While it may be typical for women to have grown up loving dolls, tea parties, and frilly, fun things, Benetia Davis-Williams’s first love was made of steel, had four wheels and a motor. “I live and breathe cars. My family loves cars, so I love cars,” says the lead vehicle systems engineer for Cadillac. “My first car was a 1972 coupe DeVille.” Davis-Williams grew up in Detroit. During her high school years, she participated in a co-op with Cadillac, working on the chrome plating for bumpers. This experience inspired her to go after a career in automotive engineering.
“For my very first job, I thought I was going to be a teacher. I was working part-time as a teacher’s aide for an elementary school at the time. And I realized that wasn’t for me. So when I was at the co-op, I thought, ‘ This is it. I like to tinker, and I like to make things. I’m a crafter.’ So, everything fell into place,” she recalls. “After I graduated from high school, I did a presentation with the people at the co-op to sponsor me to attend GMI, the General Motors Institute. They said yes.”
She went from chrome plating to working on blueprints and eventually worked at the Detroit Hamtramck, where she worked on the assembly line alongside her line supervisor in quality.
Davis-Williams worked hard, moving her way up to become a test engineer on Cadillacs for General Motors. It wasn’t long before she was responsible for the exterior parts of vehicles, like headlamps, tail lamps, windshields, and body side moldings, as a design engineer. She continued to use her skills, passion, and expertise at the company, which provided opportunities for her to grow and be where she is now.
“My current job is the lead vehicle systems engineer. I’m in charge of not only the body structure but also the exterior components. Our latest project is the Cadillac OPTIQ, and I got the whole outside of the vehicle. That’s all me, except for tires and wheels,” she proudly proclaims.
She adds, “I make sure that the exterior and structural components meet our government requirements. We test, validate them, and then launch them on the car. We also make sure from a design aspect that we collaborate with the studio to take their vision to the next level with the engineering requirements and create something we could put out on the road. During the process, I bring the engineers together, and we sit down to figure it out. For example, we talk about moving something a millimeter over to meet this requirement, or the studio wants a certain aesthetic with a chrome piece to make it more shiny or have more depth. Once we have the design, we go to the validation portion and test to look for any bugs or problems. We use that information to help the new engineers get to solutions quicker, better, faster, and more complete.”
Being a Black woman in Davis-Williams’ position in this line of work takes confidence and leadership skills. Thankfully, she has that and more to bring to the table.
“Being the only Black person in the room is always interesting. A lot of times, when you’re dealing with people in a male-dominated space, they automatically go to the man instead of talking to you. It gets a little annoying, but for me, I just make sure they understand I’m the person that’s in charge. I always go in and say, ‘Hello, my name is, and this is what I do.’ So they know to come to me, not my male counterpart,” she says.
Knowing that Black and Brown women are underrepresented in the automotive industry and STEM careers, she now makes sure to spread the word about her experiences and educate young girls about the possibilities that are available to them. In her spare time, she speaks at schools, informing girls about STEM careers, and says GM also has affinity groups, including one that educates the youth in Detroit on how to get involved in this line of work. She’s paying it forward to make it more common to see Black women in roles like her own, making an impact in engineering.
“Working in STEM is important, especially for women,” Davis-Williams says. “Everyone can apply engineering to their everyday life. And I want to make sure that the girls coming up see that.”
