Female engineers want no special treatment
Kate Gundlach, Andrea Mueller, Danielle Shepherd and Katelyn Supan are female racing engineers in a male-dominated field.
That is a true statement. Here is another:
Kate Gundlach, Andrea Mueller, Danielle Shepherd and Katelyn Supan are racing engineers.
If given the choice between the two statements to identify themselves, all four would choose the latter. They don’t identify themselves as female engineers. Of course they are, but in this scenario, they see the word “female” as incidental and irrelevant.
Gundlach, assistant engineer on Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing No. 9 Indy car, explains it this way: She is in the Ganassi garage to do a job. Not to do her job as well as a man. Not to prove she can do her job as well as a man. She’s just there to do her job well. She doesn’t care about being a woman who’s helping break barriers and discrediting stereotypes. She doesn’t care about being a woman in a man’s world. But, of course, she is. They all are.
Of about 70 engineers employed by Verizon IndyCar Series teams, Gundlach and Shepherd are two of no more than a handful of women in the paddock.
Supan is the only female chief engineer in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, while Mueller, Ryan Blaney’s chief engineer, recently became the first female chief engineer to win a NASCAR Cup Series race.
“I didn’t realize that was the case until people started asking me (about it),” Mueller, who once worked on engine components for NASA, told The Indianapolis Star. “To this day, I don’t even know for sure that I am, but it’s pretty dang cool if that is true. But I don’t want it to be about that. It takes an entire team to win one of these races, from the driver to the pit crew to the crew chief and engineers. I’m just glad I was a part of that process. It’s special for every person on that team.”
Each woman echoed Mueller’s sentiment. They want to be known for their accomplishments, not their gender. What they do isn’t made special because they’re women. If they are special, it’s because they have managed to climb the ranks and reach their highly specialized and sought-after positions.
They have put in the work, earned the trust of drivers and the respect of teammates.
“You have to prove yourself just like anybody else here,” said Gundlach, who broke into IndyCar in 2012, eight years after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in mechanical engineering.
“No one is going to hand you anything or hold your hand. You have to be able to hold your own, do your job and admit what you don’t know, and if you make (a) mistake try not to repeat (it). You’re just like anyone else.”
Gundlach knows this better than most. She worked for years to reach the position she’s in.
Gundlach grew up a gear-head. Her parents raced motorcycles. After college, she was determined to make a living in the world of motor sports. In the years before she caught on with former Indy- Car team HVM Racing as an engineer in 2012, she did data work, was the second mechanic on a car, learned public relations, inventory, pretty much anything to stay in the game.
“It’s no different for us,” said Shepherd, who graduated from the College of Wooster with degrees in math and physics a year before arriving in IndyCar, where she now is an assistant engineer on Charlie Kimball’s No. 83 CGR car. “You work hard, you make contacts and you put in the time. It doesn’t make a difference for a woman vs. a man. It’s the same.”
Maybe for them it is, but there is an element to their jobs that, while also incidental, is crucial to the spread of diversity within the sport. They are role models.
All four said they don’t identify themselves that way. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
Mueller can testify to that personally. Recently, she was approached by fans who told her that their daughter had seen her on TV and now wants to be an engineer.
“I think that’s awesome,” Mueller said. “I always try to tell them the best thing they can do is follow their dreams, work hard and don’t let people tell you something is impossible. If nothing else, I hope that I can show young women they can pursue any career they would like and that they shouldn’t let gender prevent them from chasing their dreams.”
That’s a lesson Gundlach, Supan and Shepherd have learned. Each said her dream is to one day, like Mueller, serve as chief engineer on a race car at the highest level.
Gundlach and Supan believe that day isn’t too far in the future, perhaps three to five years. Shepherd, the youngest of the group, won’t be too far behind.