I grew up in a single-parent household, with my mom taking care of all responsibilities. Whether it be household projects, dealing with mechanical issues or negotiating car services and so much more, my mom dealt with all maintenance. With our car recently having a copious amount of issues and being in and out of the shop, it has become even more evident to me of the disparity of treatment based on gender when dealing with mechanical issues.
Girls are taught from a young age that mechanics and tools are ‘unladylike,’ that these issues are best left to boys. By the time kids reach adolescence and are increasingly influenced by their peers, the gender discrepancies present themselves even more fiercely. A very low number of girls join classes such as auto mechanics or welding due to fear of judgment from their female counterparts. Similarly, a small amount of boys join classes such as art or ceramics due to fear of judgment from their male peers. Unfortunately, this produces a society of females who lack knowledge of mechanics and males who believe that all females are ignorant in this matter. Unfortunately, these boys grow up to be men who take advantage of their vulnerability.
A 2015 Washington Post article highlights this exact notion. A former engineer for a Fortune 500 company, Patrice Banks, made a career change because of the gender discrepancies in the automotive industry. The first paragraph of the piece states:
After 12 years working as an engineer for a Fortune 500 company, I quit my management job to become an auto mechanic. I traded high heels and an air-conditioned office for boots, Dickies and grime-covered hands. The reason was simple: I was tired of feeling like an auto airhead and getting scammed by the male-dominated car-care industry.
She goes on to provide more statistics against females in this industry, writing:
Most drivers have auto-repair horror stories, but women are especially vulnerable. In a 2013 survey of car owners and leasers by consumer resource site RepairPal, 77 percent of respondents said mechanics are more likely to sell women unnecessary repairs, and 66 percent believed that mechanics charge women more than men for the same services. That gender bias isn’t just a figment of customers’ imaginations. A recent study by Northwestern University found that auto-repair shops give women significantly higher price quotes than men when the customers are uninformed about market prices.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2...
So how can we fix this issue? I believe that education is key. If schools began promoting the attendance of all types of classes to all genders, ignorance regarding certain topics such as mechanics would be obliterated. This is most likely easier said than done, but little changes may make a large difference in the future. If, for example, there was an equal number of boys and girls in an auto mechanics class, girls would feel more comfortable in the setting and boys would no longer view these females as outliers. If we educate our young girls and boys, we can create women and men who respect one another rather than manipulate due to perceived weakness.
