JourneyWomen

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Any of you guys ever see women electricians? I've seen one female
apprentice. She didn't last very long though. NOt a good fit for her.
 
Short.Circuit said:
Any of you guys ever see women electricians? I've seen one female
apprentice. She didn't last very long though. NOt a good fit for her.
I know some. I also know 2 Female Electrical Inspectors and both know how to do their jobs....
 
I've never met a female electrician in the field. One of the head inspectors of a district around here is a woman and she knows her stuff from a code viewpoint.
 
I've worked around a couple. More man than woman, they were. Not somebody I'd want to tussle with, if you know what I mean. I don't have any particular objection toward females in this trade. There just aren't so many.
 
There are a few female inspectors in the area that are quite good (ie knowledgeable and stringent, however also reasonable). I don't know what their field experience is. I've never personally run into a female electrician in the field. A number of years ago This Old House had a project running that had a women owned EC and the owner was working on the project. *Chauvinist alert* It was a little disconcerting when they zoomed in on her hands to show what she was doing and she had "man hands" (before you get too hateful it's a Seinfeld reference).
 
I've seen several, but I'm sure the numbers work out to less than 0.1%.

I remember about 4 in my apprentice shool classes years ago.

I've seen about 20 or so over the years riding/driving other EC's vans.

About 6 years ago, I had a woman as an apprentice for a helper. She worked with me for two weeks, then took another job that had been offered to her after she started with the outfit I was working for.

I think it's sad there aren't more women in the field. Statistically, it should be 50-50. Hiring practices probably keep that ratio from improving, but I still think the actual number these days is way out of line. For some reason, women just don't seem to apply too often.

Last place I was an employee at, they asked me to help them go through the applications when they were hiring. I remember being given a stack of about 225 apps to review. All men.
 
There are very few women in the Electrical field. The reason for this is not discriminatory hiring practices. The reason is the electrical work is hard work and women avoid occupations involving hard work. This is why there are so few women coal miners.

It's not that they're too weak to do construction work, there are many men in construction with slight builds, it's just they don't want or need to do hard work.

It should also be noted that women have options that men do not, for example, all men must work, every man must choose a career and pursue it diligently. For a woman however, a career is purely optional, she can marry and stay at home while her bills are paid by her husband and society accepts this without question. A woman can marry and work at trivial or "fun" jobs or even volunteer at animal shelters and suffer no financial difficulties.

A woman can even divorce her husband and receive monetary compensation in perpetuity which is seldom a career opportunity for men.

When you consider the vast career choices open to women in comparison to men, you'll stop wondering why you never see women doing serious construction work.
 
I know 2 divorced electricians who collect alimony from their ex-wives. And I'd say that although many boundaries have been broken down, there are still more opportunities for men than women.
 
I have run across one female plant electrician. She was mostly into the control side of things rather than pipe and wire. Pretty good at it. She moved to FL a few years back. She was a SCUBA diving enthusiast. Not as much opportunity for SCUBA up here.

I don't recall ever running into one on a construction crew.

The DIY shows seem to have no trouble finding them though.
 
petersonra said:
I don't recall ever running into one on a construction crew.

There's plenty more in the painting side of the industry, though.

I've never spotted a female tinner or bricklayer, but have seen some plumbers and drywallers, though.
 
I see more women engineers than you are seeing women electricians, but it is still far from 50/50. Two of the eleven electrical engineers in my office are women, and both are top notch.
 
One of the best journeypersons I know is female. She was of rather small stature, but worked very hard and was meticulous. I always felt that she was trying to prove she was as good as a man at the job, when in fact, she was better then most. She went through a union apprenticeship, and some of the old timers were pretty hard on her.

My youngest daughter has worked part time for me since she was 14, and does very well. She just passed her National Registry as a paramedic, so I'll be losing her to an ambulance/fire dept. Oh well.
 
We average 5-10 female electrical apprentices per year out of a total 400+ apprentices. One of my best students that graduated 2 years ago recently obtained her Journeyman License, and she does great work.

I know of 3 female electrical inspectors in the state of florida, but I am certain there are more. I also know 2 building officials that are female.
 
I had a female apply for apprentice position I advertised I hired her she told me her hubby was an electrician and looking for work also I told her i did not have an opening but would keep him in mind this was on friday,monday morning she was a no show and called in later to decline the job I found out later she was going to every contractor applying and then touting her hubby another Ec hired her and her hubby but she Quit after one day.
 
I am a female electrician. I worked in the field for 20 years officially and much longer than that unofficially helping my dad who was an electrician. I have only known one other female electrician in my lifetime. I am an inspector now. I'm not sure why there aren't more women in this field other than the fact that the work is very physical and difficult and you don't get to wear pretty clothes and most days you have wood chips in your hair and forget having nice fingernails. You are always trying to prove that you are as good as the guys and generally you have to be better just to be considered equal. It's hard to feel like a girl when you are dirty and sweaty and on a construction site with a bunch of spitting, swearing construction guys. Even as an inspector I get my share of "are you the decorator?" when I walk on the job. Most women don't aspire to such a profession. But, I LOVE IT!!! So there you go.
 
We had a female EC in our area she and her husband ran the business with her as majority owner for WMB status she was crazy as a pet coon thought her husband was cheating with every woman he met tossed him out of their house and would not let him in the office got a restraining order because she said he was poisoning her she went missing for two weeks cops thought that maybe hubby did her in made his life a nitemare she turns up and says she just needed to get away for awhile her men had not been paid her customers were screaming and she acted like she had just been gone for the weekend
 
We have a few in our local and most of them are good workers. There are a couple that are good workers but I don't want them on my jobs because they slow the job down for everyone....they are very nice looking and all of the guys want to spent time talking and or flirting with them when they should be working:grin:
 
Rewire said:
We had a female EC in our area she and her husband ran the business with her as majority owner for WMB status she was crazy as a pet coon thought her husband was cheating with every woman he met tossed him out of their house and would not let him in the office got a restraining order because she said he was poisoning her she went missing for two weeks cops thought that maybe hubby did her in made his life a nitemare she turns up and says she just needed to get away for awhile her men had not been paid her customers were screaming and she acted like she had just been gone for the weekend

Punctuation is your friend... :D

I had a journeywoman work for a company I apprenticed with, and was very good. I also went on a date with a commercial steamfitter....... She was great looking, and solid as a rock!! She was on a job I was on, and they were putting up huge mains all day. She was a tramp though.... :D
 
At the last shop I was at, there were two women - an older one and one my age. The one my age was very attractive, and as Don mentioned, made it difficult at times to keep people moving. I think she saw the trade as a fairly easy way to make good money.

The older one sometimes blew my mind with some of the stupid things she'd do, but I probably blew her mind with some of my stupidity just as much, so it all comes out in the wash. She was the one who did the work in this thread, but I imagine, if asked, she'd have stories on me too. :)
 
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