Vroom -- A Woman Revs Up a Man's World

Forty-four year old Tammy Darvish just shattered a particularly tough glass ceiling -- or maybe it's more accurate to call it a garage roof. Darvish is the vice president of Darcars Automotive Group, a 26-dealer automotive sales company based in Silver Spring, Md.

According to an article about Darvish in yesterday's Washington Post, Once in a Miniskirt, Now She Wears the Pants, she's become the first female chairman of the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association, a 90-year-old group which until now has only had white men at the helm. Her current partnership position marks quite a road trip from her start in her family's dealership back in 1984, when her brother and father had her dress up in a white leather miniskirt, red high heels and a slinky red-and-white striped blouse for television commercials promoting the company.

Women make up more than half the U.S. population and purchase nearly half the new cars sold in this country. In sharp contrast, nationwide only 8 percent of all U.S. car dealerships are owned by women. Women-owned dealerships, however, outperform male-owned ones in terms of sales, so maybe more are coming.

I can't speculate on Tammy Darvish's 23-year ride in the world of automotive dealerships, but I bet she has some good stories to tell. Most, if not all, of my jobs have been in places with 10 percent to 99 percent women. In my first job out of college at Seventeen Magazine, I worked with 49 women and one man. And I often wonder what it's like to be the sole man walking onto a park playground at 11 a.m., into a swarm of at-home moms and female babysitters. My son, outnumbered by two sisters, has asked that all family pets, including goldfish, be male -- to balance the scales, so to speak.

What role does gender balance play in work/life balance? Have you been a woman in a man's world? A man in a woman's? What are the biggest challenges -- and are there any rewards -- of minority status?

By Leslie Morgan Steiner |  December 5, 2007; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Conflicts
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