Lord Snooty

The rather sad, macho streotyping conducted by auto mechanics whenever women bring their car in with a problem.

The assumption that a woman will have no idea of mechanical function and that it is a waste of time explaining anything to her, which in turn leads to a tendency to invent, and inflate the problems in order to bump up the bill.

These same mechanics will talk at length to a man who knows nothing about cars either, taking their time to explain things to him and presenting him with a lower repair estimate. However, the best category is to be in, is a man who appears to know something about cars as they get the best treatment and prices for repair work. Even when the woman does know a lot about cars, the mechanics become suspicious and withdrawn and are not inclined to discuss the technicalities at all..

I have witnessed this behaviour with a girlfriend of mine and was amazed to find it still alive and well. We carried out several experiments at different garages and sure enough she got the short end of the stick every time.

Is it some sort of genetic characteristic of this particular social group and how is it perpetuated? It may have something to do with the lack of female mechanics (which in turn is because of the attitude..)

I am not a feminist ( I have been told..!) but I do hate to see such clearly unfair treatment...