Approaching its first anniversary, this important initiative is making strong inroads in the name of industry diversity

The ‘Accelerating Progress for Women in Automotive’ program was launched by five very passionate and industry-leading women with a special International Women’s Day breakfast in 2024.
Now a year on, the steering committee has grown, two core programs are underway, and the group is operating under a new moniker – AAAAWomen – after having received official endorsement from the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA).
“Our members went to AAAA with a request that we combine efforts to drive diversity forward in our industry’s workforce, particularly in the areas of recruitment and retention, and we are so pleased that our program is now officially endorsed by the Association,” AAAA Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, and AAAA Women Steering Committee member, Lesley Yates, said.
“Research shows that if you start to work on women’s participation rates, if you make that the initial focus, you start to see greater diversity unfolding in other areas that are underrepresented in our industry.
“That is why we started what is now known as AAAAWomen, and we are enthusiastically working with those currently employed in the workforce to encourage women to see the automotive aftermarket as a career option.
“Working under the banner of AAAA, we have a modest set of activities in place now that we are really proud to support.
“It is a strategic decision to approach what we are doing in this way – it is easy to be all talk, to take on a lot of activities but not meet them, especially when every member of our steering committee have full-time commitments.
“Because of this, we decided to focus on two main projects, which we feel are the perfect next steps forwards in pursuing our overarching goal of supporting and retaining women employees and working together to increase the participating of women in our industry.”
These projects are the recently held 2025 International Women’s Day Breakfast, and the launch of a Connecting Circles program which will evolve across the coming 12 months.
“Our second International Women’s Day Breakfast brought together women from our participating brands and the industry on the 6th of March, and it was a great way to kick our 2025 activities into gear,” Lesley said.
“Like our 2024 breakfast, it was a very special event, creating an important discussion of ideas.
“We have also started the first steps in launching our Connecting Circles program, which is informed heavily by the highly successful Women in Autocare program in the United States.”
The idea of Connecting Circles is to bring together groups of women under common issues, either based on sector – such as women in distribution, women in retail, women as small business owners and so on – or on the issues – such as work-life balance, for example.
Under these topics, these ‘circles’ meet online for 45 minutes once a month. They are not necessarily a committee or brought together to achieve a specific task, they are about bringing together women to share experiences and connect, and help the members find opportunities and support.
“Not only do these circles provide important opportunity for idea generation, for change, and for support, they drive forward the critical notion that the women in our industry are not alone,” Lesley said.
“Our first Connecting Circle was held in late February with a cap of 25 members and was something of a pilot preceding the evolution of the program – it was basically a connecting circle on the topic of connecting circles, looking at the purpose, the model, the topics, and the formats moving forward, and we are very excited by what came out of that and what lays ahead for our program.”
Stay tuned to the next edition of AAAM for more on the IWD Breakfast and the first Connecting Circle.
AAAA Women is driven forward by steering committee members: Amotiv Chief People Officer, Barbara Harrison; GPC Chief People Officer, Aileen Hayes; Penrite Oil Head of Strategy and Customer Engagement, Priscilla Robb; BAPCOR Chief People and Culture Officer, Meryl Dooley; and new members, Accelerate Auto Business Manager Ange Wall, and Australian Collision Industry Alliance (ACIA) Executive Administrator and Auto Glass Association (AGA) Secretariat, Hiliary Bradbury.
“Our two new members bring critical small business experience to our group and we have been very pleased to welcome them,” Lesley said.
“While our panel is made up of some pretty impressive names from our industry, our group is not ‘a BAPCOR thing,’ or a ‘GPC thing,’ it is a united front under the industry-wide representative banner of the AAAA.
“Together, we are committed to undertaking a well-considered and effective social endeavour program to advance the cause of women in automotive, and we can’t wait to see what we can achieve across 2025.”

To learn more about AAAAWomen, please email Lesley Yates on advoacy@aaaa.com.au