Women at Ford and the Lottie Doll Women in Engineering project

Find out more about how we celebrate Women at Ford and our Lottie Doll project

The Women of Ford

Hear from some of the women who are driving change at Ford as we celebrate International Women's day 2022.

Ford's female employee mix has doubled over the last 20 years ago, with benefits like enhanced maternity leave, and family friendly and flexible working arrangements helping us welcome more and more talented women.

Inspirational Ford women honoured with top industry awards

In June 2022, The Autocar Great British Women in the Car Industry event has singled out 15 Ford employees as among the top 100 most influential, successful, and inspirational women in the automotive sector.

Josephine Payne (Director Craiova Vehicle Operations and Site) and Sue Slaughter (Global Purchasing Director, Supply Chain Sustainability) were recognised for their multiple wins in previous Autocar awards, and have been appointed to the Autocar Women Hall of Fame, a huge achievement for both after years of inspirational leadership.

4 Ford employees were chosen as overall category winners, selected from hundreds of nominees from across the world and across the industry. Usha Raghavachari, Innovation Lab Director at D-Ford was the winner of the Mobility and Digital category, Sarah Brettle, Director FCSD won the Aftersales and Workshop category, Alexandra Walker, Ford of Europe Powertrain and Battery Assembly Launch Manager was the winner of the Operations category, and Emma Bergg, Director of Electric Vehicle Communications was victorious in the PR & Comms category.

Lisa Brankin, herself an award winner in the executive category, commented: “This is a fantastic result for Ford – each award is richly deserved and testament to the talent, hard work and results achieved by my colleagues. As we continue our journey towards electrification, there is no more exciting time to be in the automotive industry. These awards recognise the creativity and determination of Ford’s women and the teams they lead.”

The awards ceremony took place in London and included a panel discussion in which Mandy Dean took part. Mandy, Director Commercial Vehicles Ford of Britain and Ireland was also a finalist in the Executive category and spoke on the various challenges facing women in the automotive industry today.

Working with female journalists for the launch of the Mustang Mach-E

This year around International Women’s Day, Ford threw its weight behind improving the gender balance in another sector, in an effort to produce Mustang Mach-E stories appealing to a broader cross-section of customers.

While around half of driving licences are held by women, the proportion of females reviewing cars is a single figure percentage of total auto journalists. Research conducted by digital marketplace AutoTrader found an overwhelming majority of Brits felt disconnected from car marketing, with almost three quarters (73 per cent) agreeing that advertising can perpetuate gender stereotypes, or be directed to men.

To produce Mustang Mach-E content from an exclusively female group of content creators, Ford partnered with AutoTrader editorial director Erin Baker to run the first of a 2022 ‘Women Drive’ series, offering training places to rising female journalists at classroom workshops and time behind the wheel.

A group of 12 bloggers, social influencers and other content creators took part in ‘Women Drive Electric’ – first learning written reporting and video presenting skills, and then driving Mustang Mach-Es to the UK’s only dedicated electric forecourt near Braintree, in Essex.

The Ford Blog

Women in Engineering Society Lottie Tour

#WESLottieTour

WES Lottie Tour is an annual campaign that takes 'Lottie' to many different locations accompanying lots of different engineering friends who show Lottie the work they do in engineering and related careers. Lottie's experiences are shared across social media using #WESLottieTour.

Ford takes part in the Lottie Tour and you can see some of the places the Ford Lottie Doll has been below: