February 22, 2016 • 48 mins
Auto mechanics is a decidedly male-dominated field, with women comprising less than 2 percent of the profession. Cristen and Caroline get under the hood of the history of women and automobile upkeep and look at why a growing number of ladies are opening garages on their own.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you from house Supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Christen
and I'm Caroline, and today we're talking about women mechanics
and to kick things off, we want to talk about
a woman named Nancy Boyce who is a total badass. Yeah.
(00:29):
We read this article about a Clark College Diesel Technician
Program graduate and reading the article, you're like, oh, this
is just gonna be one of those like softball like
oh ra ra women articles, But no, this this woman,
there's nothing softball about her. Uh. She was Caterpillars or
(00:51):
is Caterpillars first female field mechanic in Alaska, and this
article touches on all of these incredibly difficult circumstances that
boys has to deal with being a mechanic in rural Alaska. Yeah.
And the reason why she picked Juno was because after
she graduated with like a three nine nine from Diesel
(01:15):
Tech school, she wanted to know what the most lucrative
Caterpillar dealership was and it just happened to be in Alaska,
probably because of how, you know, the how difficult it
is to service all of the equipment in the surrounding
remote areas. So she was like, Okay, I'm going to Alaska.
(01:38):
She gets the job, and I wish we could just
read the article allowed so that we can fully communicate
all of the lengths that she would have to go
to to fix generators and tug boats and all of
these crucial pieces of machinery that keep these small communities running.
(02:00):
And of course she does touch on the fact that
she'll show up to do a job and some guy
will say, oh great, I'm losing thousands of dollars today,
and they send me a girl, and of course they
have to apologize and eat their words after she does
an incredible job and a professional job at fixing whatever
the broken machinery is. And of course she also talks
to about how you aren't always working for money when
(02:23):
you go to these smaller towns, that sometimes you work
for food, um or even blankets in some cases, with
people leaving handwritten thank you note saying you don't even
realize that you just saved my family by fixing this generator. Yeah.
I think one of her most prized gifts that she
received in exchange was a seal butter, which is a delicacy. Yeah,
(02:44):
all right, I'd work for butter. Well, Caroline, if you
find a stick of butter on your desk in the
next few just don't be surprised. Is that my bonus? Well,
thank you gifts for medio. What would you do if
I loved Margarine on your desk? Though, I'd probably like
that better considering I am super sensitive telactose? Okay, noted,
there we go. If you're going to leave a fat product,
(03:07):
oh man, what if listeners start sending you Margarine? I
would think that was hysterical. But back to boys. So
because of though the continual harassment that she would face
on the job, even though she would, you know, do
her job very well, she got going of down and
(03:28):
out and ended up leaving Caterpillar and she'd saved up
a bunch of money because she was making so much money,
and she just traveled around Alaska as you do, like
you do, and um ended up after she kind of
recharged from it, ended up starting her own business, Power
Tech Generation, and is now doing gangbusters and has three
(03:48):
employees and can barely keep up with all the requests.
And I feel like she's such a good person to
kick off this episode about women mechanics with because her
experience touches on so many of the issues we're going
to talk about in terms of how it's the story
came out and she was the first, so that goes
(04:09):
to show how few women are in this industry. She
deals with harassment, which is common or at least you know,
the equips about oh you're a woman, I don't know
if you can fix things, and in the article noted
how you know she's she's stereotypically pretty, which comes up
a lot in these these articles too, of like, don't worry,
(04:32):
she's still a woman. She still has that blonde hair. Yeah,
oh my god, in her noses pierce like she is nuts.
Totally crap. And boys was smart to enter this field
because diesel service, text and mechanics make can make a
lot of money. It's a field with a super positive
job outlook. It's growing even faster than the regular economy.
(04:55):
You can buy a lot of butter. You can you're
a diesel mechanic, so much butter replacement product. And we
should quickly note the various types of mechanics. There's the
diesel mechanic obviously, like voice. There's also aircraft mechanics, small
engine mechanics, heavy vehicle mechanics which fixed, uh who fixed
(05:15):
like farm equipment and things like that, and then auto mechanics,
which we're going to focus on today. That's right. There
were about seven forty thousand automotive service texts and mechanics
in the country in the United States of America who maintain,
inspect and repair cars and sometimes frustrate female customers because
(05:38):
they talked down to them. Well this actually no seriously
like reading for this episode got me real stressed out
because it's time to take my car in for an inspection.
And it's not that I expect anything massively wrong to
be a problem, however, I just I just like cringe
when it's time to go to either the dealership or
(05:59):
a mechanic, and it because I don't like to be
talked to like I'm a ten year old girl. I
feel your pain. I feel your pain indeed. Um, But
these mechanics do for their obviously hashtag not all mechanics, sure,
of course, But while condescension is sometimes part of the job,
(06:21):
it seems like they are well compensated. The median salary
is a little over thirty seven thousand dollars, but they
can earn up to sixty two dollars. But then if
you're really specialized, you can learn a lot more than that.
I knew, um Or a friend of mine's brother, I
want to say, he is a Porsche specialist mechanic, and
(06:45):
that fellow is making in the six figs. He's he's
earning fig bigs. Oh my god, your and butters. I
love this economy. I know everyone's so full increasing. So
you're talking about how we've will haven't totally snapped away
from the recession, but I believe it's true. Um So
that's her training. If you want to be an auto mechanic, uh,
(07:08):
you basically have to have the equivalent of a high
school diploma and go on to enroll in training programs
at like a vocational school or college. And of course
you get on the job training and about two to
five years of hands on experience before you become a
full fledged technician. But I'm sure you get to wear
the awesome coveralls the whole time. I know that seems
(07:31):
like the biggest perk of the job. Not the money,
not the self respect, not the knowledge that you know
how to fix something that other people don't. It's the clothes, Caroline.
You you know firsthand that I can have a difficulty,
shall we say, putting it outfit together? Oh, you love
a jumpsuit and coveralls combined it? Yes, my love of
jumpsuits and the simplicity just one and done. Yeah, that's it,
(07:54):
like a ghostbuster. Yes. But one aspect of this job
that I really just hadn't thought about before was that
it's not just working on traditional mechanical systems like engines
and transmissions and drive belts and such, but you also
have to learn how to work with all of these
electronic systems because the newer cars that are coming out
(08:16):
are essentially just like computers on wheels. Computers on wheels.
I know, that's exactly what I was going to say,
a car today. I feel like that it sounds so
like a car today. Um might have more than twenty
microprocessors running everything from breaking and transmission to steering an
accident avoidance systems. Like I know, my mother has a
(08:38):
super fancy car and it's got all these bells and
whistles and like fifty computers, and she doesn't understand a
single part of it. She barely even like she'll get lost.
And I'm like, you literally have like a cockpit map
in your car that you could use, and it's just
it blows your mind she can't do it. And comparatively,
I feel like my car is just full of old
typewriters about it. But the computerization of cars is one
(09:05):
kind of selling point that the industry has been using
to woo women, saying, listen, it's not all of this heavy,
greasy work. It's a lot of computer programming as well.
And of course other important skills that tend to be
characterized as more female friendly traits, such as customer service,
being detail oriented, organized, and troubleshooting. Yeah, and a lot
(09:30):
of when you when you read articles about women mechanics,
there is always that quote about, oh, we love hiring
women because they are so detail oriented and they take
their time and make fewer mistakes. And I just wonder
if that doesn't come out of I'm sure it's true.
I'm sure people aren't making that up, but um, I
wonder if that comes out of women who become mechanics
(09:51):
in this male dominated field feeling like they have to
work twice as hard. We tend to encounter that, whether
it's an academic studies or just anecdote or ports from
women of when you're in one of these male dominated industries,
you do tend to have to bust your butt to
prove yourself. Yeah, and on the part of the boss,
I would bet that there is a little bit of
(10:12):
an element of surprise. And betted in that quote too,
of like, I mean, she did and so well, look
at her didn't even mess up. And these are also
reasons that are cited when you read about mechanic shortages.
There was this USA Today article from a couple of
years ago, but this is definitely not something that's gone away.
That was about auto dealers and auto tech educators who
(10:37):
are really worried about a shortfall of mechanics, saying that
it's really hard to attract and retain younger folks. Because
I just heard a thing on NPR the other day
talking about how maybe it was this morning. It was
this morning, I know the story you're talking about. Okay, Yeah,
it feels like it was already three years ago, um,
from when I just rolled out of bed. But they
(10:58):
were talking about how not only younger people, but now
it's a trend among older folks as well to let
their driver's licenses lap, especially with so many people moving
back to urban city centers. People are like, well, I
don't want the expense of a car. And so if
you have this generation that's giving up driver's licenses, they're
not as pumped about getting the license and driving and
(11:20):
learning how to take care of the car. They haven't
taken auto repair or shop classes in high school if
their schools even offer it, right, and maybe they haven't
taken the higher level math and science that's required for
jobs like this. So you can imagine that it's hard
to sort of wu as you said, anyone, let alone
women to this job. But as Nancy Boys wisely assumed,
(11:45):
I mean, there's there's great job security. If you study
to become an auto tech, chances are you will definitely
get a job, and you'll be able to keep that job. Yeah,
I mean it's you know, your local mechanic is not
going to be outsourced. That job is not going to
go way. And a lot of people that were quoted
in articles that we read talk about the joy of
getting to solve challenges and problems that not everybody can um.
(12:09):
And there's also a really large need for master technicians,
and these people are being asked to do jobs that
a couple of years ago would have required an engineering degree,
so there's a lot of responsibility. Of course, the flip
side of that is like, maybe you should be raising
pay if you want to attract more people to this job. Well,
let's talk then about women, because you know, the industry
(12:33):
is slowly courting more women because I mean, there are
not many of us in that labor force. I mean, overall,
if we look at all of the workers in the US,
we make up about forty percent of those. But if
you look just at the automotive workforce, we make up
But then if we narrow it down to automotive service
(12:57):
technicians and mechanics, as women made up just one eight percent. Yeah,
and going back to Nancy boys, women make up just
point five percent of diesel engine specialists. This is I
feel like this is more than male dominated, Like what's
what's the word for, like a step above male dominated?
(13:19):
It's dudely, it's super deeply. And I'm sure that we
have lady mechanics out there who were just like, oh
my god, I can't believe you just said that. Yeah,
that it's like a super dudly professional. Although how could
you deny it? I mean it's mostly men. Yeah, the
stats kind of speak for themselves. UM and Deloitte released
(13:40):
their Women at the Wheel Auto Industry Report, and it's great.
We're gonna have a link to it over at stuff
I've Never told you dot Com in the source post
for this episode. I highly recommend you look at it
because it's basically one giant infographic. I don't know if
that's as big a draw for everyone as it is
for me, but I'm like, oh my, they just look
at all of the great graphics and little stick figures
(14:03):
they use. But okay, So anyway, Deloitte talked to a
ton of women in the auto industry, not just mechanics
but kind of women overall, and they asked them how
to fix this problem. There's so few women mechanics, so
number one. The biggest thing I felt like was cited
was creating a more flexible work schedule and environment. This
(14:24):
was a huge factor for the women interviewed. They also
talked about how important it is to develop the workforce early.
I mean, Kristen and I talked about this in every
STEM conversation we have, about the importance of inspiring and
attracting people early in their lives, kids who might not
know that a job is available to them. Um, because
(14:46):
most of the respondents in this Deloit survey said that
schools are not doing enough to encourage girls to pursue
automotive careers and have a feeling too. For kids growing up,
there's a socialization factor where Dad might take little Jimmy
out and show him the ropes with a with a
family car, whereas little Susie might just be left inside.
(15:06):
Little Susie never gets to go to the dealership. She doesn't.
But of course, another way to introduce a huge influx
of women into the automotive industry would be to start
World War three. Oh lord, oh goodness. No, no, I'm not.
I'm not advocating for that. No, well, we don't need
a World War Caroline, because even before World War One,
(15:30):
automotive schools for women existed, and they denied that learning
about auto mechanics conflicted with femininity. We have this this
whole like thing like throughout the history of this profession
where it's like, seriously, ladies, it's okay, you can do
this kind of work and still still be pretty Yeah,
(15:50):
with your tiny hands and you're your caring nature. It
can apply just as much to an engine as as
to your family members. And that was something that writer
Hamblin Rossiter wrote about. He compared the job of fixing
an engine to caring where a big family member like
you said and assured readers that quote, a woman does
(16:11):
not spoil her hands or even roughen them slightly handling
machinery if she takes care of them. Yes, to put
on that lish and where the gloves. Where the gloves.
Make sure when you're washing those dishes, ladies, you use
that dish detergent that doesn't it's got lotion in it
or whatever. And sleep with those lotion gloves on to
keep your hands extra to your body and vaselines. And
(16:34):
then get under the hood. Um, but if we do
drive up to World War One, sorry I had to
get a mechanic pun in there at some point it. Um,
they're already women showing interest in cars, not surprisingly. I
mean we establish it there these mechanics schools, but we
also have women like Wilma Russi. Yeah, n Rusty was
(16:59):
already own as an expert garage mechanic. And she actually
became the first woman to work as a taxi driver
in New York. And I love it because anything you
read about her It's like it goes into detail about
how she would drive around the town in these dresses
with the leopard print hat and the leopard print scarf
and cuffs on all of this stuff. She was no
(17:20):
slouch when it came to fashion. But what I think
is important to mention about that is Russy was one
of many wealthy upper class women who took to driving
and therefore mechanics, which is something you had to know
how to do if you were going to drive a car,
because you know, cars in nine fifteen, you had to
know how to take care of them when it inevitably
(17:42):
like crapped out on you on the road. Um. But
it was driving and touring and motoring were huge among
upper class women because I mean, it got you out
of the house, It got you to see the world
kind of. I mean the context of this is around
this time, you have all of these women hopping in
of cars, whether it was for like promotional things for
(18:02):
companies or just to show that women could do it,
hopping into cars and driving a cross country or making
these long drives just to show like, yeah, ladies can
do it. But those women were largely, as you might imagine,
the upper class who had the time and money to spare. Yeah.
In nineteen o nine, just a hot back. A few
years Alice Hewler Ramsey became the first woman to drive
(18:23):
across the country, and she was also a woman of means.
Her husband bought her a car the year before, and
the trip was a promotional campaign for I think it
was called the Maxwell Car Company, and I really love that.
For propriety's sake, she brought along her two conservative sisters
(18:43):
in law, Neddie and Margaret, as well as a sixteen
year old friend to keep things lively. But I mean
because the I mean, first of all, the interstate system
was pretty much non existent. They would have to follow
sometimes like telegraph lines just to where they needed to go.
But throughout their trip they had to fix radiators that
(19:05):
had overheated blown tires. At one point, uh, Ramsey talks
about how they got stuck in an irrigation ditch in
Wyoming and she was like, Oh, it was no big deal.
We just took out the block and tackle, hooked it
up to a stump and pulled the car ride out. Yeah.
And she would end up though, Ramsey would end up
making that drive I think thirty times, and she was
(19:28):
eventually named woman Motorists of the Century and so also
though around the same time that Wilma Rssi was mechanick
ng all over New York City. In nineteen sixteen, the
Girl Scouts of America initiated an automobiling badge, and to
earn it you had to demonstrate not only that you
had driving skills, but that you had mechanics talent and
(19:52):
first aid skills. Basically like, are you going to be
able to put out an engine fire when you're driving
this automobile? Well? And as Ramsey had to do, and
every successive like female driver after that. In nineteen six
an automotive instructor asserted that there was no reason to
assume men were better mechanics than women, but the introduction
(20:19):
to one of his diagnostic exercises included the scene setting
of quote, you will kindly imagine yourself twenty miles from
home and dinners getting cold in the same way as
who was it Hamblin Rossiter comparing with the engine to
a sick family member, Hamblin Rossiter, whose name sounds like
(20:39):
an anagram, right like that doesn't that's not a name?
Hamblin Camblin Rosster also sounds like some Silicon Valley mogul
who invented an app that we all used. You're right,
You're you're actually right. I agree with you now, But
I just loved that that sexist scene setting for his
manual is paired with his assertion that like, yeah, ladies
(21:01):
can totally do this. It's fine, Like, ladies, come on,
do this job. You can totally. You're totally qualified and
smart enough. It's not a man's job. But when I'm
teaching you, I need to put it in terms you
can understand, like dinner. And a lot of times these
kinds of promotional events, like women driving cars across the
(21:22):
country were of the angle of well, if a lady
can do it, anyone care and so yeah, I mean,
of course there's like some sexism rippling throughout it. Yeah,
And but at this time it is getting more and
more common to see stories in the popular press about
lady mechanics filling in the gaps as men are going
to fight in World War One. I mean it was
(21:43):
a way for women to serve their country and make money.
I mean it was. It was a great opportunity for
women who perhaps never worked before. Yeah, there was um
nineteen eighteen article we found with a photo caption not
exactly a woman's job, perhaps, but these patriotic sisters stop
it nothing when they have once entered the work, into
(22:07):
the work. Yes, once they've entered the work. Um same
year eighteen, there was a handbook titled the Care and
Management of the Modern Motor Car. Uh those specifically geared
geared toward women. There we go, now I'm doing it.
And Virginia Sharff, who's the author of the book Taking
the Wheel, Women and the Coming of the Motor Age,
(22:28):
called this handbooks town patronizing and jocular. But the important
note is that it praised these four hundred why did
you see a auto mechanic grads saying that they were
just as good as the dudes in quote, mastering the
mechanical and technical details of a car. And they warned
professional show first to watch out for that influx of
(22:51):
ladies because you have to keep in mind, You're like,
why does it matter? Why does chau first care about
ladies driving? Because chauffeurst were also responsible for fixing and
maintaining the car. I mean, everyone's seen Downton Abbey, right,
We all know about the chauffeur who had to fix
the car and then married the daughter whoa spoilers. That
was way back. I was way back. That's we're way
(23:11):
past that now. But if we look at military specific involvement,
you've got the Motor Core of America that was established
by the National League of Women's Services and the Red
Cross to provide transportation and ambulatory services to military personnel.
And this gave women the chance not only to learn
how to drive and serve their country, but also maintain
(23:32):
those vehicles. And in order to join the Motor Core
of America, you had to have a show first license,
a mechanics license with a passing grade of at least eighty,
on top of many hours of training. And there were perks.
Christian We've already talked about the coveralls, right, um. Well,
one nineteen eighteen New York Times reporter loved it too. Uh,
(23:53):
he wrote, the young women also ought to be praised
for their spirit of service. Of course he's talking about
the Motor Core women. The conditions of service impose no
special sacrifice of feminine quality. So there it is yet again,
which is something which is a sentiment we will see
repeated now today in also that like, hey, you can
(24:15):
still be a lady lady Nancy boys. Yeah, and he
says also, who can doubt that their uniforms make them
even more attract Let a win win, such a win win,
you can be so gorgeous as a mechanic. And of course,
authors Sharf, who we mentioned a second ago, assures readers
that the uniforms were meant to and succeeded in minimizing
(24:37):
both femininity and individuality. For instance, members of the women's
auxiliary core of the Wax, whether you're a mechanic or
a truck driver, you would wear these khaki green one
piece coveralls that were just the same as those that
the guys wore on purpose, like you were meant to
blend in. There was no nobody wanted, like anyone to
stand out when it came to serving. And like we
(24:59):
hinted at a few men gets ago, this field of
mechanic work meant different things to different classes of women,
because I think it was Sharf who pointed out that
for those wealthier drivers, as you mentioned, Caroline, Uh, this
offered an opportunity to get out of the house and
kind of shrug off those constraints of Victorian femininity. As
(25:19):
Scharf put it. Whereas for less economically privileged women, I mean,
this was just a job. This was a great opportunity
to make some money. Yeah. And in the interwar years
in the nineteen twenties, though a lot of those volunteer
drivers and mechanics from wealthy families ended up returning home,
hundreds of former service women flocked to those vocational schools
(25:43):
like ones that the Knights of Columbus established in Washington,
d c. For instance, to take auto mechanics training. There
were so many women, and we talked about this, We
talked about this in so many other episodes, um, where
so many women didn't want to go home, whether it
was because they needed to support their families or because
they've just gotten a taste of freedom and independence that
(26:04):
earning your own money can give you. And all of
that pretty much happened all over again during World War Two.
So if we hop over to Australia, for instance, Hello
Australian listeners, the National Roads and Motorists Association offered lectures
on vehicle mechanics to women with the aim that they
could be ambulance drivers. And the women in these courses
(26:28):
were like, oh my gosh, this is so easy. So
the n r m A offered more advanced hands on
mechanic training. They're like, oh, okay, they can handle this, well,
let's teach them some more intensive skills. And one high
scoring student, Ms K Broadbent, ended up organizing a Women's
(26:49):
Auxiliary Transport Corps and successfully trained more than five women
to handle trucks, ambulances and motorcycles. Amazing. What can happen
when you empower and educate women? Yeah? Um, And of course,
during World War Two, even Queen Elizabeth will although at
this time Princess UH served as a truck mechanics. She
(27:10):
was part of the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in nineteen five,
during which time she learned to change wheels, she deconstructed
and rebuilt engines, and she drove ambulances and other cars.
And there's a great again over at our service post
on our website. Uh, there's a link to this article
that has all of these pictures of her tinkering with cars.
(27:31):
And it's fabulous, even if it is a photo op.
I don't care, don't tell me. I just love it.
I love to see her like tinkering with engines and stuff.
And when we hop back to the United States. There
is a slightly different landscape during World War Two than
there was during World War One, mainly specifically in this
case because cars were way more common at this point,
as was the knowledge of how to maintain them. So
(27:54):
you had all these g i s who could repair
trucks and tanks. They didn't necessarily rely on people at
the garage. They you know, if something terrible happened when
they were out in the field, they could handle it themselves.
But at home, of course, we saw the same labor shortages.
Mechanic manpower dropped in the US between December nineteen forty
(28:16):
nine two, and you had new car manufacturing that was
halted in favor of the war efforts. So what does
that mean. You don't have any men to do the
car repairs, and you don't have any new cars. You
can't like buy a new car when you're all on
craps out, you have to repair the one you have,
which means that you have this influx of women into garages,
(28:36):
into military garages, so not just the garage on the corner,
and also just learning to repair their own family's car.
And car companies were directly recruiting women. For instance, by
three the student Aker Corporation declared women can and must
be employed for automotive maintenance service, and author Kevin Borg
(28:59):
talks about the parallel rise of Rosie the Riveter and
Mary Joe the Mechanic. Did he make that up? Because
I had never heard that before. I hadn't either googled it,
and only his book came up. Okay, Yeah, and that's fine,
that's totally fine. No. I wish that she really existed, though. Yeah,
if only we had artistic listeners who could possibly artistically
(29:19):
interpret what married Joe the Mechanic Rosie the Riveter's friend
might look like, I'm just gonna leave that, leave that
right there. But Borg discusses my new hero, the ninety
pound Evelyn Mighty Might Rand, who attended a Boston trade
school with forty other ladies and they ended up working
at an army ordinance shop in Maine, first as mechanic helpers,
(29:42):
then as straight up mechanics. And what's so great about
the story is they were paid comparably to what men made.
Uh and Rand told BORGU, we did all types of
work on ten wheeler trucks, jeeps, dodge weapon carriers, and
staff cars. We overhauled engines, tune ups, re line breaks,
greased vehicles, and whatever was written up on the job
(30:04):
order by the inspector, and so Mighty Might she ends
up getting promoted to the machine shop where she overhauled carburetors, generators, distributors,
on and on and on and worked on breaks. And
when her shop closed in she wasn't sent home. Mighty
Might got a raise and was transferred to Dow Air
(30:25):
Base to continue rebuilding and repairing ordinance vehicles. But, as
is the case with so many women, whether you're a
Rosie or a Mary Joe, once the war was over,
Rand told Borick she was heartbroken because she had to
return home. Yeah, and we'll talk about what happened after
the war when we come right back from a quick break. So,
(30:58):
due to the g I, a lot of men who
returned home from the war went back into or newly
into mechanic positions, and it also helped them open their
own shops. So in nineteen fifty, at the end of
the spike we were talking about in Lady Mechanics, more
than four thousand women auto mechanics were listed in the
(31:20):
US Census, which was a three d increase over nineteen
forty figures, but keep in mind this is still not
even one per cent of the whole pool. Yeah, I mean,
it sounds great that in nineteen fifty you've got this
many women working as mechanics, But as Kristen said, that
(31:40):
was the end of the spike, that was it. By
nineteen sixty, only about twenty three hundred women auto mechanics
were listed in the US Census. But I mean it's
not like they disappeared. They obviously were still women were
still employed as mechanics. In Women in Technology News interviewed
Betsy Hoffman, who at the time was the chair of
(32:01):
the Automotive Technology Department at Vermont Technical College. And Hoffman
was the first woman in the United States to hold
the Automotive Service Excellence L one Advanced Engine Performance certification,
and she this should be a familiar refrain got into
mechanics because she didn't have the money to take her
car and had to learn the repairs herself. Wanted a stable,
(32:24):
steady job where she could earn a good paycheck. I
feel like the theme of this episode is really just
sisters doing it for themselves. Yeah. Absolutely, and Hoffman predicted
quote enormous opportunities for women in the automotive field and
fewer and fewer obstacles to their success in it. Why
because of those things that we mentioned at the top
of the podcast, the fact that it's almost more mentally
(32:48):
challenging than physically challenging, with the move toward electronic components
and really light parts, and the fact that like even
male mechanics, as Hoffman pointed out, are going to rely
on lifts, levers and teamwork to get all of this
stuff done. It's not like you are individually, by hand
expected to lift a whole engine. And we're also seeing
(33:10):
a small but notable trend of against this was doing
it for themselves, um such as Patrice Banks, who is
an ex upont engineer who's kind of become the face
of women getting into the garage and also starting their
own garages. So as she gave a ted talk about this,
there are all sorts of articles profiling her, and the
(33:35):
gist of it is that she couldn't find a female mechanic,
so she became one. She talked about how fed up
she was with feeling like what she called an auto
air head and getting scammed by quote, the male dominated
car care industry. So as she was still working as
a DuPont engineer. She took community college classes for two
(33:58):
years on the side, earned a diploma in automotive technology,
and ended up founding the Girl's Auto Clinic, in which
I believe is in Philadelphia. Yeah, I mean, she talks
about how she wanted to correct the gender imbalance in
the industry because unfortunately Hoffman's predictions never came true. That
(34:20):
was back. She's like, more and more women are going
to do this. There's fewer and fewer obstacles. We've yet
to see. It happened, and so Banks's goal is to
sort of decimate that discrepancy. UM. Her Girls Auto Clinic
organization offers free workshops that teach women how to learn
how to take care of their cars, how to talk
(34:41):
to a mechanic, and what to do in an emergency. UM.
She's also in the process in Philadelphia of opening an
auto shop that's tailored specifically to women and staffed by
lady mechanics and technicians. And it will include a nail salon,
which at first I rolled my eyes at. I will
admit I of my eyes with that infected to But
(35:02):
have you ever had to wait at an auto shop
or a dealership. Absolutely, it's obnoxious, and especially if the
WiFi spotty and you can't do work. I never have
time to get my nails done. There you go. I
was like, you know, Banks is onto something. But the
I really part of me like that totally does planned
all of these narratives about like, well you've still got
(35:23):
to be girly. Oh you don't worry, you can still
be girly. But I'm I'm once I thought through about like,
actually I would probably take advantage of that. I unrolled
my eyes. I'm happy to report well. And it reminds
me of the mechanic shop that's been here in Atlanta
for a while called my favorite mechanic As a woman,
(35:44):
I don't think that they offer manicures, but and I'm
fine with that, but I know a number of people
who go there and get great car care. UM. And
one thing that we really haven't talked too much about
in this podcast is how women do often feel bamboozled
in mechanics shops. UM. There was a Northwestern University study
(36:07):
that confirmed this as well. It found that auto repair
shops tend to give women significantly higher price quotes than
men when customers are uninformed about market prices. And I've
noticed that in my personal experience as well. If I
go in clearly not really knowing what's wrong, I will
(36:28):
get all sorts of diagnostic problems and suggestions. But if
I go in knowing exactly what I need, then that's
I mean, that's it. It's kind of like if you
show some knowledge and you show what's up, then it
seems like you tend to get less pushback. Yeah, and
and you see that in comments about on these types
(36:48):
of articles, people being like man or woman, if you
don't know anything, you'll probably be taken advantage of. And
I hate that that's the case. Why can you not
just go into an auto dealership or mechanics up and
be treated honestly no matter who you are or what
you know. Wouldn't that be nice? That'd be so nice.
But that's the kind of stuff that these women are
(37:09):
pushing back against. There's also um Julia Johnson who started
the Heart Wrenchers Auto Club in San Francisco in and
they do free car repairs for low income folks. They
teach Girl Scouts and other kids basic auto maintenance, and
they generally just work to support and inspire other women
to not only take care of their cars themselves, but
(37:30):
get into the industry. I love it. I love that
kind of work. And this is something that's not just
happening in the US if we go over to Nigeria.
Sandra Aguabar started the Lady Mechanic Initiative, which has seen
more than seven hundred women across five states graduates since
two thousand four, and of spring, more than three hundred
(37:53):
women were on the waiting list to take the two
year program. Yeah, this woman is amazing. So Aguabar fruits
women who are in pretty risky situations. She visits brothel,
she visits poor areas where there's a lot of drug activity. UM.
At least a dozen of the women enrolled in her
program in were former sex workers, and they're working alongside
(38:16):
or learning alongside former lawyers, engineers, university grads. It's not
like this is some charity. She's honestly just trying to
support all types of women and give them more opportunities.
There's this great video that will post to on our
site where Agraware is telling an interviewer why not start
(38:37):
empowering women to be mechanics. UM. She started with just
a handful of women and now she's got this train
and pay program, So a lot of the women that
she trained are now at other garages, their own garages,
and they get paid to train other ladies through this initiative.
(38:59):
So it's this whole network of women supporting women. As
Aguabor says, I really believe when you train a woman
in this work, you give something to the whole community.
And those Nigerian communities need that kind of work because
they tend to have harsh road conditions, lots of older cars,
(39:19):
and countless generators that are keeping things humming despite the
shaky electrical grid, which kind of hearkens back to Nancy
Boyce in her work in those remote areas in Alaska.
And I also love this quote from Winifred act Fure,
who at the time was wearing a bright red T
shirt and reading I fixed cars, and she says, in Nigeria,
(39:41):
this job isn't common for women, so if you do
it well, people will really admire you. And she goes
on to say how our bosses treat her well, but
they also kind of like to flaunt her in front
of customers because quote, it's good business to have a
female mechanic. Yeah. I loved so In this video that
I was watching that was interviewing all of these women
who work with Aguabar. They were going out into the
(40:05):
community to try to drum up interest in this alternative life,
like here you have the chance to have this job,
make more money, have a more steady income. And these
women mechanics were so freaking enthusiastic. I loved it. They
were like going up to people's houses being like, lady
mechanics were awesome, you should join us, and they just
(40:26):
go onto the next house. That was basically like a
lady mechanic pep rally, a traveling lady mechanic pep rally.
I imagine them like pumping wrenches in the air excitedly. Yeah,
that would be amazing. They should make a float, like
a wrench float to a company. They're excited, lady mechanic parade. Yes,
And I have a feeling though, um, they also have
access to a lot of wheels probably yeah, something too,
(40:50):
something tells me that would be the case. Or maybe
just drive a car around. Yeah, but I don't know.
I feel like a parade is more effective. Yeah, I mean,
here's the thing. Got a lot of ideas. Okay, we
can be a consultant for for marketing more parades um.
But it's also not just happening in Nigeria. There have
also been stories about this in Senegal, where women own
(41:14):
and run shops, including FEMS Auto Chickory Mechanic and F
two F two Mercedes, which was founded by two cousins
both named for two as you might imagine, who trained
for seven years and saved up to open their own shop.
And I love it. They said that we were the
only two with enough courage because the rest got married. Yeah,
(41:36):
and they ended up so they had to sort of squad.
They were like shop squatters where they did their auto
mechanic work. But they didn't have to worry about that
anymore because they got a visit in two thousand and
seven from the Senegal's president at the time, and so
Fato Silla, one of the cousins, said, women in the
street would laugh at me when they saw me walk
(41:57):
by my mechanics jumpsuit. Now they don't off anymore, oh man.
But it's interesting though that at two and for two Mercedes,
they don't actually have any female mechanics on their staff.
They own and run the shop. But you need an
advanced degree to work on luxury cars, and so there
is that deeper issue of when you get people access
(42:20):
to education, then they can have those higher paying jobs.
And that's true globally true. That's not just in Senegal. Yeah,
I mean, and we see this dotted around Europe as well.
For instance, in France, the garage Only Girls opened in
spring for the same reason we keep reiterating of women
(42:40):
being tired of feeling uncomfortable and getting ripped off, although
some have criticized this as essentially like capitalizing on feminism. Um.
Then also though, if we pop over to England, Carolines
Cars Hey shot for you as an all lady garage
started by Caroline Lake, and it was interesting to see
(43:02):
that the criticism of like trying to capitalize on feminism,
which I thought was interesting, um, mainly because I don't know,
I think it's fine for women to want to not
only be their own business owner, run their own business,
but also to make fellow ladies comfortable. Yeah, because it's
(43:23):
an issue A lot have experienced this and why not
set up a safe space. But it's just so funny.
You see comments on all of these articles from guys
who are saying, like, uh oh, this isn't so innocent.
They're not just trying to help people. They're they're just capitalizing.
They see a business opportunity and it's like, well, wait, yeah,
of course, yeah yeah, I I don't I don't feel
(43:47):
like that's a really valid criticism. Not surprisingly, but um,
if you fair listeners, want to find your own lady
mechanic in your town, there's this website Women Auto A
U T O no dot com which lists auto shops
and free workshops that feature women and and you know what,
(44:09):
if there are any women mechanics listening, if you want
to shout out your h place of business to us,
let us know because we could create our own sminty
archive of of lady auto shops as well. Where where
are places that are friendly to lady customers? Um? So yeah,
(44:30):
I mean with that, listeners, we want to hear from
you on this issue. As a customer, have you ever
experienced what Caroline and I have talked about of feeling
ripped off and talked down to? And for mechanics, what
have you noticed or experienced about the gender dynamics in garages?
(44:50):
Mom Stuff at house Stuffworks dot com is our email address.
You can also tweet us at mom Stuff, podcasts and
messages on Facebook, and we've got a couple of messages
to share with you when we come right back from
a quick break. Well, I have a letter here from
Matthew in response to our episode on Polly Murray. Uh,
(45:13):
he says, I just finished listening to your podcast on
Polly Murray, in which you rightly bring attention to her
many admirable accomplishments. However, Murray was not the first to
come up with the underlying concepts behind intersectionality. Rather, as
Eric McDuffie has written, a group of black women associated
with the Communist Party, including Grace P. Campbell, Louise Thompson,
Patterson Esther Cooper Johnson, and Claudia Jones, first discussed these
(45:35):
concepts during the nine and twenties and thirties as the
triple oppression or super exploitation of Black women. As Louise
Thompson wrote in nineteen thirty six, over the whole land,
Negro women meet this triple exploitation as workers, as women,
and as Negroes. Like Murray, these women challenged gender as
well as racial norms and understood that these, as well
(45:58):
as class were related issues. Since you asked for unsung trailblazers,
these women left to mind. The stories of these women
are documented in Eric McDuffie's books So Journeying for Freedom,
Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Well,
thank you so much, Matthew. We love, of course we
love hearing about trailblazers, So thank you so much for
(46:19):
filling us in on these amazing women. And I've got
a letter here from Rachin on our Ver Coast Veins
episode and Machine Rites. I was recently guided to your
podcast after Kristen's peace on Stuff you Should Know on
her trip to the Great Wall of China and have
since been mining your back catalog with relish your latest
episode on Ver Coast Veins hit a nerve or vein.
(46:41):
I grew up observing my mother's and grandmother's veinous issues
with trepidation and developed my first vericast vein along with
my first pregnancy. They reduced between pregnancies, but would re
emerge at their previous full term ferocity with subsequent pregnancies
and degenerate from there to term for babies, and seven
years later, my legs are a train wreck, but along
(47:04):
with stretch marks, sagging skin and breast potoss my word
for the day. Cheers, ladies. I've come to accept them
as part of my changing body. I have considered surgical treatment,
but with four children to care for, I can't afford
the recovery time. One small point that I took issue
with was your assertion that pregnant women should put their
feet up. Elevating the niece above the belly in the
(47:25):
last ten weeks of pregnancy can lead to the baby stargazing,
which is faced up or op presentation, which can lead
to a longer and more painful labor and a greater
risk of intervention. Personally, I would rather have a timely,
intervention free birth at home and lumpy legs just one
of the crummy decisions of parenting. So thanks for your insight, Rachen,
(47:47):
and thanks to everybody who's written into us. Mom stuff
at how stuffworks dot Com is our email address, and
frillnks all of our social media as well as all
of our blogs, videos and podcasts with our sources. So
you can learn more about lady mechanics. Head on over
to stuff Mom Never Told You dot com for more
on this and thousands of other topics. Because it how
(48:09):
stuff works dot com,
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you from house Supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Christen
and I'm Caroline, and today we're talking about women mechanics
and to kick things off, we want to talk about
a woman named Nancy Boyce who is a total badass. Yeah.
(00:29):
We read this article about a Clark College Diesel Technician
Program graduate and reading the article, you're like, oh, this
is just gonna be one of those like softball like
oh ra ra women articles, But no, this this woman,
there's nothing softball about her. Uh. She was Caterpillars or
(00:51):
is Caterpillars first female field mechanic in Alaska, and this
article touches on all of these incredibly difficult circumstances that
boys has to deal with being a mechanic in rural Alaska. Yeah.
And the reason why she picked Juno was because after
she graduated with like a three nine nine from Diesel
(01:15):
Tech school, she wanted to know what the most lucrative
Caterpillar dealership was and it just happened to be in Alaska,
probably because of how, you know, the how difficult it
is to service all of the equipment in the surrounding
remote areas. So she was like, Okay, I'm going to Alaska.
(01:38):
She gets the job, and I wish we could just
read the article allowed so that we can fully communicate
all of the lengths that she would have to go
to to fix generators and tug boats and all of
these crucial pieces of machinery that keep these small communities running.
(02:00):
And of course she does touch on the fact that
she'll show up to do a job and some guy
will say, oh great, I'm losing thousands of dollars today,
and they send me a girl, and of course they
have to apologize and eat their words after she does
an incredible job and a professional job at fixing whatever
the broken machinery is. And of course she also talks
to about how you aren't always working for money when
(02:23):
you go to these smaller towns, that sometimes you work
for food, um or even blankets in some cases, with
people leaving handwritten thank you note saying you don't even
realize that you just saved my family by fixing this generator. Yeah.
I think one of her most prized gifts that she
received in exchange was a seal butter, which is a delicacy. Yeah,
(02:44):
all right, I'd work for butter. Well, Caroline, if you
find a stick of butter on your desk in the
next few just don't be surprised. Is that my bonus? Well,
thank you gifts for medio. What would you do if
I loved Margarine on your desk? Though, I'd probably like
that better considering I am super sensitive telactose? Okay, noted,
there we go. If you're going to leave a fat product,
(03:07):
oh man, what if listeners start sending you Margarine? I
would think that was hysterical. But back to boys. So
because of though the continual harassment that she would face
on the job, even though she would, you know, do
her job very well, she got going of down and
(03:28):
out and ended up leaving Caterpillar and she'd saved up
a bunch of money because she was making so much money,
and she just traveled around Alaska as you do, like
you do, and um ended up after she kind of
recharged from it, ended up starting her own business, Power
Tech Generation, and is now doing gangbusters and has three
(03:48):
employees and can barely keep up with all the requests.
And I feel like she's such a good person to
kick off this episode about women mechanics with because her
experience touches on so many of the issues we're going
to talk about in terms of how it's the story
came out and she was the first, so that goes
(04:09):
to show how few women are in this industry. She
deals with harassment, which is common or at least you know,
the equips about oh you're a woman, I don't know
if you can fix things, and in the article noted
how you know she's she's stereotypically pretty, which comes up
a lot in these these articles too, of like, don't worry,
(04:32):
she's still a woman. She still has that blonde hair. Yeah,
oh my god, in her noses pierce like she is nuts.
Totally crap. And boys was smart to enter this field
because diesel service, text and mechanics make can make a
lot of money. It's a field with a super positive
job outlook. It's growing even faster than the regular economy.
(04:55):
You can buy a lot of butter. You can you're
a diesel mechanic, so much butter replacement product. And we
should quickly note the various types of mechanics. There's the
diesel mechanic obviously, like voice. There's also aircraft mechanics, small
engine mechanics, heavy vehicle mechanics which fixed, uh who fixed
(05:15):
like farm equipment and things like that, and then auto mechanics,
which we're going to focus on today. That's right. There
were about seven forty thousand automotive service texts and mechanics
in the country in the United States of America who maintain,
inspect and repair cars and sometimes frustrate female customers because
(05:38):
they talked down to them. Well this actually no seriously
like reading for this episode got me real stressed out
because it's time to take my car in for an inspection.
And it's not that I expect anything massively wrong to
be a problem, however, I just I just like cringe
when it's time to go to either the dealership or
(05:59):
a mechanic, and it because I don't like to be
talked to like I'm a ten year old girl. I
feel your pain. I feel your pain indeed. Um, But
these mechanics do for their obviously hashtag not all mechanics, sure,
of course, But while condescension is sometimes part of the job,
(06:21):
it seems like they are well compensated. The median salary
is a little over thirty seven thousand dollars, but they
can earn up to sixty two dollars. But then if
you're really specialized, you can learn a lot more than that.
I knew, um Or a friend of mine's brother, I
want to say, he is a Porsche specialist mechanic, and
(06:45):
that fellow is making in the six figs. He's he's
earning fig bigs. Oh my god, your and butters. I
love this economy. I know everyone's so full increasing. So
you're talking about how we've will haven't totally snapped away
from the recession, but I believe it's true. Um So
that's her training. If you want to be an auto mechanic, uh,
(07:08):
you basically have to have the equivalent of a high
school diploma and go on to enroll in training programs
at like a vocational school or college. And of course
you get on the job training and about two to
five years of hands on experience before you become a
full fledged technician. But I'm sure you get to wear
the awesome coveralls the whole time. I know that seems
(07:31):
like the biggest perk of the job. Not the money,
not the self respect, not the knowledge that you know
how to fix something that other people don't. It's the clothes, Caroline.
You you know firsthand that I can have a difficulty,
shall we say, putting it outfit together? Oh, you love
a jumpsuit and coveralls combined it? Yes, my love of
jumpsuits and the simplicity just one and done. Yeah, that's it,
(07:54):
like a ghostbuster. Yes. But one aspect of this job
that I really just hadn't thought about before was that
it's not just working on traditional mechanical systems like engines
and transmissions and drive belts and such, but you also
have to learn how to work with all of these
electronic systems because the newer cars that are coming out
(08:16):
are essentially just like computers on wheels. Computers on wheels.
I know, that's exactly what I was going to say,
a car today. I feel like that it sounds so
like a car today. Um might have more than twenty
microprocessors running everything from breaking and transmission to steering an
accident avoidance systems. Like I know, my mother has a
(08:38):
super fancy car and it's got all these bells and
whistles and like fifty computers, and she doesn't understand a
single part of it. She barely even like she'll get lost.
And I'm like, you literally have like a cockpit map
in your car that you could use, and it's just
it blows your mind she can't do it. And comparatively,
I feel like my car is just full of old
typewriters about it. But the computerization of cars is one
(09:05):
kind of selling point that the industry has been using
to woo women, saying, listen, it's not all of this heavy,
greasy work. It's a lot of computer programming as well.
And of course other important skills that tend to be
characterized as more female friendly traits, such as customer service,
being detail oriented, organized, and troubleshooting. Yeah, and a lot
(09:30):
of when you when you read articles about women mechanics,
there is always that quote about, oh, we love hiring
women because they are so detail oriented and they take
their time and make fewer mistakes. And I just wonder
if that doesn't come out of I'm sure it's true.
I'm sure people aren't making that up, but um, I
wonder if that comes out of women who become mechanics
(09:51):
in this male dominated field feeling like they have to
work twice as hard. We tend to encounter that, whether
it's an academic studies or just anecdote or ports from
women of when you're in one of these male dominated industries,
you do tend to have to bust your butt to
prove yourself. Yeah, and on the part of the boss,
I would bet that there is a little bit of
(10:12):
an element of surprise. And betted in that quote too,
of like, I mean, she did and so well, look
at her didn't even mess up. And these are also
reasons that are cited when you read about mechanic shortages.
There was this USA Today article from a couple of
years ago, but this is definitely not something that's gone away.
That was about auto dealers and auto tech educators who
(10:37):
are really worried about a shortfall of mechanics, saying that
it's really hard to attract and retain younger folks. Because
I just heard a thing on NPR the other day
talking about how maybe it was this morning. It was
this morning, I know the story you're talking about. Okay, Yeah,
it feels like it was already three years ago, um,
from when I just rolled out of bed. But they
(10:58):
were talking about how not only younger people, but now
it's a trend among older folks as well to let
their driver's licenses lap, especially with so many people moving
back to urban city centers. People are like, well, I
don't want the expense of a car. And so if
you have this generation that's giving up driver's licenses, they're
not as pumped about getting the license and driving and
(11:20):
learning how to take care of the car. They haven't
taken auto repair or shop classes in high school if
their schools even offer it, right, and maybe they haven't
taken the higher level math and science that's required for
jobs like this. So you can imagine that it's hard
to sort of wu as you said, anyone, let alone
women to this job. But as Nancy Boys wisely assumed,
(11:45):
I mean, there's there's great job security. If you study
to become an auto tech, chances are you will definitely
get a job, and you'll be able to keep that job. Yeah,
I mean it's you know, your local mechanic is not
going to be outsourced. That job is not going to
go way. And a lot of people that were quoted
in articles that we read talk about the joy of
getting to solve challenges and problems that not everybody can um.
(12:09):
And there's also a really large need for master technicians,
and these people are being asked to do jobs that
a couple of years ago would have required an engineering degree,
so there's a lot of responsibility. Of course, the flip
side of that is like, maybe you should be raising
pay if you want to attract more people to this job. Well,
let's talk then about women, because you know, the industry
(12:33):
is slowly courting more women because I mean, there are
not many of us in that labor force. I mean, overall,
if we look at all of the workers in the US,
we make up about forty percent of those. But if
you look just at the automotive workforce, we make up
But then if we narrow it down to automotive service
(12:57):
technicians and mechanics, as women made up just one eight percent. Yeah,
and going back to Nancy boys, women make up just
point five percent of diesel engine specialists. This is I
feel like this is more than male dominated, Like what's
what's the word for, like a step above male dominated?
(13:19):
It's dudely, it's super deeply. And I'm sure that we
have lady mechanics out there who were just like, oh
my god, I can't believe you just said that. Yeah,
that it's like a super dudly professional. Although how could
you deny it? I mean it's mostly men. Yeah, the
stats kind of speak for themselves. UM and Deloitte released
(13:40):
their Women at the Wheel Auto Industry Report, and it's great.
We're gonna have a link to it over at stuff
I've Never told you dot Com in the source post
for this episode. I highly recommend you look at it
because it's basically one giant infographic. I don't know if
that's as big a draw for everyone as it is
for me, but I'm like, oh my, they just look
at all of the great graphics and little stick figures
(14:03):
they use. But okay, So anyway, Deloitte talked to a
ton of women in the auto industry, not just mechanics
but kind of women overall, and they asked them how
to fix this problem. There's so few women mechanics, so
number one. The biggest thing I felt like was cited
was creating a more flexible work schedule and environment. This
(14:24):
was a huge factor for the women interviewed. They also
talked about how important it is to develop the workforce early.
I mean, Kristen and I talked about this in every
STEM conversation we have, about the importance of inspiring and
attracting people early in their lives, kids who might not
know that a job is available to them. Um, because
(14:46):
most of the respondents in this Deloit survey said that
schools are not doing enough to encourage girls to pursue
automotive careers and have a feeling too. For kids growing up,
there's a socialization factor where Dad might take little Jimmy
out and show him the ropes with a with a
family car, whereas little Susie might just be left inside.
(15:06):
Little Susie never gets to go to the dealership. She doesn't.
But of course, another way to introduce a huge influx
of women into the automotive industry would be to start
World War three. Oh lord, oh goodness. No, no, I'm not.
I'm not advocating for that. No, well, we don't need
a World War Caroline, because even before World War One,
(15:30):
automotive schools for women existed, and they denied that learning
about auto mechanics conflicted with femininity. We have this this
whole like thing like throughout the history of this profession
where it's like, seriously, ladies, it's okay, you can do
this kind of work and still still be pretty Yeah,
(15:50):
with your tiny hands and you're your caring nature. It
can apply just as much to an engine as as
to your family members. And that was something that writer
Hamblin Rossiter wrote about. He compared the job of fixing
an engine to caring where a big family member like
you said and assured readers that quote, a woman does
(16:11):
not spoil her hands or even roughen them slightly handling
machinery if she takes care of them. Yes, to put
on that lish and where the gloves. Where the gloves.
Make sure when you're washing those dishes, ladies, you use
that dish detergent that doesn't it's got lotion in it
or whatever. And sleep with those lotion gloves on to
keep your hands extra to your body and vaselines. And
(16:34):
then get under the hood. Um, but if we do
drive up to World War One, sorry I had to
get a mechanic pun in there at some point it. Um,
they're already women showing interest in cars, not surprisingly. I
mean we establish it there these mechanics schools, but we
also have women like Wilma Russi. Yeah, n Rusty was
(16:59):
already own as an expert garage mechanic. And she actually
became the first woman to work as a taxi driver
in New York. And I love it because anything you
read about her It's like it goes into detail about
how she would drive around the town in these dresses
with the leopard print hat and the leopard print scarf
and cuffs on all of this stuff. She was no
(17:20):
slouch when it came to fashion. But what I think
is important to mention about that is Russy was one
of many wealthy upper class women who took to driving
and therefore mechanics, which is something you had to know
how to do if you were going to drive a car,
because you know, cars in nine fifteen, you had to
know how to take care of them when it inevitably
(17:42):
like crapped out on you on the road. Um. But
it was driving and touring and motoring were huge among
upper class women because I mean, it got you out
of the house, It got you to see the world
kind of. I mean the context of this is around
this time, you have all of these women hopping in
of cars, whether it was for like promotional things for
(18:02):
companies or just to show that women could do it,
hopping into cars and driving a cross country or making
these long drives just to show like, yeah, ladies can
do it. But those women were largely, as you might imagine,
the upper class who had the time and money to spare. Yeah.
In nineteen o nine, just a hot back. A few
years Alice Hewler Ramsey became the first woman to drive
(18:23):
across the country, and she was also a woman of means.
Her husband bought her a car the year before, and
the trip was a promotional campaign for I think it
was called the Maxwell Car Company, and I really love that.
For propriety's sake, she brought along her two conservative sisters
(18:43):
in law, Neddie and Margaret, as well as a sixteen
year old friend to keep things lively. But I mean
because the I mean, first of all, the interstate system
was pretty much non existent. They would have to follow
sometimes like telegraph lines just to where they needed to go.
But throughout their trip they had to fix radiators that
(19:05):
had overheated blown tires. At one point, uh, Ramsey talks
about how they got stuck in an irrigation ditch in
Wyoming and she was like, Oh, it was no big deal.
We just took out the block and tackle, hooked it
up to a stump and pulled the car ride out. Yeah.
And she would end up though, Ramsey would end up
making that drive I think thirty times, and she was
(19:28):
eventually named woman Motorists of the Century and so also
though around the same time that Wilma Rssi was mechanick
ng all over New York City. In nineteen sixteen, the
Girl Scouts of America initiated an automobiling badge, and to
earn it you had to demonstrate not only that you
had driving skills, but that you had mechanics talent and
(19:52):
first aid skills. Basically like, are you going to be
able to put out an engine fire when you're driving
this automobile? Well? And as Ramsey had to do, and
every successive like female driver after that. In nineteen six
an automotive instructor asserted that there was no reason to
assume men were better mechanics than women, but the introduction
(20:19):
to one of his diagnostic exercises included the scene setting
of quote, you will kindly imagine yourself twenty miles from
home and dinners getting cold in the same way as
who was it Hamblin Rossiter comparing with the engine to
a sick family member, Hamblin Rossiter, whose name sounds like
(20:39):
an anagram, right like that doesn't that's not a name?
Hamblin Camblin Rosster also sounds like some Silicon Valley mogul
who invented an app that we all used. You're right,
You're you're actually right. I agree with you now, But
I just loved that that sexist scene setting for his
manual is paired with his assertion that like, yeah, ladies
(21:01):
can totally do this. It's fine, Like, ladies, come on,
do this job. You can totally. You're totally qualified and
smart enough. It's not a man's job. But when I'm
teaching you, I need to put it in terms you
can understand, like dinner. And a lot of times these
kinds of promotional events, like women driving cars across the
(21:22):
country were of the angle of well, if a lady
can do it, anyone care and so yeah, I mean,
of course there's like some sexism rippling throughout it. Yeah,
And but at this time it is getting more and
more common to see stories in the popular press about
lady mechanics filling in the gaps as men are going
to fight in World War One. I mean it was
(21:43):
a way for women to serve their country and make money.
I mean it was. It was a great opportunity for
women who perhaps never worked before. Yeah, there was um
nineteen eighteen article we found with a photo caption not
exactly a woman's job, perhaps, but these patriotic sisters stop
it nothing when they have once entered the work, into
(22:07):
the work. Yes, once they've entered the work. Um same
year eighteen, there was a handbook titled the Care and
Management of the Modern Motor Car. Uh those specifically geared
geared toward women. There we go, now I'm doing it.
And Virginia Sharff, who's the author of the book Taking
the Wheel, Women and the Coming of the Motor Age,
(22:28):
called this handbooks town patronizing and jocular. But the important
note is that it praised these four hundred why did
you see a auto mechanic grads saying that they were
just as good as the dudes in quote, mastering the
mechanical and technical details of a car. And they warned
professional show first to watch out for that influx of
(22:51):
ladies because you have to keep in mind, You're like,
why does it matter? Why does chau first care about
ladies driving? Because chauffeurst were also responsible for fixing and
maintaining the car. I mean, everyone's seen Downton Abbey, right,
We all know about the chauffeur who had to fix
the car and then married the daughter whoa spoilers. That
was way back. I was way back. That's we're way
(23:11):
past that now. But if we look at military specific involvement,
you've got the Motor Core of America that was established
by the National League of Women's Services and the Red
Cross to provide transportation and ambulatory services to military personnel.
And this gave women the chance not only to learn
how to drive and serve their country, but also maintain
(23:32):
those vehicles. And in order to join the Motor Core
of America, you had to have a show first license,
a mechanics license with a passing grade of at least eighty,
on top of many hours of training. And there were perks.
Christian We've already talked about the coveralls, right, um. Well,
one nineteen eighteen New York Times reporter loved it too. Uh,
(23:53):
he wrote, the young women also ought to be praised
for their spirit of service. Of course he's talking about
the Motor Core women. The conditions of service impose no
special sacrifice of feminine quality. So there it is yet again,
which is something which is a sentiment we will see
repeated now today in also that like, hey, you can
(24:15):
still be a lady lady Nancy boys. Yeah, and he
says also, who can doubt that their uniforms make them
even more attract Let a win win, such a win win,
you can be so gorgeous as a mechanic. And of course,
authors Sharf, who we mentioned a second ago, assures readers
that the uniforms were meant to and succeeded in minimizing
(24:37):
both femininity and individuality. For instance, members of the women's
auxiliary core of the Wax, whether you're a mechanic or
a truck driver, you would wear these khaki green one
piece coveralls that were just the same as those that
the guys wore on purpose, like you were meant to
blend in. There was no nobody wanted, like anyone to
stand out when it came to serving. And like we
(24:59):
hinted at a few men gets ago, this field of
mechanic work meant different things to different classes of women,
because I think it was Sharf who pointed out that
for those wealthier drivers, as you mentioned, Caroline, Uh, this
offered an opportunity to get out of the house and
kind of shrug off those constraints of Victorian femininity. As
(25:19):
Scharf put it. Whereas for less economically privileged women, I mean,
this was just a job. This was a great opportunity
to make some money. Yeah. And in the interwar years
in the nineteen twenties, though a lot of those volunteer
drivers and mechanics from wealthy families ended up returning home,
hundreds of former service women flocked to those vocational schools
(25:43):
like ones that the Knights of Columbus established in Washington,
d c. For instance, to take auto mechanics training. There
were so many women, and we talked about this, We
talked about this in so many other episodes, um, where
so many women didn't want to go home, whether it
was because they needed to support their families or because
they've just gotten a taste of freedom and independence that
(26:04):
earning your own money can give you. And all of
that pretty much happened all over again during World War Two.
So if we hop over to Australia, for instance, Hello
Australian listeners, the National Roads and Motorists Association offered lectures
on vehicle mechanics to women with the aim that they
could be ambulance drivers. And the women in these courses
(26:28):
were like, oh my gosh, this is so easy. So
the n r m A offered more advanced hands on
mechanic training. They're like, oh, okay, they can handle this, well,
let's teach them some more intensive skills. And one high
scoring student, Ms K Broadbent, ended up organizing a Women's
(26:49):
Auxiliary Transport Corps and successfully trained more than five women
to handle trucks, ambulances and motorcycles. Amazing. What can happen
when you empower and educate women? Yeah? Um, And of course,
during World War Two, even Queen Elizabeth will although at
this time Princess UH served as a truck mechanics. She
(27:10):
was part of the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in nineteen five,
during which time she learned to change wheels, she deconstructed
and rebuilt engines, and she drove ambulances and other cars.
And there's a great again over at our service post
on our website. Uh, there's a link to this article
that has all of these pictures of her tinkering with cars.
(27:31):
And it's fabulous, even if it is a photo op.
I don't care, don't tell me. I just love it.
I love to see her like tinkering with engines and stuff.
And when we hop back to the United States. There
is a slightly different landscape during World War Two than
there was during World War One, mainly specifically in this
case because cars were way more common at this point,
as was the knowledge of how to maintain them. So
(27:54):
you had all these g i s who could repair
trucks and tanks. They didn't necessarily rely on people at
the garage. They you know, if something terrible happened when
they were out in the field, they could handle it themselves.
But at home, of course, we saw the same labor shortages.
Mechanic manpower dropped in the US between December nineteen forty
(28:16):
nine two, and you had new car manufacturing that was
halted in favor of the war efforts. So what does
that mean. You don't have any men to do the
car repairs, and you don't have any new cars. You
can't like buy a new car when you're all on
craps out, you have to repair the one you have,
which means that you have this influx of women into garages,
(28:36):
into military garages, so not just the garage on the corner,
and also just learning to repair their own family's car.
And car companies were directly recruiting women. For instance, by
three the student Aker Corporation declared women can and must
be employed for automotive maintenance service, and author Kevin Borg
(28:59):
talks about the parallel rise of Rosie the Riveter and
Mary Joe the Mechanic. Did he make that up? Because
I had never heard that before. I hadn't either googled it,
and only his book came up. Okay, Yeah, and that's fine,
that's totally fine. No. I wish that she really existed, though. Yeah,
if only we had artistic listeners who could possibly artistically
(29:19):
interpret what married Joe the Mechanic Rosie the Riveter's friend
might look like, I'm just gonna leave that, leave that
right there. But Borg discusses my new hero, the ninety
pound Evelyn Mighty Might Rand, who attended a Boston trade
school with forty other ladies and they ended up working
at an army ordinance shop in Maine, first as mechanic helpers,
(29:42):
then as straight up mechanics. And what's so great about
the story is they were paid comparably to what men made.
Uh and Rand told BORGU, we did all types of
work on ten wheeler trucks, jeeps, dodge weapon carriers, and
staff cars. We overhauled engines, tune ups, re line breaks,
greased vehicles, and whatever was written up on the job
(30:04):
order by the inspector, and so Mighty Might she ends
up getting promoted to the machine shop where she overhauled carburetors, generators, distributors,
on and on and on and worked on breaks. And
when her shop closed in she wasn't sent home. Mighty
Might got a raise and was transferred to Dow Air
(30:25):
Base to continue rebuilding and repairing ordinance vehicles. But, as
is the case with so many women, whether you're a
Rosie or a Mary Joe, once the war was over,
Rand told Borick she was heartbroken because she had to
return home. Yeah, and we'll talk about what happened after
the war when we come right back from a quick break. So,
(30:58):
due to the g I, a lot of men who
returned home from the war went back into or newly
into mechanic positions, and it also helped them open their
own shops. So in nineteen fifty, at the end of
the spike we were talking about in Lady Mechanics, more
than four thousand women auto mechanics were listed in the
(31:20):
US Census, which was a three d increase over nineteen
forty figures, but keep in mind this is still not
even one per cent of the whole pool. Yeah, I mean,
it sounds great that in nineteen fifty you've got this
many women working as mechanics, But as Kristen said, that
(31:40):
was the end of the spike, that was it. By
nineteen sixty, only about twenty three hundred women auto mechanics
were listed in the US Census. But I mean it's
not like they disappeared. They obviously were still women were
still employed as mechanics. In Women in Technology News interviewed
Betsy Hoffman, who at the time was the chair of
(32:01):
the Automotive Technology Department at Vermont Technical College. And Hoffman
was the first woman in the United States to hold
the Automotive Service Excellence L one Advanced Engine Performance certification,
and she this should be a familiar refrain got into
mechanics because she didn't have the money to take her
car and had to learn the repairs herself. Wanted a stable,
(32:24):
steady job where she could earn a good paycheck. I
feel like the theme of this episode is really just
sisters doing it for themselves. Yeah. Absolutely, and Hoffman predicted
quote enormous opportunities for women in the automotive field and
fewer and fewer obstacles to their success in it. Why
because of those things that we mentioned at the top
of the podcast, the fact that it's almost more mentally
(32:48):
challenging than physically challenging, with the move toward electronic components
and really light parts, and the fact that like even
male mechanics, as Hoffman pointed out, are going to rely
on lifts, levers and teamwork to get all of this
stuff done. It's not like you are individually, by hand
expected to lift a whole engine. And we're also seeing
(33:10):
a small but notable trend of against this was doing
it for themselves, um such as Patrice Banks, who is
an ex upont engineer who's kind of become the face
of women getting into the garage and also starting their
own garages. So as she gave a ted talk about this,
there are all sorts of articles profiling her, and the
(33:35):
gist of it is that she couldn't find a female mechanic,
so she became one. She talked about how fed up
she was with feeling like what she called an auto
air head and getting scammed by quote, the male dominated
car care industry. So as she was still working as
a DuPont engineer. She took community college classes for two
(33:58):
years on the side, earned a diploma in automotive technology,
and ended up founding the Girl's Auto Clinic, in which
I believe is in Philadelphia. Yeah, I mean, she talks
about how she wanted to correct the gender imbalance in
the industry because unfortunately Hoffman's predictions never came true. That
(34:20):
was back. She's like, more and more women are going
to do this. There's fewer and fewer obstacles. We've yet
to see. It happened, and so Banks's goal is to
sort of decimate that discrepancy. UM. Her Girls Auto Clinic
organization offers free workshops that teach women how to learn
how to take care of their cars, how to talk
(34:41):
to a mechanic, and what to do in an emergency. UM.
She's also in the process in Philadelphia of opening an
auto shop that's tailored specifically to women and staffed by
lady mechanics and technicians. And it will include a nail salon,
which at first I rolled my eyes at. I will
admit I of my eyes with that infected to But
(35:02):
have you ever had to wait at an auto shop
or a dealership. Absolutely, it's obnoxious, and especially if the
WiFi spotty and you can't do work. I never have
time to get my nails done. There you go. I
was like, you know, Banks is onto something. But the
I really part of me like that totally does planned
all of these narratives about like, well you've still got
(35:23):
to be girly. Oh you don't worry, you can still
be girly. But I'm I'm once I thought through about like,
actually I would probably take advantage of that. I unrolled
my eyes. I'm happy to report well. And it reminds
me of the mechanic shop that's been here in Atlanta
for a while called my favorite mechanic As a woman,
(35:44):
I don't think that they offer manicures, but and I'm
fine with that, but I know a number of people
who go there and get great car care. UM. And
one thing that we really haven't talked too much about
in this podcast is how women do often feel bamboozled
in mechanics shops. UM. There was a Northwestern University study
(36:07):
that confirmed this as well. It found that auto repair
shops tend to give women significantly higher price quotes than
men when customers are uninformed about market prices. And I've
noticed that in my personal experience as well. If I
go in clearly not really knowing what's wrong, I will
(36:28):
get all sorts of diagnostic problems and suggestions. But if
I go in knowing exactly what I need, then that's
I mean, that's it. It's kind of like if you
show some knowledge and you show what's up, then it
seems like you tend to get less pushback. Yeah, and
and you see that in comments about on these types
(36:48):
of articles, people being like man or woman, if you
don't know anything, you'll probably be taken advantage of. And
I hate that that's the case. Why can you not
just go into an auto dealership or mechanics up and
be treated honestly no matter who you are or what
you know. Wouldn't that be nice? That'd be so nice.
But that's the kind of stuff that these women are
(37:09):
pushing back against. There's also um Julia Johnson who started
the Heart Wrenchers Auto Club in San Francisco in and
they do free car repairs for low income folks. They
teach Girl Scouts and other kids basic auto maintenance, and
they generally just work to support and inspire other women
to not only take care of their cars themselves, but
(37:30):
get into the industry. I love it. I love that
kind of work. And this is something that's not just
happening in the US if we go over to Nigeria.
Sandra Aguabar started the Lady Mechanic Initiative, which has seen
more than seven hundred women across five states graduates since
two thousand four, and of spring, more than three hundred
(37:53):
women were on the waiting list to take the two
year program. Yeah, this woman is amazing. So Aguabar fruits
women who are in pretty risky situations. She visits brothel,
she visits poor areas where there's a lot of drug activity. UM.
At least a dozen of the women enrolled in her
program in were former sex workers, and they're working alongside
(38:16):
or learning alongside former lawyers, engineers, university grads. It's not
like this is some charity. She's honestly just trying to
support all types of women and give them more opportunities.
There's this great video that will post to on our
site where Agraware is telling an interviewer why not start
(38:37):
empowering women to be mechanics. UM. She started with just
a handful of women and now she's got this train
and pay program, So a lot of the women that
she trained are now at other garages, their own garages,
and they get paid to train other ladies through this initiative.
(38:59):
So it's this whole network of women supporting women. As
Aguabor says, I really believe when you train a woman
in this work, you give something to the whole community.
And those Nigerian communities need that kind of work because
they tend to have harsh road conditions, lots of older cars,
(39:19):
and countless generators that are keeping things humming despite the
shaky electrical grid, which kind of hearkens back to Nancy
Boyce in her work in those remote areas in Alaska.
And I also love this quote from Winifred act Fure,
who at the time was wearing a bright red T
shirt and reading I fixed cars, and she says, in Nigeria,
(39:41):
this job isn't common for women, so if you do
it well, people will really admire you. And she goes
on to say how our bosses treat her well, but
they also kind of like to flaunt her in front
of customers because quote, it's good business to have a
female mechanic. Yeah. I loved so In this video that
I was watching that was interviewing all of these women
who work with Aguabar. They were going out into the
(40:05):
community to try to drum up interest in this alternative life,
like here you have the chance to have this job,
make more money, have a more steady income. And these
women mechanics were so freaking enthusiastic. I loved it. They
were like going up to people's houses being like, lady
mechanics were awesome, you should join us, and they just
(40:26):
go onto the next house. That was basically like a
lady mechanic pep rally, a traveling lady mechanic pep rally.
I imagine them like pumping wrenches in the air excitedly. Yeah,
that would be amazing. They should make a float, like
a wrench float to a company. They're excited, lady mechanic parade. Yes,
And I have a feeling though, um, they also have
access to a lot of wheels probably yeah, something too,
(40:50):
something tells me that would be the case. Or maybe
just drive a car around. Yeah, but I don't know.
I feel like a parade is more effective. Yeah, I mean,
here's the thing. Got a lot of ideas. Okay, we
can be a consultant for for marketing more parades um.
But it's also not just happening in Nigeria. There have
also been stories about this in Senegal, where women own
(41:14):
and run shops, including FEMS Auto Chickory Mechanic and F
two F two Mercedes, which was founded by two cousins
both named for two as you might imagine, who trained
for seven years and saved up to open their own shop.
And I love it. They said that we were the
only two with enough courage because the rest got married. Yeah,
(41:36):
and they ended up so they had to sort of squad.
They were like shop squatters where they did their auto
mechanic work. But they didn't have to worry about that
anymore because they got a visit in two thousand and
seven from the Senegal's president at the time, and so
Fato Silla, one of the cousins, said, women in the
street would laugh at me when they saw me walk
(41:57):
by my mechanics jumpsuit. Now they don't off anymore, oh man.
But it's interesting though that at two and for two Mercedes,
they don't actually have any female mechanics on their staff.
They own and run the shop. But you need an
advanced degree to work on luxury cars, and so there
is that deeper issue of when you get people access
(42:20):
to education, then they can have those higher paying jobs.
And that's true globally true. That's not just in Senegal. Yeah,
I mean, and we see this dotted around Europe as well.
For instance, in France, the garage Only Girls opened in
spring for the same reason we keep reiterating of women
(42:40):
being tired of feeling uncomfortable and getting ripped off, although
some have criticized this as essentially like capitalizing on feminism. Um.
Then also though, if we pop over to England, Carolines
Cars Hey shot for you as an all lady garage
started by Caroline Lake, and it was interesting to see
(43:02):
that the criticism of like trying to capitalize on feminism,
which I thought was interesting, um, mainly because I don't know,
I think it's fine for women to want to not
only be their own business owner, run their own business,
but also to make fellow ladies comfortable. Yeah, because it's
(43:23):
an issue A lot have experienced this and why not
set up a safe space. But it's just so funny.
You see comments on all of these articles from guys
who are saying, like, uh oh, this isn't so innocent.
They're not just trying to help people. They're they're just capitalizing.
They see a business opportunity and it's like, well, wait, yeah,
of course, yeah yeah, I I don't I don't feel
(43:47):
like that's a really valid criticism. Not surprisingly, but um,
if you fair listeners, want to find your own lady
mechanic in your town, there's this website Women Auto A
U T O no dot com which lists auto shops
and free workshops that feature women and and you know what,
(44:09):
if there are any women mechanics listening, if you want
to shout out your h place of business to us,
let us know because we could create our own sminty
archive of of lady auto shops as well. Where where
are places that are friendly to lady customers? Um? So yeah,
(44:30):
I mean with that, listeners, we want to hear from
you on this issue. As a customer, have you ever
experienced what Caroline and I have talked about of feeling
ripped off and talked down to? And for mechanics, what
have you noticed or experienced about the gender dynamics in garages?
(44:50):
Mom Stuff at house Stuffworks dot com is our email address.
You can also tweet us at mom Stuff, podcasts and
messages on Facebook, and we've got a couple of messages
to share with you when we come right back from
a quick break. Well, I have a letter here from
Matthew in response to our episode on Polly Murray. Uh,
(45:13):
he says, I just finished listening to your podcast on
Polly Murray, in which you rightly bring attention to her
many admirable accomplishments. However, Murray was not the first to
come up with the underlying concepts behind intersectionality. Rather, as
Eric McDuffie has written, a group of black women associated
with the Communist Party, including Grace P. Campbell, Louise Thompson,
Patterson Esther Cooper Johnson, and Claudia Jones, first discussed these
(45:35):
concepts during the nine and twenties and thirties as the
triple oppression or super exploitation of Black women. As Louise
Thompson wrote in nineteen thirty six, over the whole land,
Negro women meet this triple exploitation as workers, as women,
and as Negroes. Like Murray, these women challenged gender as
well as racial norms and understood that these, as well
(45:58):
as class were related issues. Since you asked for unsung trailblazers,
these women left to mind. The stories of these women
are documented in Eric McDuffie's books So Journeying for Freedom,
Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Well,
thank you so much, Matthew. We love, of course we
love hearing about trailblazers, So thank you so much for
(46:19):
filling us in on these amazing women. And I've got
a letter here from Rachin on our Ver Coast Veins
episode and Machine Rites. I was recently guided to your
podcast after Kristen's peace on Stuff you Should Know on
her trip to the Great Wall of China and have
since been mining your back catalog with relish your latest
episode on Ver Coast Veins hit a nerve or vein.
(46:41):
I grew up observing my mother's and grandmother's veinous issues
with trepidation and developed my first vericast vein along with
my first pregnancy. They reduced between pregnancies, but would re
emerge at their previous full term ferocity with subsequent pregnancies
and degenerate from there to term for babies, and seven
years later, my legs are a train wreck, but along
(47:04):
with stretch marks, sagging skin and breast potoss my word
for the day. Cheers, ladies. I've come to accept them
as part of my changing body. I have considered surgical treatment,
but with four children to care for, I can't afford
the recovery time. One small point that I took issue
with was your assertion that pregnant women should put their
feet up. Elevating the niece above the belly in the
(47:25):
last ten weeks of pregnancy can lead to the baby stargazing,
which is faced up or op presentation, which can lead
to a longer and more painful labor and a greater
risk of intervention. Personally, I would rather have a timely,
intervention free birth at home and lumpy legs just one
of the crummy decisions of parenting. So thanks for your insight, Rachen,
(47:47):
and thanks to everybody who's written into us. Mom stuff
at how stuffworks dot Com is our email address, and
frillnks all of our social media as well as all
of our blogs, videos and podcasts with our sources. So
you can learn more about lady mechanics. Head on over
to stuff Mom Never Told You dot com for more
on this and thousands of other topics. Because it how
(48:09):
stuff works dot com,
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