Wendy Bennett has been tinkering with cars since childhood. Picture: GLENN DANIELS
Wendy Bennett has always been mechanically minded, and first started tinkering with motor vehicles as a child, stepping in to service the family car when money was tight.
“I grew up in a family of four girls, and mum could never afford a mechanic, so I was always under the hood trying to fix the car,” she said.
“I’ve been working on cars my whole life, I’ve even got a little show car that I rebuilt, it’s taken me four years to rebuild.
“I’ve built it from scratch, so I’ve done everything to that car other than paint it.”
Given her experience, which also includes a stint working in a car restoration workshop, Ms Bennett thought she would be the perfect candidate to pursue a career in the trade through a mechanic’s apprenticeship.
But at 39, Ms Bennett says she has continually run up against the brick walls of ageism and sexism, in an industry traditionally dominated by men.
While applying for work in Bendigo, Ms Bennett says she was told by one job agency she was wasting her time “because I’m too old and I’m a female”.
“Because I'm mature-aged, no one wants anything do to with me because I cost too much money,” she said.
“I had one [potential employer] say they don’t really like females in the workplace because they’re a distraction.
“When you get feedback like that, it’s kind of very degrading.”
During years spent working in male-dominated workplaces, Ms Bennett has experienced her fair share of sexism, but the roadblocks to her dream career have been particularly demoralising.
“I’ve been thinking a long time ‘what can I do in my life that I'm going to enjoy’,” she said.
“I’ve finally decided something I think I would enjoy and I can’t pursue it because not one will put me on.”
But Ms Bennett’s is not an isolated case.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency strategy and engagement executive manager, Jackie Woods, said the Australian workforce remained highly segregated between genders, with men comprising 88 per cent of workers in the “technicians and trades” category.
“Women are very concentrated in community service work, caring work, education work, and men are very concentrated the more blue collar industries and occupations,” she said.
“It does make it difficult for individuals trying to get a start in those industries, because often the workplaces just don’t have a workplace culture that’s inclusive and supports those people.”
While overt discrimination like that described by Ms Bennett is still common, Ms Woods said it was the more subtle forms of discrimination that were often the most pervasive.
“There are many personal stories out there about discrimination, sometimes it’s about being rejected for a job but also being overlooked for opportunities for promotion, not getting that pay rise that other colleagues might get so certainly it is an issue,” she said.
“There can be overt discrimination, but there are a lot more subtle manifestations of discrimination as well, where people might not be overtly rejected because of their gender but they’re perhaps not considered for a job because they don’t seem as though they would fit in with the workplace culture.”
Ms Woods said while some progress had been made in the area of workplace equity, some industries had made more progress than others.
“I would say that overall there has been progress in workplaces, but there’s certainly a lot more to be done,” she said.
“And perhaps progress isn’t even across workplaces, so there are still workplaces that have a lot of work to do to create a diverse and inclusive culture.”
The Victorian Human Rights Commission defines sex discrimination as, among other things, “not hiring a woman because the boss thinks she won't fit into a traditionally male workplace”, and “not considering women for a particular role”.
“It is against the law to discriminate against anyone in the workplace because of their sex,” the website reads.
“Employees are protected from discrimination at all stages of employment, including recruitment, workplace terms and conditions and dismissal.”
For more information about gender discrimination or to make a complaint, click here.