Sandra Jiles: Mom, Grandma... Mechanic

“I’ve always been a tomboy,” Sandra Jiles of Expert Tire told me recently. Growing up she loved to work on small appliances, TVs, even bicycles. “When my youngest daughter was one year old, that’s when I went back to school and got my GED. They asked me if I wanted to go into machine shop or automotive and I was just drawn to automotive.” I laughed that AB Tech (Asheville and Buncombe County’s community college) didn’t offer her a course in hairdressing, and Sandra laughed too, and shook her head, indicating they knew her better than that. About two years ago I took my aging Honda Accord to Expert Tire for brake work; what a surprise to discover the person who made my car safe again was sandra jiles: mom, grandma... mechanic by sandi tomlin-sutker one of the few women mechanics I’ve ever met. Sandra has been with the company for ten years and is now the Senior Technician. She worked four years with Montgomery Ward after her twoyear course at AB Tech. “You can take day or night classes.

My first year I took day and night classes; the second year I took all night classes so I could take care of the kids in the daytime. She was a single mom all that time. Now her two sons are grown; she has two daughters, ages 18 and 24, and 5 grandkids (she has been raising two of them over the past several years.) Sandra was the only woman mechanic at Ward’s and for most of her years she’s been the only one at Expert Tire, although she tells me her niece worked there for two years but didn’t continue in the field. We talked about why there are so few women in the business and she speculated that “It might be partly the physical work, the fact that it’s very dirty work, but also maybe a lot of women still think the men might not want them to join in.” I expected that Sandra would have several stories of bias toward her from the men she’s worked with. But when I asked if she’d encountered much resistance she commented: “Actually there wasn’t. That’s what I was told when I started; that men wouldn’t take it, me being in the business. But every man I’ve worked with has treated me well. I’ve not had any harassment or anything. “I had a lot of guys who came in when I started, and they knew I didn’t know certain things and they’ve trained me on front-end alignments, brakes. They’ve been really helpful. I was surprised when they said if you want to learn we’ll help you.”

As she’s worked her way up over the years, she has learned a lot and now handles engine performance (computer, spark plugs), brakes, alignments, transmission service, clutches and tires. As we talked through lunch, I could see that Sandra’s attitude had much to do with that level of support and acceptance. She is there to do a job, not to prove anything. She found work that is both rewarding to her spirit and has financial stability and status that she might not have found in traditional “women’s work” with only a GED. I figured her kids must have been proud of her. “They feel great about it. [And of course] they call me whenever they need work on their cars!” But her girls are not interested in this line of work. “I wouldn’t have thought I’d have daughters who are ’girly-girls’ but they are; they like to get dressed up, all that.” One son was a mechanic for a time but didn’t pursue it; the other son is a cook working in the restaurant business here. I wondered if the age of the men she works with has made a difference in their level of acceptance; also if she’d encountered racial bias. “I ran into that [gender bias from an older man] once but he wasn’t even there long enough to figure out what his real problem was!” And she acknowledged that a few times she’d run into racism in her work, but much less than she expected. In general, “ they treat me like one of the guys. I’ve made it clear not to treat me any different; I’m gonna work just as hard as you, so just treat me the same.” And now that she is Senior Technician, anyone applying to work at Expert Tire is already aware they’ll be working with a woman boss. “Basically all the other techs are under me, come to me for help; if it’s something I can’t do we don’t take that work in. The job is close to being management... every body looks up to you. We haven’t had anyone not come to work when they found that out.”

Sandra feels that a big part of what has worked well for her is the type of management at Expert Tire. “I think it’s more the manager. At fi rst we had a young manager and he said if this is what you want to do, go for it. Once you prove yourself, that you can actually do the work, you shouldn’t have a problem.” There are a number of women store managers and district managers in the company, but few technicians. Unfortunately, since the company is national, she rarely gets to meet these other women mechanics. “In Asheville there are three or four mechanics I’ve heard of but usually we only run into each other when we are getting our ASEcertifi cation.” Finally, as reinforcement of the acceptance she has received, Sandra tells me that, “I have a lot more male clients than female. They come in and ask for me. One customer, I’ve been working on his cars for 10 years; he always makes sure I’m there when he brings a car in (he has 3).”