LAFAYETTE — When drivers pull into an auto repair shop they likely expect a man to look under the hood. At Lafayette's JiffyLube there's achance that assumption would be wrong as one third of the staff is female.
If three female mechanics still sounds like a small group, widen the lens and take a look at national statistics from Catalyst, a data aggregation site focusing on women in the workplace.
In the country, only 9.6 percent ofautomotive repair and maintenance employees were female in 2017.
More female employees, but only a handful of managers
In the 48 Jiffy Lube stores in Indiana and Northeast Illinois, 12.5 percent of the service center associates are women, Jiffy Lube of Indiana’s president Steve Sanner said. There are 16 stores inIndiana that are owned by other franchisesand not included in the data, Sanner said.
To its credit, those Jiffy Lube locations havedoubled the number of female employees from 21 to 48 in the last five years. The company aims to more than double that number in the next five years,Sanner said.
In Lafayette, Amanda Olson is among an elite group of three female Jiffy Lube general managers in the state.
Comments from customers who are surprised to see female employeesdon't bother Olson, she said. She's proud to be a familiar face after the store's long running turnover history— a rate that hovered around the 423percent Olson said. If you're doing the maththat's roughly one or twoteam members leavingevery week from a crew that's a dozen people when it's fully staffed.
More than qualified
The comments from customers who doubt her skills is what frustrates Olson, she said.
"It's really irritating when guys come in and I feel like they don't trust me or they don't think I can do it," she said. "I almost have to prove myself to them, but that usually doesn't take long. I'm flying on the floor."
Anyone who doesn't think Olson is right for the job can just check her credentials.
Just a year and a half into her position as general managerOlson has taken the Lafayette store to the top 10 of Indiana locations. She led her team to meet the million dollar mark last year, an accomplishment that landed her the Rookie Manager of the Year.
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Still, even with the shiny trophy Olson finds that new hires and even applicants don't immediately take her seriously as the boss.
"I'm in a management position and they don't just put people in management for no reason," she said. "Excuse my language, but I've busted my ass to get to the position I'm at."
Olson's right hand woman,assistant manager Mo Jewell, said she would like to see more women be in the automotive industry in some shape or form.
"I just hope to see more women take the step into this field," she said. "If they like it then don't let it stop you because it's a male dominated field."
Passing on skills and self-reliance from generation to generation
Jewell's love of tinkering with engines with her grandpa when she was youngstuck with her and motivated her to shift gears in her own career. After 10 years as a nursing assistant she enrolled in Ivy Tech's automotive technology program and was hired as a courtesy technician at Jiffy Lube after graduation.
As she began to work her way up the management ladder, Jewellrecruited her mother Lisa Heath, who works as a guest services adviser.
Growing up near the Kokomo Speedway, Heath said she helped her dad and grandfather change tires and work on race cars. However, she was taught that she couldn't drive a car until she could do the basic maintenance on it.
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She applied the same checklist for her own children andtested Jewell before she bought her first Pontiac Sunbird.
"I told my kids you can't drive a car until you can check everything underneath and you can change a flat tire in front of me," she said. "You're not always going to have somebody to depend on. You have got to know how to do it on yourown."
The Lafayette Jiffy Lube welcomed Girl Scout Troop #2741 and Olson and Jewell taught Sunnyside Intermediate Schoolfifth grader Leiciana Cookthe emergency symbols on the dashboard, how to pop the hood and how to check and fill the oil.
Jewell said she hoped to pass down the same confidence to young leaders like Cooke that she got as a young girl learning how cars worked.
"I've seen way too many people come in and say my dad usually fixes it or my boyfriend," she said. "No. At least know the basics."
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Contact Journal & Courier reporter Lindsay Moore at 765-420-5205, lrmoore@jconline.com and follow heron Twitter:@_lindsaymoore.
