Progress in the automotive biz comes when women give women a shot
These 5 fans made their own Tesla Cybertruck replicas
Marie-Laurence Paquin: Racing driver, instructor, TV producer — and stuntwoman
For one young female apprentice, it took a female car dealer to give her a chance at her dream career
by Stephanie Wallcraft | March 8, 2020
Tammy Roach, cutting the ribbon with Juyu Jeon, president and CEO, Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada, to celebrate the grand opening of Charlottetown Mitsubishi, surrounded by staff and family. Mitsubishi Canada
While we don't need it to be International Women's Day to celebrate our writers or women in the automotive industry, it is a day for women to speak up and have their stories told, so we asked our female contributors to write the stories they wanted to write.
I expected Stephanie to write about racing, Lorraine to write about shopping advice, Jil to write about old cars and Nadine to write about women in the industry.
Instead, Jil wanted to write about shopping advice; Stephanie about women in the industry; Nadine about a racer-stunt-woman; and Lorraine, well, Lorraine just wanted to write about herself (I kid, I kid). And then "Motor Mouth" David Booth felt he had to get in the mix and tell you just how awesome these writers are, too.
We all know women often face different challenges than their male counterparts, so here's a chance to give them the podium and do what they do best: write about cars and the people that drive them, build them and buy them. —Ed.
At the Canadian International AutoShow in February, Tammy Roach sat purse-lipped on a stage. She restrained herself and listened politely while a male colleague told a room full of delegates that he can't hire female sales associates for his mainstream dealerships.
They can't handle high-pressure situations like negotiation, he said.
It's hardly a secret these attitudes persist throughout the automotive industry. Roach is among those ignoring prejudices and carving a new path. And she's making that path wide enough to allow plenty of women to walk alongside her.
Apprentice technician Olivia Gibbs, left, with Charlottetown Mitsubishi Dealer Principal Tammy Roach, right. Charlottetown Mitsubishi
She's the Dealer Principal of Charlottetown Mitsubishi, which opened just under a year ago as Prince Edward Island's first Mitsubishi store, and the Island's only dealership owned by a woman.
Starting from the ground up has given Roach a unique opportunity to be highly selective while forming her team, and she's taking full advantage of it.
"Obviously, people aren't going to work for me that don't want to work for a woman," she says. "I don't care if you're the best technician in the world. If you have a huge attitude and you're going to bring my team down, I don't want you."
What she does want is equal opportunity for capable and enthusiastic employees who are willing to learn and grow.
Enter Olivia Gibbs.
The 21-year-old life-long Islander has been hanging around in her dad's scrapyard since she was a young girl, fetching him tools while he tinkered with his race car. She took courses in the trades in high school to prepare herself for a career as a mechanic. But when she graduated and started applying for apprentice technician jobs, she couldn't find a soul who would give her the time of day.
"No one ever gave me a call back or an interview," Gibbs says. "I have experience, but I didn't have any certification. They were looking for people that didn't have credentials. I felt like I filled that profile, and I never heard anything back."
Looking back at women who shaped the auto industry
Eventually, she took a job at an automotive parts retailer. Once she had saved enough money to buy her first car, she went with her mom to Charlottetown Mitsubishi. She knew a sales associate there, Shannon McMurray, with whom she had worked at the parts store.
"She asked me what I was doing and if I was thinking of leaving there," Gibbs recalls. "I said that I would only leave if a shop would hire me as an apprentice mechanic.
"She said, well, let's go say hi to Tammy."
It took a few months for the business to pick up enough in the new dealership's shop, but as soon as it did, Gibbs was hired. She'll begin her training next January to become a Red Seal certified technician.
Roach says Gibbs has been a stellar addition to her team. "I've talked to her mentor, the Red Seal who oversees her work, and he says she's great," Roach says. "She has a mechanical aptitude, she has attention to detail, she's got a great work ethic. It's fantastic. I remember her coming into my office and she's like, 'I just want to let you know that I'm really enjoying this.'
"She was really nervous at first. I think it was partially because she didn't know how she was going to be treated."
And herein lies the reason so many women never seriously consider a career in automotive: they have no idea what attitudes or barriers they may be forced to face. Gibbs says the open-minded and collaborative environment Roach has fostered helped her overcome those fears quickly.
"It makes it a whole lot less intimidating," Gibbs says. "I think a lot of people my age that are looking at the trades feel like they have to come in already knowing what they're doing so that they can prove to the other people in the shop that they belong there. I definitely don't have that feeling here."
Making it important
Automotive dealerships are facing a shortage of technicians as it is. As a woman providing other women with opportunity in the industry, Roach says that dealerships that persist with gender-based assumptions are going to be left behind.
"It angers me to think that they didn't call her back because she was a woman," Roach says. "If somebody is interested in that role and has a passion for whatever that role is, they're probably going to be good at it.
"Half the people that are buying from [dealerships], minimum, are women. Those [dealers] that don't decide to make this something important, they're going to miss out."
One presumes this includes people like Roach's colleague on that panel discussion at the auto show, whose comments stirred up more support and solidarity among the women in the audience than he likely intended.
"I was very nervous to go on that panel because I didn't know what to expect," Roach said. "And then there was literally a line-up of women to shake my hand.
"[One female colleague] came up to me, gave me a big hug, and she's like, 'how did you not punch him in the face?'"
Because women, it seems, can handle high-pressure situations just fine — especially when they lift each other up and face them together.
These are our top AWD picks starting under $30,000
Driving by Numbers: Are subcompact cars dead in Canada?
Back in Black: Musou Black paint absorbs 99.4 per cent of light, your soul
Mitsubishi's 2021 Mirage isn't the cheapest new car in Canada, but it's close
The 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross gets revised tech, but don't call it 'all-new'
Mitsubishi teases the 2022 Outlander with mysterious monolith image