There is a distinct noise and scent of an auto repair shop that anyone can recognize—the rhythmic swirls and drills of impact wrenches, the popping of tire changers, the smell of oil and sometimes gasoline.
There was a day when one could expect to see only men under the cars and among the Rotary lifts and toolboxes of a garage. But, in the ever-changing automotive climate, women are choosing the profession more often.
Corrin Lawson, twenty-three, of Greece, is one of those women.
“I didn’t know what to do after high school,” she says. “I went into the trades.”
Lawson, who is used to moving around and being on her feet, knew she didn’t want a desk job. “When I was little, I would volunteer on a farm,” she recalls.
Lawson has always found peace in hands-on work.
“I like doing things with my hands. It feels like a workout,” she says. “I could not do an office job.”
As a teenager on summer break, she would visit her grandfather in Stonington, Maine, a small town on Deer Isle that sits along the Atlantic Coast. The pair would go lobstering. They’d set lobster traps and then go back the next day to collect their stock of fresh lobsters.
Now, Lawson works at West Herr Toyota of Rochester as an automotive technician. A 2024 graduate of Monroe Community College’s automotive program, Lawson was an apprentice technician in the school’s Automotive Toyota T-TEN program, where she was the only woman in her class.
“When I first started the class, it was hard to talk to people because I didn’t know what their reaction would be. I felt bad for the person who got paired up with me,” Lawson says.
Now, she is one of two women working in the shop at Toyota of Rochester. Does she feel out of place? No. In fact, she says she fits right in just like one of the guys. She’s even been helping train a new female technician.
“I love the guys I work with,” she says. “They’re like my brothers. I get along with them.” She adds, “I think they treat me better than the other guys.”
Teresa Naus of Irondequoit remembers a day when women weren’t always accepted in the field—mostly by customers. Naus started her career in the automotive industry in 1997 doing clerical-type work in the body shop of Cortese Ford. She later went to work as a service advisor at Churchville Ford, which was then part of the Rochester Auto Collection.
It was in this role that she admits it was a struggle as a woman, especially when working with older customers.
“Older women wouldn’t want to talk to me at all. That was a huge struggle,” she says. Older men seemed to get a kick out of a gal behind the desk, but they would question her knowledge as if to test her.
In 2001 Naus moved to Vanderstyne Toyota in Greece and remained there until 2019. It was there where she seemed to have the most impact on customers. As a service advisor, over time she seemed to earn the trust of her customers. She saw firsthand the shift in the way women were viewed in the automotive field.
“It went from ‘I don’t want to work with her’ from the older, more hesitant women to no one thinking anything of it,” Naus says. While some of that can be attributed to women becoming more accepted in the field, a lot of it is also because customers learned they could trust her as they worked with her during her eighteen-year tenure at the dealership.
“I was able to help more people,” she says. “You get to know them on a different level when you’re helping them.” She recalls watching their kids grow up, then eventually buying their own cars and, before she knew it, the whole family was coming to her for service.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of women working in the automotive repair profession has grown from 1.4% in 1999 to about 9% in 2024.
Back in the early 2000s, Vanderstyne Toyota employed a female technician. Naus recalls that “people definitely did not want her to work on their cars.”
Eventually, women grew to trust and appreciate her presence at the service desk.
As Kyla Paradiso, twenty-four, of Greece can attest, things have definitely changed.
Paradiso, like Lawson, graduated from MCC’s T-TEN program just a few years before Lawson. Paradiso was an automotive technician at Dorschel Toyota before moving to the West Herr Automotive Group, where she is now a service advisor at Toyota of Rochester.
Today, instead of women being turned off by the idea of working with a female service advisor, they now seem to appreciate it.
“[I have] women who say it’s nice having a woman,” Lawson says. “It’s definitely a comfort thing.”
Paradiso nods to Lawson and says, “I make sure customers know there’s a woman working on their cars.”
Paradiso has always loved cars. In high school, though, she considered joining the United States Army instead of going to college.
“My mom told me she didn’t want me to put my life in danger,” she recalls.
She was drawn to the profession after taking auto shop classes at Irondequoit High School. Her shop teacher put her in touch with the gentleman at MCC who runs the T-TEN program.
Although the climate has shifted and women are more appreciated in the field, Paradiso does hear some negative comments from time to time, including things like “You’re too pretty” or the occasional customer looking to speak to “one of the guys” to which Paradiso reminds them that she is one of the guys. She doesn’t let these comments deter her, though. Her focus is always on the customer.
She said she takes a softer approach with customers, which is often appreciated. She helps them prioritize repairs based on the immediate needs of their vehicles.
Would she change her field? Absolutely not.
“I just love the automotive industry,” Paradiso says, “because it got me into what I love, which is cars.”
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of (585).
Views: 0
