Honda’s Female Focus

HONDA CONTINUES TO FUND IMPORTANT FEMALE VENTURES

The Honda car manufacturer has a reputation for being progressive and pro-active in their approach to marketing to and being inclusive of the female population. As the saying goes, money talks and in terms of funding female oriented interests, lately Honda has been speaking loud and clear.

Here are a few programs that in recent times have greatly benefited female groups.

Csr.honda.com proudly stated on June 24, 2013, Honda presented the Collegiate Women Sports Awards at the Galen Center in downtown Los Angeles. The ceremony honored female collegiate athletes for their achievements in sports, academics and the community during the 2012-2013 school years.

The Collegiate Women Sports Awards presented by Honda has a 27-year history of encouraging athletes to reach their goals and rewarding them for achieving success. Since 1986, Honda has provided more than $2.7 million in grants to the universities of award winners and nominees—grants designed to benefit women athletic scholarships.

Prnewswire.com fills in the specifics. Keilani Ricketts, who uniquely dominated collegiate softball with her pitching and hitting, is the 2013 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and recipient of The Honda Cup. Ricketts was presented the prestigious award tonight in a live telecast on ESPNU from USC’s Galen Center Founders Club in downtown Los Angeles.

Ms. Ricketts was a finalist for the Honda Cup in 2012, and is a two-time winner of the Honda Sports Award for softball. The University of Oklahoma senior was selected by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 37th year, from a trio of finalists that included basketball’s Elena Delle Donne of the University of Delaware, the 2012 Honda Inspiration Award recipient; and LSU sprinter Kimberlyn Duncan. Also honored were the top Division II athlete, Kari Daugherty of Ashland, another two-time honoree, and Division III’s Allyson Fournier, a softball player at Tufts University.

The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Award are automatically in the running for the Honda-Broderick Cup award, as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Three other athletes are honored as the Division II Athlete of the Year, Division III Athlete of the Year, and Inspiration Award winner.

Winners are selected in each of the 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports by a panel of more than 1,000 NCAA administrators. Three other athletes are honored as the Division II Athlete of the Year, Division III Athlete of the Year, and Inspiration Award winner. Each woman is selected not only for her superior athletic skills, but also for her leadership abilities, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service.

Wikipedia concludes, at the end of the year, one deserving athlete will be chosen as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and receive the coveted Honda-Broderick Cup. Cyclingnews.com informs us of another female venture Honda proudly supports.

The all-new Wiggle Honda Women’s Pro Cycling team held its official presentation in London, with the 12-rider line-up one of the strongest in women’s racing.

The team is the brainchild of Australian Commonwealth Games gold medalist Rochelle Gilmore, and is the result of four years of tenacious effort.

Team Wiggle Honda will support 12 riders in total, with a host of female champions and future talent from Britain and around the world. As well as Gilmore herself, the group includes 2012 British Olympic trio Laura Trott, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell. Three-time world champion Giorgia Bronzini of Italy is also in the lineup, as is seven-time Japanese national champion Mayuko Hagiwara.

As far as competition is concerned, direction for the team will mostly be focused on single-day classic events along with sprint races. Many of the riders will be making a transition from track to road cycling this year, with the ultimate goal being to win as many races as possible without putting too much pressure on the team.

Rochelle and her teammates have set out to raise the professionalism and perception of women’s cycling, and have received backing from both the Bradley Wiggins Foundation and British Cycling. Rochelle’s aim is to provide everything necessary for her fellow athletes to perform at their best, something that hasn’t always been possible.

Headline sponsor Honda Motor Europe have provided the team with cars. Support also comes from a whole host of Wiggle-stocked brands, from Fizik and Muc-Off to Skins.

The motivation and spirit that propels this conviction can be found at the company’s website Honda.com.

“We’ve always known that our success isn’t measured solely by the vehicles we make, but also by the lives we enhance. Our responsibilities to our associates, our business partners, our communities and our planet have guided us for nearly four decades, and they’ve helped us on our path to be a company society wants to exist.”

“Our company philosophy concerning diversity in the workplace states: Equality among colleagues is expressed in recognizing, respecting and valuing individual differences in each other, treating each other fairly and creating equal opportunity for everyone.”

“Honda recognizes that diversity and inclusion are critical to our business operations. Diversity in our workforce and supply base helps foster the kind of innovation, sensitivity and vitality that enables us to dream big dreams and create products and technologies that make people’s lives better. We embrace diversity across all levels of our business, and among our associates, suppliers, dealers and communities in which we do business.”

In a traditionally male-dominated industry Honda has rolled out a new model it claims to have specifically designed with women in mind.

Today.com reveals the new Honda Fit She’s is a pretty-in-pink version of the maker’s familiar subcompact that offers a few niceties the maker believes will specifically appeal to distaff buyers, such as a windshield designed to block skin-wrinkling ultraviolet rays.

Priced at $17,500 – at current exchange rates – the Honda Fit She’s is currently available only in the Japanese market and it’s unclear whether the maker will roll it out in other parts of the world.

Like those vehicles handed out as prizes by Mary Kay Cosmetics, the dominant shade is pink, starting with the exterior paint and including the interior pink stitching and tutti-frutti-hued chrome bezels. If that doesn’t get the message across, Honda uses a pretty little heart to replace the apostrophe in “She’s.”

To Honda’s credit, the maker also has plans to offer the special model in an alternate hue that might best be called “eyeliner brown.”

The Fit She’s also delivers some other features women might appreciate. That includes the special UV-blocking window glass. Recent studies have underscored concerns that extended exposure to the sun while driving can be nearly as bad for the skin as spending too much time on the beach.

Autoweek.com reported on 8/02/2013, U.S. light-vehicle sales — driven by double-digit gains at six of the seven biggest automakers — rose 14 percent in July, just below forecasts but strong enough to keep the industry’s recovery on solid ground.

Sales last month rose 21 percent at American Honda.

Progressive, innovative, adaptive, female friendly and financially successfully, Honda continues to be a car manufacturer to watch and admire.

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Source: Csr.honda.com, Prnewswire.com, Wikipedia, Cyclingnews.com, Honda.com, Today.com, Autoweek.com, Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons.