If women are worried about getting ripped off by mechanics, why don't they become mechanics themselves?

Question

Seems to me like a GREAT marketing opportunity to open a chain of auto repair places called "Greasy Girls" and play up the "we don't talk down to women like male mechanics would" angle.

comments?

Answer 1

I'm an attorney and I make more than mechanics - that answers your question - but it still doesn't give male mechanics the right to charge higher prices to women and do unnecessary repairs.  I don't cheat my clients and make them file unnecessary lawsuits, because I could be sued for malpractice.  A person cannot be an expert on every area of life, but if you aren't you fall prey to cheats.  Why can't a person trust a professional to do their job honestly?

But I think I WILL look around for a female mechanic.  That is a good idea.

Answer 2

I like the idea, except your marketing angle is awfully cynical.

Answer 3

Ryde on has a point.  Who'd want a woman working on their car?  

What if she was PMSing?  What if her boyfriend just broke up with her?  What if both happened at a same time?!  Not even your insurance will pay for that kind of damage.

Sure, a bunch of feminists might try it out, but once their cars are all broken....   out of business.

Answer 4

I think people in general are afraid of getting ripped off by mechanics. I know plenty of guys who get ripped off just because they are "friends" with the mechanic.

Not all women are like the stupid bimbos you see on daytime talk shows.

Answer 5

I learned how to change the oil on my lawnmower this week. Does that count?

Answer 6

I'm with you, got my monkey wrench in my hand right now! lol

Answer 7

There are some female mechanics. I have no desire, though.

Answer 8

Just stay away from the ones who use Summer's Eve.

Answer 9

That would make too much sense and it would be too "hard".

You know how that goes... it is "hard" they don't want to do it. Thats why they marry rich men.

Answer 10

i think that's a swell idea.

any time a girl friend asked me to work on her car... I'd say, Nope... but I'll show you how to work on it yourself.

watching them change the spark plugs was sooo hot.

Answer 11

I thought about getting training as a mechanic-but instead I went into computers. I can fix my own computer; I make a heck of a lot more than a mechanic and I can find the best mechanic and pay for good service. I always ask a lot of questions of my mechanic-if he's good-he'll answer (haven't found a female mechanic yet-but I'm always on the look-out).

Answer 12

Great idea! I would be all for that. Kind of the scantily clad chicks who sell beer and wine at drive-thru beverage centers!

It's crazy enough to work.

Answer 13

When I was in high school, public high school in the so-called most developed nation in the world, girls were not allowed to take auto mechanics classes.  That was before feminists fought for and won Title IX which helped to stop that lock-out of women from equal educational opportunities.  By the way, in U.S. Army research, female subjects learn and apply mechanical knowledge faster than do male subjects AND have more effective critical-thinking skills at applying and problem-solving with mechanical skills and knowledge.  It just REALLY helps when we get allowed into the class that men later strut about and say, "Seeeee? Women are stupiiiiid.  They can't do what I myself in all my glorious gonadal greatness and superiority learned in that class we didn't allow women in."   (?)

Since men have started allowing women to learn mechanics, and mechanical engineering,  (That's the program I won a scholarship for and was locked of because I didn't have male genitalia.) in just the last generation or two, women have begun to FINALLY have access to the education and opportunities that make it possible for them to become mechanics if they choose that field of study. Sexism has been pretty putrid in this matter, too, about ego-fragile men getting nervous and adjusting their genitalia and  saying they'd never take their cars to a "female" mechanic.  Companies like QuikLube, I believe, one of those Mechanic-In-a-Box places, conducts research related to female / male learning differences during their training program.  The results convinced them to hire women without any further male gonadal gloriuous delusions about females not being able to be great mechanics.  When they get the same chance to learn mechanics as do men, females actually significantly excel over male subjects in controlled "equal opportunity" environments.

Also, male social sexual fetish expectations men have about women have traditionally punished women for having rough hands, broken nails and such.  And, males resented women having tools and brains and called early female mechanics "tomboy", "butch", "l***o", "dog" (I'm trying to remember all the names I was called when I finally DID get to be allowed in an auto mechanics course, just routine second wave feminism jollies.)  Women then my age told our daughters a slightly less sexist oppressive word of advice, "People are going to give you a hard time for being a female mechanic", which certainly discouraged large numbers of girls from learning mechanics for yet another generation.  

What I'm seeing these days with the youngest adults is much less discrimination and discouragement, but still not enough equal opportunity and encouragement.  Also, back when boys learned the combustible engine, cars and mechanics were, um, slightly less electronic and complex as they are for females learning on much more challenging modern cars.  They're doing extremely well, though.  I look under the hood of cars these days and go, "Eeee Gads!  What is all that stuff?, which, according to the research I got to read, the vast majority of men today can't comprenehend any better than I can.  It's so funny how a guy thinks it's "auto-mechanics" to chain the oil or spark plugs.  : )

The local Good Old Boy systems still lock young girls out of making a livelihood as self-employed mechanics through bad-mouthing female mechanics' reputation and every other mealy-mouthed name-calling sexist behavior they can think of.  I just finished a research project for a company in Thailand that asked this same question about a particular job market there and I learned a great deal about the subject and read the research out there in this matter.  I hadn't re-visited mechanics and male oppression of women in this field since I got locked out of mechanical engineering and walked away from it and any situation in which men could harm me again like that, so, it was heartening to report that young girls are finally having a better chance in this field, thanks to feminism.

Answer 14

kinda of yeah....

     Mechanics try to rip anyone if they think they can get away with it.

      + That's not entirely true, alot of the times they give female customers "discounts" and reduced prices.

        And to say just men are mechanics is redundant.

   There are a good many females in the automotive industry.

       It might take sometime to trickle down more but I am guessing with another decade about half of all mechanics will be female.

Answer 15

Do you think anyone, even women would want a chick working on their car ?

Answer 16

Black, greasy hands with broken fingernails and gooey filth stuck to my clothes?

No...I'll stick to disarming the would be rip off mechanic with my persuasive female ways.

Did that just yesterday actually....when they wanted to tell me they were closed 15 min ago...but instead they dropped everything and took care of my needs...at a fair price, with the utmost respect.

I hear that some women are taken advantage of by some mechanics, I think it's like anything else in life...position yourself for a successful outcome(do your research, get price quotes, w/e it takes) and never play the victim role.

Answer 17

There is ample statistical evidence that women do not have the same degree (again statistically speaking) for spatial-temporal resolution, nor mathematical abilitity as do men.

Women tend to excel in verbal abilities, such as spelling and/or syntactical correction.

Answer 18

After I got my first car I felt like I was being put into the category of mechanics of being taken advantage of.  I took it upon myself to learn more about my car, I took a maintenance class for women.  This boosted my knowledge and confidence and I learned from experience with repair men to question more (which helps get to the truth) and being interested in my car and what's happening to it is helpful. Because of educating myself I quit worrying many years ago about ripoffs.