Women in Automotive (WinA) has been empowering women across the automotive industry since 1999. Originally a Victorian initiative under the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC), WinA marked its 25^th anniversary in 2024 by relaunching as a nationally operating, independently run organisation and is now owned by Rachel Butler and Kate Peck – bringing decades of combined experience across automotive retail, manufacturing, media, and insurance.

We aim to increase female representation in the automotive industry.

WinA supports women at every stage of their automotive career, from apprentices and mechanics to dealer principals, engineers, and CEOs. We aim to increase female representation in all areas of the automotive industry. Through events, content, awards, and advocacy, WinA builds the visibility, community, and professional infrastructure that the industry has long been missing.

Women remain significantly underrepresented across the automotive industry – on the dealership floor, in leadership, apprenticeships, trades, technology, in the boardroom and executive roles.

We aim to attract and recruit women into automotive careers, retain them through mid-career, and support their progression into senior roles. When women can't see themselves represented in leadership, it limits what they believe is possible and what industries believe is possible for them.

WinA operates across multiple touchpoints, designed to serve women at every stage of their automotive career.

The Signature Series is WinA's flagship events program – bringing together senior leaders, industry decision-makers, and emerging talent for panel discussions, keynotes, and networking. The series runs across Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Adelaide, with Darwin ideally next.

The Barbara Cox Award, delivered in partnership with Cox Automotive for three consecutive years, is a $5,000 career development grant awarded annually to a woman working anywhere in the industry. Recipients include Eleni Mitakos, founder of Galmatic, who has taught car maintenance to over 1.2 million Australians; Shai Coplen, a TAFE mechanic trainer developing the next generation of women in trades; and Tegan Blockey, Dealer Principal at Bridge Toyota and Lexus of Darwin.

WinA's jobs board gives automotive businesses a direct channel to reach Australia's largest community of professional women in the automotive industry. Its multi-channel content program – across LinkedIn, Instagram, and a regular newsletter – keeps the community engaged between events and has been central to growing WinA's reach from 2,000 to close to 17,000 in 2 years.

The inaugural 2026 Changemaker Ambassador Program comprises 12 women spanning trades, motorsport, engineering, and executive leadership – each using their own platform to educate and inspire women to consider the industry and extend WinA's cultural reach beyond its own channels.

WinA has also taken its agenda directly to government, attending Parliament House alongside MTA NSW/ACT for ministerial meetings on the automotive skills shortage and female participation – with outcomes including access to funding pathways and discussions about extending the Signature Series to Tasmania.

Coming next: a mentor platform and webinar program to create structured, skills-based connections between experienced leaders and women earlier in their careers.

WinA's reach has grown from 2,000 to close to 17,000 in 2 years. Events have reached more than 1000 attendees from 125+ companies – including more than 60 C-suite executives and more than 85 dealer representatives – representing over $100 billion in combined company revenue. The Barbara Cox Award has attracted approximately 100 applicants across 3 cycles. WinA now has 25 corporate partners and 30+ event partners, the majority of whom approached WinA directly – among them Toyota, Honda, BMW, VicRoads and O'Brien Glass.

The impact extends beyond numbers. When Jowett Motor Group introduced a maternity and paternity leave policy for the first time in its history, they partnered with WinA to make it public – through a LinkedIn article, media coverage and a video production featuring the women of Jowett across the full range of roles they hold. Other dealer groups, observing the response, have since begun reviewing their own policies. In 2025, WinA moderated the opening panel of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA_ Conference to an audience of approximately 900 dealership owners and senior industry leaders – placing women's participation as a strategic business advantage at the centre of the industry's most influential gathering.

WinA is evolving from a community network into a comprehensive career advancement ecosystem. The forthcoming mentor platform and webinar program will create direct, skills-based connections between experienced leaders and women earlier in their careers – extending WinA's impact from visibility into structured professional development.

The Signature Series continues to expand geographically, with Darwin on the cards and government conversations underway about a Tasmanian event. The Changemaker Ambassador Program, launched in 2026, will deepen each year as WinA builds a cohort of women using their own platforms to shift what the industry looks like to the next generation considering it as a career.

WinA is also building a deeper evidence base – tracking workforce outcomes including jobs placed, apprenticeships influenced, and organisational change among partner businesses – to move from compelling story to verifiable, sector-wide impact.