When Women Leaders Reinforce the Bias They Fought to Overcome

"I had to figure it out on my own. She can too." 

That belief can sound like resilience. But in leadership, it can become one of the ways gender bias survives after a woman reaches the top. 

I understand where it comes from. For much of my automotive career, I was one of the few women in the room. Informal relationships mattered, and being underestimated came with the job. 

Those experiences shaped me as a leader. They didn't stop me from repeating some of the same standards I learned to survive. 

A woman can remember being overlooked and still: 

• give a male employee more time to develop
• be harder on women because she believes she's preparing them for reality
• spot potential faster when it shows up in the confident style our industry has rewarded for years

Reaching leadership is an achievement. How we use that authority decides whether the path gets any easier for the women behind us.

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Has the number of women in automotive actually changed?

Barely. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up 21.2% of U.S. dealership employees in 2015. In 2025, they made up 21.7%. That's an increase of only half a percentage point in ten years.

These numbers cover all dealership jobs, not just management, and they exclude Canada. Even with those limits, the lack of progress is hard to ignore.

No single issue explains it. Dealership schedules and pay plans affect who joins the industry and who stays. So do recruiting practices and the reputation automotive has built over time.

The statistic can't tell us whether women leaders favor men. But it does raise an important question: what happens to the women already working in our dealerships?

We spend a lot of time talking about bringing women into automotive. We spend far less time looking at what happens after they arrive.

Picture a receptionist who keeps the store organized. She becomes so valuable in that role that nobody asks what else she could do. Meanwhile, a male colleague who openly asks for more gets extra coaching.

When a promotion opens up, he can point to decisions he's helped make. She's still known as dependable. Nobody had to make a formal decision to hold her back.

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Can women leaders contribute to gender bias?

Yes. A leadership title doesn't erase the habits we learned on the way up. Bias can show up in:

• who gets the benefit of the doubt
• who receives coaching after a mistake
• which communication style we associate with leadership
• how much we expect a woman to endure before we decide she's ready

I understand the appeal of "I figured it out on my own, so she can too." Many of us learned to prepare more than everyone else. We became careful about mistakes because we knew ours might be remembered longer.

Those habits helped us build careers. That doesn't mean the next woman should have to learn leadership the same way.

The problem can also show up more quietly. A female manager may believe she has to be tougher on women to prove she's fair. So she corrects a woman's mistake in public but helps a man work through his in private.

She may believe she's preparing the woman for the realities of the business. But the woman gets less room to learn. The intention may be good. The result is still unequal.

To be clear, women don't have to promote other women simply because they're women. And men shouldn't lose opportunities they've earned.

The responsibility is to look honestly at who receives our time and trust. Are those decisions based on performance and potential? Or are we choosing the people who feel most familiar? Our own record will usually give us the answer.

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Where does unequal opportunity show up in a dealership?

Often in small decisions made long before a promotion.

It's a busy Saturday. A customer issue needs a quick answer. A manager calls over the employee who has helped with similar problems before. That employee learns something new. The colleague who was never invited still looks inexperienced on Monday.

Over time, the same people keep looking ready, because they're the only ones being prepared.

This can happen in any workplace, but it's especially visible in dealerships. Much of our leadership development happens while the business is moving. Formal training matters. So does being trusted with a real problem while an experienced leader explains the decision.

If a woman is kept in the role she already does well and rarely sees those decisions being made, telling her to "speak up more" misses what she actually needs.

Reputations can also harden quickly:

• Once someone is labeled reliable, managers keep giving them work that proves it.
• Once someone is seen as a natural leader, they get more chances to lead.

Managers need to ask whether those labels reflect ability, or simply the opportunities they've already handed out.

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How can a leader interrupt that pattern?

1. Review your recent decisions

Look back over the past few months and ask yourself:

• Who did I bring into a difficult customer conversation?
• Who got the chance to present an idea to senior management?
• When someone made a mistake, who received coaching and who received a label?

You don't need a new company program to review those choices. You may find a pattern you never meant to create.

2. Change how you develop people

When an employee wants more responsibility:

• Ask her to bring you a recommendation on a real issue.
• Explain why you agree or disagree.
• Give her an assignment that requires more judgment, and make the expected result clear.
• Talk through what happened afterward.

Hold her to the same business standard you'd apply to anyone else.

3. Give direct feedback

I don't believe in protecting women from the difficult parts of leadership. If someone isn't ready for a role, tell her what's missing and how she can prove she's ready.

Vague encouragement won't help her improve. Neither will dismissing her as too sensitive when she raises a concern. Listen to what she's saying and deal with the issue itself.

4. Advocate with evidence

The people above you shape the outcome too. When a leadership opening comes up, be ready to name the women whose work you know. Explain which decisions they've already handled and what experience they need next.

Support carries more weight when it's backed by evidence and a development plan. This should be part of how you manage talent all year round.

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What should women in leadership expect of themselves?

We should hold ourselves accountable for the teams we lead.

No individual woman can fix an industry-wide imbalance, and women aren't solely responsible. Owners and male leaders still control many of the decisions about pay and promotion, and they need to examine those systems. But women in leadership have influence too, through the daily choices that decide who gets a chance to learn.

For us, that means:

• separating high standards from the unnecessary hardship we went through ourselves
• accepting that a woman's leadership style can look different from ours without being weaker
• noticing when a relationship with a male employee feels easier, and making sure that comfort isn't giving him more access

The employment numbers show how slowly the industry is changing. Seeing a woman in a senior role doesn't prove the path has widened for others. What matters is what happens next:

• Are capable women learning how decisions are made?
• Are they trusted with work that prepares them for more?
• Are they getting the feedback they need to be taken seriously when a leadership role opens? 

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Your next step

If you lead a team, think of one woman who has become indispensable in her current role.

What decision has she been allowed to make this year that she couldn't make last year?  

If you can't name one, the next step belongs to you. Bring her into a real decision. Make your expectations clear, and see what she does with the opportunity.

That's how the path begins to change.

If this article prompted a decision, don't stop at agreement. Drive Her Forward is where women leaders bring the real situations they face, work through them with peers, and decide what to do next.

If you want that kind of accountability while you develop your team, join the Drive Her Forward community and bring the decision you've been putting off.

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Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey annual averages, automobile dealers, 2015 and 2025. These are industry employment figures, not leadership representation figures.
2015: https://www.bls.gov/cps/aa2015/cpsaat18.htm
2025: https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18.htm