Times are changing. The demand by women for equal pay and opportunity coupled with the #METOO movement creates an environment where we should all consider gender equality within our practices. Women can do anything a man can do intellectually and physically. And we found one that will take you on with a power wrench. We hope this story will give you a new perspective.

Patricia Banks was feeling taken advantage of when she took her car into the shop for repairs, simply because she was a woman. She started looking for a female mechanic in the Philadelphia area, couldn’t find one, so decided to become one herself. The DuPont engineer enrolled in night classes to learn the ins and outs of car repair.

Banks felt the next natural progression was to open her own mechanic shop, Girls Auto Clinic, with the mission to “educate, empower, and cater to women by offering automotive buying and repair resources, services, and products based on trust, education, inclusion, and empowerment.”

Now Banks is now expanding in Upper Darby, Penn. The Girls Auto Clinic there will have an attached beauty salon.

Unlike the car repair sector, the eye care industry is has already experienced a rise of women in the field. Currently, over 50 percent of ophthalmology residents are female, as well as over 60 percent of optometry grads.