News
Women in the Driving Seat Podcast | Episode 1
Vicki Butler-Henderson and tetraplegic racing driver and campaigner Nathalie McGloin join us for the first of a new podcast series
Words by: Erin Baker
Published on 20 February 2025 | 0 min read
Auto Trader has launched a new podcast for women in the automotive industry called Women in the Driving Seat, hosted by me, Auto Trader’s Editorial Director. I’m an (outspoken) advocate for narrowing the gender gap in automotive, both within our industry and in the way it interacts with consumers. As usual, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, the Apple Podcasts app and wherever else you listen in – just search 'Women in the Driving Seat' wherever you get your podcasts.
In the first eight-part series, you’ll hear from experienced female voices including those of Vicki Butler Henderson (racing driver and Fifth Gear presenter), Jo Elvin (founding editor, Glamour magazine), Lucy Siegel (BBC sustainability correspondent and BBC One Show presenter) and Nicole Melillo-Shaw (Volvo MD) on topics from juggling home and work lives, to whether being CEO is the easiest job in the world, how to work in different time zones when you’re a mum, and whether tetraplegic racing drivers can compete with able-bodied male drivers on the track.
In the first eight-part series, you’ll hear from experienced female voices including those of Vicki Butler Henderson (racing driver and Fifth Gear presenter), Jo Elvin (founding editor, Glamour magazine), Lucy Siegel (BBC sustainability correspondent and BBC One Show presenter) and Nicole Melillo-Shaw (Volvo MD) on topics from juggling home and work lives, to whether being CEO is the easiest job in the world, how to work in different time zones when you’re a mum, and whether tetraplegic racing drivers can compete with able-bodied male drivers on the track.
Each episode is themed, and features two guests in conversation with me. We talk about the serious stuff, but also take time out for a quick-fire round on those little quandaries we all face every day… Teams or Zoom? Stairs or lift? Lark or owl? Circuit or circuits?
So why have we embarked on a project focusing on women? Why be so gender specific? Why not just create an inclusive podcast about life in the automotive industry? Well, when the automotive industry employs more women, we will do. When staffing levels in car brands, retailers and suppliers approach something resembling the general population, which would be a 51:49 female to male split, we’ll do a gender-neutral podcast! And when women don’t over-index for anxiety and concerns about car buying, or driving an electric car, we’ll have episodes for men and women together.
So why have we embarked on a project focusing on women? Why be so gender specific? Why not just create an inclusive podcast about life in the automotive industry? Well, when the automotive industry employs more women, we will do. When staffing levels in car brands, retailers and suppliers approach something resembling the general population, which would be a 51:49 female to male split, we’ll do a gender-neutral podcast! And when women don’t over-index for anxiety and concerns about car buying, or driving an electric car, we’ll have episodes for men and women together.
Nothing would please us more. But while the industry remains at roughly 20 per cent women in employment, falling to 10 per cent at board level, and while women languish behind men in confidence when it comes to buying their next car, and particularly electric cars, we will push the dial in the opposite direction by providing the proportionately smaller number of women in automotive with their own platform, where they can discuss their successes and fears, how they got to where they are, and where they’re headed next. We’ll look at how their private lives impact their professional lives, and vice versa because, again, women are negatively impacted in the workplace by being the majority care givers in society.
So, join us, be part of our community of women in the driving seat, and subscribe to the podcast, as we journey into the stuff that drives us on every day, to earn, to test ourselves, to laugh, cry, worry, fail and overcome. In the end, we listen to know we are not alone.
So, join us, be part of our community of women in the driving seat, and subscribe to the podcast, as we journey into the stuff that drives us on every day, to earn, to test ourselves, to laugh, cry, worry, fail and overcome. In the end, we listen to know we are not alone.
