Sheet Metal Stamping Simulation

When Gloria Georger stopped before what looked like massive rolls of duct tape, so did her entourage of mostly male middle managers.

"Not everyone likes to come in here and work in the noisy, oily environment that we have," Georger said above the din of crashing metal. As if part of a synchronized dance, giant robotic presses were hammering the rolls of steel into automobile doors, hoods and fenders.

Georger took over as manager of Ford Motor Co.'s stamping plant in Chicago Heights three and a half years ago, becoming one of five female managers at the automaker's 27 plants in the U.S. Ford's South Side assembly plant also is headed by a woman, Jan Allman, who was named to that post a year ago.

Building cars remains a man's domain. Roughly three of four automotive manufacturing jobs are held by men, according to Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that tracks women in business. And as of 2006, women made up only 17.7 percent of all officials and managers in automotive manufacturing, according to Catalyst. More recent data isn't available.

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But for the first time, more women than men are buying vehicles, and that shift could prompt carmakers to move more women into key roles to respond to changing consumer tastes, said Karolyn Hart, executive vice president of Women's Automotive Association International.

And as more women become plant managers, female board members and executives could come from those ranks, said Linda Kiedrowski, chief executive of Paranet Group Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based company that provides consulting services to manufacturers.

"The senior team is typically the boy's club. You introduce a woman and they say things to you like, 'Is it OK if we swear?'" Kiedrowski said.

Of the 250 executives Kiedrowski deals with, less than a dozen are women, she said.

"Women who have managed to break through barriers typically don't like to be singled out as women because they've gotten there by being one of the guys,'' she said.

At Ford's Torrence Avenue assembly plant, where parts produced by Georger's team are turned into automobiles, plant manager Allman recounted how her career with Ford began in 1986 on the line at the company's engine plant in Lima, Ohio. Back then she was a college co-op engineering student.

"In the engineering area, out of 100 engineers … there was only myself and another female that were engineers,'' Allman recalled.