The world needs more women bike mechanics

How do we achieve this?

What are the barriers to women becoming cycle mechanics, and what can bike shops, mechanics training companies and the cycling industry do to tackle those barriers so more women train and work as mechanics?

Laura Laker, a journalist is researching this for a piece.

The barriers start at school age. There's still a lot of gender bias in teaching which directly affects what sort of post school decisions women will make.

By the time you get to the hiring stage, the competition from women for positions that familiarity is probably one of the greatest forces working against women getting employment.

I'm not sure what "the industry" can do as a whole. The majority of mechanics are employed in a commercial setting and the majority of that is small, independent businesses. I'm not aware of any bodies offering oversight of those businesses as a regulatory or membership organisation.

Where to start?

Approach BC and any women's trade teams to offer traineeships to women riders and at a minimum aim to have all women riders supported by a female mechanic.

@Joni_Doe

Hmm. I’m not sure there are any barriers as such, it’s more that not many women seem to want to get into the business. Unfortunately it’s just not considered to be a skilled job in this country and is generally poorly paid and as such is only attractive to young people looking to earn some money, or old gits like me who have no mortgage and are looking to wind down after a career in engineering.

Isla bikes have been trying to encourage more women into the industry.

This post flagged it up to me :
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/320664/#comment14230446

Their website proudly claims half their mechanics are women, which is cool!

https://www.islabikes.co.uk/knowledge/about-us/pink-is-not-the-problem/

Maybe women would like better jobs? Being a bike mechanic is a bit shite.

We also need more Female bin disposal technicians. Enforced 50/50 parity in all jobs!

I worked in a volunter bike shop, which had no gender bias. Several women joined the team, but only a very few wanted to do any spannering. Others prefered working on the desk, do accounts, admin, etc,.

There were a good percentage of female customers too and, when prompted, they were as good as the men at the mechanicals. So IMHO, they have the native skills, but choose not to use them.

In my experience, the people doing the hiring of mechs - bike shop owners, management etc are largely male and of the generation where mechanicing is a ‘man’s job’.

I imagine that as time goes on and people who have a more gender neutral mindset move into these positions then we might see more female mechs being hired.

I do think though that cycling as a whole is lagging behind a bit in the gender equality stakes so this shift will maybe take longer than in some other industries.

Linked to that, I wonder if customer expectation is a barrier? Like, not a lot of the cyclists I come into contact with are the most forward thinking people. They are also predominantly male. If these troglodyte male cyclists walk into a shop and see a girl in the workshop, does that put them off having their bike serviced there?

Mechanics are not a very visible presence in cycling so i guess it’s hard to have positive role models (ie female mechs in team cars on the tour) pushing the change from that angle.

A fine line to be trodden too perhaps between “We have employed a female mechanic and are proud of this choice” and “We have oily girls in the workshop for you to ogle”.

Not usually one for sharing opinions on the internet but being a) a woman and b) someone who did Cytech's home mech course, here goes. I think boys are more likely to taking things apart, messing about with bikes, cars, what have you from a very young age, and that fosters mechanical sympathy, confidence and curiosity. Obviously there are a heckload of theories as to why that is. But by the time you get to an age where you can decide what you might do as a job, girls have probably had very little experience of anything to do with mechanicking. My dad would have happily taught me how a car engine works (as he taught my brother, who became a bike mechanic) but it never occurred to me to ask, and if he offered, teenage me wasn't interested. (So I end up at Cytech aged 30, to learn the concept of righty tighty left loosey.)

I've never applied for a mechanic job (and probably never will, because I remain shite at fettling) but I really doubt most bike shops owners/hirers are sexist dinosaurs. This disparity starts at toddler-age, I guess, and schools don't (or didn't) do much to counter it. Got me thinking about this book, actually – the idea that skilled manual work can be a lot more rewarding than sitting in an office all day.

Definitely this plays a huge part. As a young boy I was encouraged to take things apart from a small age (pedal go-carts, bicycles, car parts) whilst my girlfriend wasn't. Fast forward 20 years and I'm happy and comfortable to use youtube/books to teach myself basic mechanics, whilst my girlfriend would rather go to a bike shop or (begrudgingly) ask me, and feels like she wouldn't have the skill-set to teach herself (even though she definitely could). If I don't know how i'd rather look it up and try to do it myself than admit I can't.

We both try and share the domestic labour as much as possible but with our bikes we end up filling very gendered roles and I can't help think our upbringing has played a huge part in this. My friends have a similar story.

Edit. Just to add my gf has been attending LBK women and gender variant nights and found them really useful so more of these kind of projects would be great.