'We couldn't get jobs in sexist garages - so we set up our own'

In 1985, three female mechanics who had become fed up with a lack of opportunities in the male-dominated car maintenance industry decided to go it alone and set up a garage run by women.

Now a film about Gwenda's Garage - owned by Ros Wollen, Annette Williams and Ros Wall - is to be screened at an event at Sheffield Central Library.

The trio named their business after racing driver Gwenda Stewart and ran the workshop in the Neepsend area of the city for five years.

They were unable to secure jobs at "misogynistic" garages owned by men.

Ms Williams and Ms Wall have since died, but Ms Wollen will be part of a panel discussing LGBTQ activism during the period after the film has been shown.

It was shot at a local garage and produced by Historic England.

All three women were lesbians, but felt they had to hide their sexuality with customers because of homophobic attitudes at the time.

Gwenda's Garage closed in 1990 when the friends moved on.

"We didn't do it because we wanted a women's garage, we did it because we couldn't get jobs and that's quite important," Ms Wollen said.

"We had a lot of fun and there wasn't a day went by where you didn't learn something new."

Ms Wollen said there were still a "real lack of training opportunities for women" in manual industries.

In 2010 she founded the WEST (Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology) bursary in memory of Ros Wall.

The fund provides grants to young women entering careers that remain male-dominated.

Ms Wollen added: "I think other things have changed since the 1980s, certainly the situation around homophobia and adoption and fostering is different to what it was then.

"There are some things that have really changed and that's great, but I would have hoped we'd have made more progress for women in non-traditional roles by now."

Fiona Moorcroft, from the LGBT charity SAYiT, said tickets for Wednesday's event had sold out within 36 hours.

Ms Moorcroft, who is hosting Wednesday's screening, told BBC Radio Sheffield: "It just shows you there is a massive gap when it comes to people hearing about LGBT women talking about their history.

"People still talk about (being a car mechanic) being a man's job and yet in the 1980s women were doing it."

A musical production about Gwenda's Garage is also due to be staged at The Crucible Theatre in October.

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