By Sumeet Kaur | SBS Punjabi | Australia |
Sydney-based Gurpreet Kaur Shergill is one of the very few female mechanics of Indian origin in Australia. Proud of her choice, she now hopes to inspire other women to break into the male-dominated trade.
At 31, Gurpreet proudly runs her own automotive workshop in Sydney’s South Windsor.
This mother of two assesses and diagnoses every car entering her workshop, handles client queries and organises parts.
“The road to becoming independent and running my own business has not been smooth,” Ms Shergill tells SBS Punjabi.
Coming from a conservative family where she was married at a very young age, this mum has chosen an unconventional career en route to self-discovery.
Hailing from Ballamgarh, a small village in Patiala, Punjab, Ms Shergill migrated to Australia with her husband in 2014 as an international student.
In pursuit of doing something different and finding her feet, she opted for an automotive career over more lucrative choices like nursing.
“I come from a conservative rural family where the fathers just want to marry away their daughters instead of educating them, so decades later when I got a chance to make a mark, I just grabbed it,”
“Luckily, I married into a progressive family, and my husband is very supportive and always gives me the freedom to make my own decisions,” she says.
Sharing her journey, Ms Shergill reflects on the gender and cultural barriers she overcame to run her own automotive shop.
Read the full story, ‘What spurred Gurpreet to challenge gender norms and become a mechanic’ (SBS Punjabi, 14 Feb 2022), here.
RELATED STORY:
Power Sikh women in security industry (Asia Samachar, 1 Sept 2021)
ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs / Punjabis in Southeast Asia and beyond.Facebook | WhatsApp +6017-335-1399 | Email: editor@asiasamachar.com | Twitter | Instagram | Obituary announcements, click here
