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