Most men are very prideful and I am all too used to it. Being a female aspiring mechanic who knows her way around an engine, will always have its road blocks. Although I am fully capable of diagnosing and repairing a vehicle, men feel the need to be the “official fixer” or handyman or go to guy.
At work, there was a vehicle that they couldn’t get to start without messing with the cables and posts. They absolutely couldn’t figure out why it would only start if you wiggles them or that you could fix that problem very easily. Now, they aren’t dumb, they’re just body men not mechanics. Well, I tried to step in and show them how to fix the problem. It turned into a big huge deal and I was surrounded by men trying at it and talking at eachother saying “no, you’re doing it wrong” and things like that. I couldn’t get a single word in because they’d cut me off when I tried to tell them what the problem was. Finally, they gave up and walked away saying they were busy. So, I handled it while they were away. I cut and reapplied the cables to the battery and it worked just fine. I didn’t take responsibility for it, I just let them believe the problem fixed itself. Sometimes, men don’t want a small girl to do something before or better than them. It’s annoying, yes, but as long as the job gets done, I don’t need credit. The only time I’ll need the credit is when I start trying to make a name for myself when I begin starting to open my own shop, which will aslo be difficult. Men won’t want to take their vehicles to a woman to fix it and women won’t want their husbands going to a female mechanic. However, if I work hard and make a good name for myself, I may make a few good friends at dealerships and they’ll send their work my way. Atleast until the rules of pride and ego change. As of now, its a rough life for a female mechanic in a mans world.
