Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields have always struggled to have an equal ratio of male and female students, and the automotive industry has a particularly large gender gap, with only six out of the 100 students in the program identifying as female.
Automotive teacher Robert Ballard hopes to improve this number by running “female-only lunch and learn” workshops to increase awareness of the school’s automotive services courses.
The workshops are held monthly—the most recent workshop was on March 27—and they consist of a variety of hands-on activities from tire rotations to oil changes, in addition to featuring talks from female guest speakers who are a part of the automotive industry.
“I want to get the notion out there that this is not a male industry [and] that females can join in the automotive industry [too],” Ballard said.
The workshops have attracted over 50 students, including students from East Chapel Hill High School who are interested in dual enrollment in the automotive program.
Junior Chloe Claypoole, an East Chapel Hill student, says she is “100 percent” hoping to be in the class next year.
“I believe that the class will be helpful because I’ve always liked the idea of knowing how to restore cars,” Claypoole said. “I will be able to learn new information about how to handle the mechanics of a car and how to apply my skills as a hobby and perhaps a little side hustle, too.”
In order to have an equal demographic of students, Career Technical Education (CTE) teachers discuss new ways to increase diversity in their classes quite often, CTE department chair and computer science teacher Garrison Reid said.
“It’s kind of a mission or an effort for every CTE area to find who your underrepresented population is and then appeal to them and get [teachers] to balance your programs to better reflect the community,” Reid said.
Senior Chloe Lhotellier, who is enrolled in Automotive Service Fundamentals, recommends the school’s automotive classes for students who identify as female. She said that the atmosphere is “very laid back,” and she doesn’t feel “held back” because she is a girl.
Lhotellier was able to get a job through the program and now works once a week at Capital Ford. She said she is the first female mechanic to have worked in the shop, and she does mostly tire rotations and oil changes.
One of the goals of the lunch-and-learn programs and the school’s automotive courses is to increase the female presence in the automotive industry, and it is safe to say that the workshops have succeeded in generating interest for next year’s course.
“I am already signed up for automotive [next year], but this made me even more excited!” freshmen Sophia Godfrey, one of the attendees of the lunch and learn program, said.
