Its taken a long time to place myself in my industry. I love cars, I know about cars but I have never really fallen into either of the current camps.
On one side there are the petrol heads. Mainly guys, Jeremy Clarkson wannabes who get terribly excited and loud about BHP and MPH and lots of other abbreviated man stats. Women in this camp tend to be able to chuck a car into a drift and impress men with their equally boring statistical knowledge. This is not my camp. These are not my people. I can reel off statistic after statistic and tell everyone about my latest drift round St Marys. But I don't want to. I find it dull. Pointless. Showboating.
Then there is the other side. Mainly women. Women that want to bang a drum about how sexist the industry is and how male dominated things are and how hard it is to walk into a dealership without getting ripped off 'because we are women' Urghhh. These women buy cars that are purely practical or worse, they let their husbands choose them practical cars. They have no style, they are patronising and they infuriate me.
After some struggle I have finally embraced my own little island away from these petrol heads and man bashers and its great. I have my knowledge, I don't spray it all over the wall in a HEY YOU LOOK WHAT I KNOW kind of way. I sit on my island and talk about my passion, how I choose cars, why I choose them and you know what? more and more people are listening.
There are so many women like me. Independent, fierce and strong-minded. We are fashion focussed, we read Cosmo, Vogue, Grazia, Stylist. We are beginning to realise that cars are more than a way to get from A to B and back again. They are an accessory, a massive accessory. The car we step out of at meetings says as much about us as the handbag we put on our desk or the watch we wear on our wrists. It should fit with our style, whether we are like Victoria Beckham or Brigitte Bardot. Manufacturers are slowly beginning to realise this and are making cars with women in mind. Take Land Rovers newest Range Rover, The Evoque. This car is a great balance of style and function. A brilliant car for on trend women but with enough gadgetry and driving pleasure to keep a man satisfied.
My blogs on The Huffington Post will mainly be about cars and the motoring industry but with a focus on fashion and style as well as engineering and function I want to get women like me excited about what they drive, I want to expose some of the rubbish women AND men are talked into through the industry. So dealerships and manufactures beware, you now have someone to answer to.