Women Wanted
The car business is unfamiliar territory for many. Not typically growing up in a family with a dealership owned by a minority, little exposure to the business, and the strain that all-day retail can cause families and their schedules are reasons for the lack of African American female dealer representation, says Jenell Ross, president and CEO of The Bob Ross Auto Group (No. 33 on the Be Auto Dealers list with $48.5 million in revenues). A second generation owner of the 38-year-old dealership, Ross also cites the inability to access capital to open or acquire a dealership by minorities as another key factor for the low count. Ross says there are not a lot of African American second-generation dealers–male or female. In contrast, she says it’s common to have fourth and fifth generations of dealers in the majority community.
Still, Marjorie Staten, president of the General Motors Minority Dealers Association in Southfield, Michigan, says much more needs to be done industry wide to encourage ethnic minority women to own and operate dealerships. She says Ross and Pamela Rodgers, CEO of Rodgers Chevrolet Inc. in Woodhaven, Michigan (No. 32 on the Be Auto Dealers list with $49.5 million in revenues) are the only two female African American GM dealers nationally.
Staten says the low number for African American women dealers won’t change much until there’s a “dedicated, committed, and structured outreach effort by all automakers to develop programs that offer support, training, and recruiting to help ethnic minority women become successful dealers.â€
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