at this year’s event:
- Oct. 16: Mouna Sepehri, Renault Executive Vice President of the Office of the CEO and a Renault-Nissan Alliance board member, will be speaking in the plenary session “Where does cooperation end and competition begin today?”
- Oct. 16: The Renault-Nissan Alliance will host a session on “Innovation at the bottom of the pyramid” with Claire Martin, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at Renault and Managing Director of the Renault Foundation.
- Oct. 17: Marie-Françoise Damesin, Renault Executive Vice President of Human Resources, will speak in a session entitled “How to attract women to male-dominated industries.”
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