Highlighting GROUND ZERO Women Mechanics in history and today in DART.
GROUND ZERO wants to highlight Women Mechanics in history and today at DART, as well as International Women’s Month. Through history, women have had a big part in the auto industry and transportation. I want to introduce you to women mechanics, their place, and inventions in history that we use today. Not just the women mechanics in history or around the world, but at DART on GROUND ZERO. I hope to inform, educate, show respect and admiration for all these Women Mechanics, that they all deserve in their position in history.
Eliza Murfey?was an inventor who focused on the mechanics of the railroad. She had sixteen patents for devices, Packings, that would lubricate a train’s axles with oil. In 1870, Murfey’s inventions reduced derailments caused by seized axles and bearings. In 1888?Bertha Benz?wife and business partner of the engineer Karl Benz (of Mercedes-Benz fame) 2 years after her husband patented the Motorwagen the world’s first automobile. She drove 66 miles (first long-distance trip in an Automobile ever at the time) to promote the Motorwagen. It worked; she also was trouble shooting some of the Motorwagen’s problems on her long-distance drive. For instance, the wooden brakes failed, she had them covered with the first brake pads (which she called “break linings”) made of leather.
Margaret Wilcox?in 1893 patented the design for the very first car heater, which was the basis for the heater you use in your car today.?Mary Anderson?in 1903 patented a window cleaning device, the predecessor of today’s windshield wiper. 14 years later in 1917?Charlotte Bridgewood?patented the first automatic windshield wiper. The previous windshield wiper was done by hand in a side-to-side motion that was created by Ms. Anderson.?Wilma Russey?in 1915 became the first Taxi driver in New York but was best known as an expert auto mechanic. In 1916 the Girl Scouts, yes Girl Scouts initiated an “Automobling Badge” for which girls had to demonstrate driving skills, auto mechanics, and first aid skills.?Helen Schultz?the “Iowa Bus Queen,” in 1922 established the Red Ball Transportation Company, providing city- to-city transportation by Bus. Or like?Helen Blair Bartlett?in 1930 developed new insulations for spark plugs.
Women in WWII had to enter the male dominated jobs of that era, such as building and maintaining vehicles and machinery. Women became streetcar conductors, taxicab drivers, business managers, commercial airline checkers, aerodynamic engineers, and railroad workers. Women operated machinery, streetcars, buses, cranes, and tractors. They unloaded freight and gliders, worked in lumber mills and steel mills, and made munitions. In essence, women occupied almost every aspect of industry. Even across the water in England in 1944, a then?Princess Elizabeth?at the age of 18 years old wanted to do her part. She insisted joining the Army (Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS)), where she was trained as a mechanic and truck driver. Which opened even more avenues for women in the Transportation Industry. Like In 1983 London Transport hired its first Female Mechanic,?Helen Clifford?was 18 years old, she worked on the red double decker buses.
As you can see women have been at GROUND ZERO in Transportation for centuries and at the forefront, those were just a few. Now let me introduce you to a few here now at DART at GROUND ZERO. I wasn’t able to interview everyone, I did interview a few, I want to acknowledge them all and introduce you to them, their years of service and where they work.
Heather Arguilar - LRV Mechanic- 20 years - NWROF
Courtney Santoro – LRV Structural Mechanic – 13 Years – CROF
Svaya Grundstorm- LRV Structural Mechanic – 15 years – NWROF
Krystle Jones – Bus Mechanic – 1 ? years- SOC Maintenance
Viriginia Paluscio – Manager – 18 ? years – ED Maintenance
Krystle Jones?is our newest female mechanic, and she is a Bus Mechanic out of South Oak Cliff Maintenance and has been here 1 ? years. She is more than that she is part of a legacy. Her grandmother was a Bus Operator here at DART until she retired, and her dad was a bus mechanic now a Manager at Northwest Maintenance. What influenced her to want to become a mechanic, I found out that it wasn’t her first choice. She was on track to become a doctor and has an associates degree in medicine. But her true passion was working on cars that she fell in love with, because of her dad. So, she changed focus and career. Which lead her to choosing DART, because she already knew it was good company and offered great benefits.
Now let’s meet?Svaya Grundstorm?who is the first Female Rail Body Shop Mechanic at DART. She works out of NWROF and has been here for 15 years. Her story is a little different. She like the others went to school, to become a mechanic. She was from a different state. She was influenced by her mother and grandmother who were ground breakers, in their own right. Her parents and grandparents had farms. Throughout her childhood, she saw her grandmother who ran the farm by herself, because her husband was a Marine and was gone away a lot. During her teenage years she helped on the farm some. She decided to take a mechanic shop class in high school. Which is where is decided that she liked it and found out you could go to a tech school to become a mechanic. After graduation from Tech school. The school had setup a Job Fair. And DART had traveled there in search of mechanics. She was interviewed on the spot as well as hired. After getting here she found out the men and women make the same pay as a mechanic, starting pay as they move up from M1 thru M6. That was rare in other companies. After getting here she ended up starting on the rail side instead of bus, which was her initial hire position. Coming in she dealt with some reservation from mechanics that didn’t care for a woman in their field, but luckily, she had just as many who wanted to help her be the best she could be. She now has her sights set on her next level as a manger or supervisorial position.
My last and final interview, who also has a different journey to get where she is now. So please meet,?Virginia Paluscio?(former Bus Mechanic) now East Dallas Maintenance Manager, that has been with DART 18 ? years. I asked her a few of the same questions as the other ladies and few different ones. Virginia was motivated by helping her older brother, who not only drove trucks for a living, but also worked on them. She would help him work on the diesel engines, as he would pass his knowledge onto her. Which gave her the desire to pursue it as a career. After finishing tech school to become a mechanic, she like the others were met by someone from DART at a job fair of some type. Not knowing anything about DART, she was asked to take a test and then she was interviewed right on the spot and hired. After receiving her offer letter, she called and asked if there was a typo in the pay? The letter included her starting pay of $17.00 hr. She’d never made that much an hour. They reassured her that it was correct. She moved from her small town to Dallas. During her career as a mechanic, she had some rough times at work. Not all men think women should be in this field. And it added to what she felt was bad attitude at that time. She took another position in a different department altogether. But saw she wanted to move up in DART. So, DART had opened the DART Institute of Learning. Virginia says she was like a sponge while in those classes, she wanted to know more. She had also taken other classes on her own dime to better herself, to be a better person and lose the chip she carried on her shoulder. Once, done with those improvement classes, she started to change, and others saw it. She was encouraged to apply for the Manager of East Dallas Maintenance position. Whereas you see she got the job and became the first Woman to hold the position as Manager of Maintenance. It’s crazy how life takes you full circle.
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I asked them all what advice would you give other young women who might be thinking of going into to this field? They were all similar answers. Don’t let anyone say you can’t, just go for it. Though the number of female mechanics are low compared to our male counterparts. We are growing, I researched to find as accurate as possible percentage but unfortunately there just isn’t enough information. GROUND ZERO is made up of so many unseen heroes. I hope I brought some light, to just the surfaces of them and in the future be able to bring even more light and their stories. So that higher levels of the organization see them too.
Down below I have added pictures, so you can meet these GROUND ZERO WOMEN!
I am included the website that I used to get the information have given you.
www.fhwa.dot.gov/wit/bus.html
?https://carleasespecialoffers.co.uk>blog>the-history-of-women-and-car
magazine.northeast.aaa.com
https://www.insider.com>royals