The following is the second of a two-part series that focuses on attracting women to careers as diesel technicians. The first part addressed the diesel technician shortage and how colleges are reaching into a previously mostly untapped talent pool: women.
Shannon Tinker attended diesel tech classes at Orange Southwest School District in Vermont in high school where she was told by her male cohorts that she “belonged in the kitchen.” Tinker, who gained her passion for mechanics as a child working with her father on “anything with an engine," ignored the naysayers and proceeded to enroll and graduate from Ohio Technical College, where she was the only woman in her class.
But she has been out of college now for over four months with no luck finding a job in the field.
“(Some companies) told me I was a liability because I’m a girl. There are places here that told me they won't hire me because they've had girls in the past, so they just won't consider me at all, so I currently don't have a job because nobody will hire me,” she said. “I had a job for a month, and all I got to do was sit there because the guys wouldn’t let me touch the truck because I might get hurt. Yeah, I might get hurt, but I learn that way.”
Today's workforce has seen a shift in what is perceived as proper gender roles, and more women are entering male-dominated fields like truck driving. But the diesel technician space is lagging behind.
[Related: ATA's Women in Motion initiative to focus on recruiting drivers, advocating for safer parking]
