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REVIEW article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1474864
This article is part of the Research Topic Continuing Engineering Education for a Sustainable Future View all 14 articles
Driving Gender Equality in the Automotive Industry: A Review of Educational Strategies
Provisionally accepted- 1 Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
- 2 Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
The automotive industry has historically been characterized by male dominance, presenting significant challenges to achieving gender equality. Despite ongoing efforts to increase female participation, women continue to encounter systemic barriers, including entrenched gender stereotypes, unequal access to training, and a scarcity of female role models. This study systematically reviews educational strategies to advance women's inclusion in the automotive sector, focusing on their effectiveness in enhancing skills development, career progression, and leadership opportunities. Through the analysis from various regions and organizational contexts, key findings reveal that targeted interventions—such as vocational training programs, mentoring initiatives, leadership development workshops, and scholarship opportunities—have effectively improved women's technical competencies, professional confidence, and long-term retention in the industry. Additionally, the study highlights that these educational programs yield broader organizational and societal benefits, including increased workplace diversity, enhanced innovation, and improved productivity.Despite these positive outcomes, the research identifies persistent gaps that require further attention, such as the need for policy-driven frameworks to ensure sustained progress and the significance of cross-sector collaboration to amplify the impact of educational initiatives. This review offers evidence-based insights and practical recommendations for policymakers, industry leaders, and educators to support women's empowerment in the automotive workforce, underscoring the ongoing efforts necessary to achieve meaningful and sustainable gender equality in the sector.
Keywords: Automotive sector, Gender Equality, Empowering women, Female leadership, mentoring, Continuing education, higher education, Educational innovation
Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 11 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zavala-Parrales, Meléndez Anzures, Perez-Suarez and Dominguez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Angeles Dominguez, Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.