Repair can be a rather male domain: women make up just 7% of computer repair techs, and only 2% of car repair techs. Lots of our repair heroes are also men, from Bob the Builder to our dads and grandpas. Cultural assumptions make many women reluctant to pick up a screwdriver, as our own Cait and Brittany have discussed.
But we know a lot of fixy women, some of whom we’ve featured before: the micro-soldering mom (Jessa Jones-Burdett of iPad Rehab), grandma the fix-it girl (Jodi Spangler of Lakeshore Mac), and the women behind the nomadic repair service Pop-Up Repair (Sandra Goldmark, founder, and workers like Flora Vassar).
Today, we’re highlighting a few more repair-savvy women to prove that girls can fix it, too…
Taking the Mystery out of All Things Mechanical
(Leah Bolden and Karen DeVenaro, SeeJaneDrill.com)
Can you set the gap on a spark plug? Laminate a countertop? Install an electrical outlet? Leah and Karen of SeeJaneDrill.com want to teach you how, with videos and step-by-step repair guides that start from the very basics. Leah was a journeyman plasterer for 20 years, and Karen works as an electrical apprenticeship manager. They teamed up to make home repair skills approachable for novices. Originally, they planned to target women but discovered many men also appreciate Leah’s “handywoman next door” teaching style. Home repairs, Leah says, are rarely as difficult as people imagine: “The truth is these repairs are so easy—you just need somebody to show you what to do.” And it can save you a lot of money. One viewer says a plumber quoted him $2700 to replace two water shutoff valves in his home. After watching a SeeJaneDrill video, he replaced the valves himself for about $20 in parts.
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