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Matt Lauer Plays the Gender Card with GM CEO Mary Barra

Between its new CEO and the massive safety issues, General Motors has been in the headlines a lot lately, so Matt Lauer and The Today Show headed to Detroit for an exclusive interview with CEO Mary Barra to discuss many of the latest events.
Mary Barra interivew on The Today Show 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from NBC
As expected, the initial focus of the interview talked about vehicle safety and GM’s internal culture regarding safety. This not only applies to the recent ignition switch malfunction that is being blamed for at least 13 deaths and led to the recall of millions of vehicles so far, but also to the recent stop-sale issued for the 2013-14 Chevrolet Cruze for airbag problems.

Over the span of the eight-minute interview, Barra talked about the recalls, what changes will be made to GM and whether or not more people will be fired over the ignition switch failure, but it didn’t take Lauer very long to ask Barra if her gender played a role in her being named the CEO of GM earlier this year.

As a woman and a mom you could present a softer face and softer image for this company as it goes through this horrible episode, he said.

Barra, who replied that this is “absolutely not true,” has proven herself as the leader of GM through her words and actions. She has stated on more than one occasion that GM “failed” its customers in regards to safety, and the automaker will be accountable for its past and ensuring it won’t happen again in the future.

Even worse, he ends the segment by questioning whether she can fulfil her roles at leader of GM and as a mother to her family. We’re pretty sure the parenting issue wouldn’t have come up had this been an interview with Mark Fields as he prepares to become the latest CEO of Ford Motor Company.

The interview with Barra is broken up into two parts, which you can watch here and here.
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