Fabricator and t.v. personality Jessi Combs (featured on this blog in 2008) continues to inspire women to get into welding as a career at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA.  The college recently held an event, Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW), to introduce women to a variety of career options from automotive, drafting and engineering, to welding.

In the Welding lab, girls bent metal into vases and welded the sides together, attached a metal flower in the vase and then painted them. The girls also connected via Skype with Jessi Combs, welder, fabricator and television personality appearing on All Girls Garage and Overhaulin’ as a host and ‘A-Team’ hybrid member on the Velocity Channel. Combs encouraged the girls and told them that there are fantastic opportunities in welding although they need to be prepared for some chauvinism.

“Being a fabricator is fun, amazing and empowering but you’ll need to put on your thick skin to face opposition on a daily basis,” said Combs. “You can accomplish anything, if you are focused and determined, believe in yourself, and get education and certifications that will give you confidence.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/Sierra-College-Nontraditional-STEM-Event-Inspires-4491995.php#ixzz2TCAZh33N

How are you inspiring women to get into welding?  What advice would you offer?

She wears a pink jacket, her nails are painted pink, and her Dodge Ram one-ton four-door dualie has pink pinstriping and pink eyelashes–and a Lincoln Arc welder mounted on the back.  This Texas woman is a “Pipeliner with Eyeliner” and a welding foreman on the pipeline.

From the  Free Press Standard:

Pipeliner who Wears eyeliner

By Leigh Ann Rutledge, Accent Editor March 26, 2013

Missy Phillips looks like a typical 30-something mother of three.
That is, until you see…
…her boots
…her “guns”
…and her truck.

Phillips, 37, is a welding foreman on the pipeline.  The self-proclaimed “Pipeliner with Eyeliner” has worked in the oilfields for almost eight years, as a welding helper the first year, and a welder the remaining time. She also did minor welding on a drilling rig.

Small in stature, she stands only a few inches over five feet tall, but drives a massive Dodge Ram one-ton black four-door dualie with pink pinstriping and big pink eyelashes.  It took her only about one week to build the special welding bed mounted on the truck which holds the Lincoln Arc Welder she uses in the field.

CONTINUE READING AT THE FREE PRESS STANDARD–>

And if pink is not your thing….  the Angelfire welding apparel for women may be what you’re looking for!  (sized for women)

Her husband handed her a welding helmet, a chipping hammer, rod and welding lead, Mandy watched him weld for a bit, then tried it herself. “I decided right then welding was not for me,” she says.

Thankfully, Brandon didn’t let her give up, told her to keep trying and she did, practicing almost four hours that first night. Over the next several months she continued to practice. “Each time I picked up my stinger and put a new piece of rod to the metal, I learned more and more about technique and what I needed to do to lay down a better weld.”

In an obvious show of respect and encouragement, that Christmas some seven years ago, her husband bought her a Miller auto shade welding helmet. Ever since then Mandy has been welding as part of her duties as a millwright alongside her husband in the family business: Norwood and Company.

Eventually she learned to MIG weld, but still, Arc welding is the technique Mandy feels most excited about. “With Arc Welding, you have to feel each movement and you have to really pay attention to what you’re doing. Some people use a J-hook technique, but I tend to use small circular motions with my rod… [and] there’s no better feeling than to take your time and lay down a beautiful 1 /2” weld with 7018-1/8” rod and watch the slag just peel itself off the top. To me it is an art.”

Mandy worked many jobs (lifeguard, pharmacy tech-in-training, office jobs, retail, etc.) and she was always bored. But working as a millwright is a perfect job for her—it changes every day, from fabricating catwalks to 100 foot tall grain leg structures and towers to repairing a roof or even pouring concrete. “There is something about climbing an 80 foot ladder to the top of a grain bin early in the morning before anyone in that particular town is awake to finish welding on whatever it may be, and you see one of the most beautiful sunrises you will ever see. The job, the rush from the height, the landscape, everything adds to why I love my job so much, and I owe it all to the man I love for getting me into it.”

One of her largest welding job to date was in Texas last year where they installed two new Grain Handling Systems at two locations. This included assembly on a new 150’ Grain Leg and fabrication of the majority of all of its components. Mandy did the majority of welding on all of the spouting and towers needed for these two systems. The spouting was 18” in diameter and weighed 42 pounds a foot. The first two spouts I fabricated were over 117’ long. Mandy personally laid down over 200’ of ½” welds on each spout with 7018-1/8 rod. “It was my biggest welding project to date with the company, and I was so proud to hear our Engineer say they were some of the most beautiful and structural sound welds he has seen,” she says.

Like many women in the welding industry Mandy has experienced discrimination, but never from her husband, her family, or anyone on their crew. Though once on a jobsite a plant worker started to ask her a question, then looked her up and down and said, “Never mind, you’re just a girl.” She was stunned, but remained professional. And when he asked the guy next to her? “I jumped in and answered his question, ending with the fact that the guy he asked was actually new to our company, that I was second in the chain of command on this crew, and that GUY wouldn’t have known the answer to the question.” He quietly walked away.

Mandy’s way of dealing with dirty looks or doubt: she just works harder. “Not always, but usually once they see that I can work just as hard as they can, it changes their perspective—and they think it’s pretty cool,” she says.  [EDITOR'S NOTE:  how many big guys do you think could fit into an 18-in spou and WELD ? ]

And if men the company hires think her place is in the kitchen, that’s fine with Mandy: “I will be in the kitchen cooking up some homemade Red Pepper Spaghetti with Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs or baking some homemade pies, but not until AFTER work.” Her husband always stands up for. “He usually tells them that I am the best worker and welder he has on his crew and I want to do my best to prove him right.”

To her 15-year-old self Mandy would say “Pay attention in school and work harder!” And there’s a quote from OG Mandino she says she would share, “The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than what is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.” Good advice for all of us!

I’m sure Mandy’s positive attitude and confidence comes from her family. She says she always enjoyed spending time out of doors with her dad building things. And she comes from a long line of very strong women who taught her she could do whatever she wanted if she put her mind to it. And Mandy is passing this on: “When my little sister came into the world, I was 13 and I didn’t realize it then, but I gained the responsibility of a role model. I want her to realize that there are other options out there when it comes to careers for women. Even if she doesn’t choose a career the same as mine, I want her to be proud of me and what I do.” To her now 16-year-old sister, and any other young woman interested in welding as a career Mandy would say:

If something interests you as a career, even if it is something women “aren’t supposed to do” GO FOR IT! There is nothing more rewarding than to do a job and do it well, all while proving the doubters of the world wrong. Welding in particular, is something you have to work hard at to perfect. But to be able to stand back and look at something and say, I helped to build that, whatever it is, is one of the best feelings in the world. I say, try it. What do you have to lose? You may really like it. But I do have a warning, welding is addicting, and if you’re like me, you won’t want to stop!

Being a welder and being a woman are not mutually exclusive. Mandy says that while work takes up a big portion of her life, “I do like to trade in my hard hat and steel-toed-boots for high heels and a dress from time to time. I am, after all, still girl—just a girl that drives a big yellow truck with a welder in the back!”

When a part-timer didn’t show up for work one day, Nelda said she could handle the welding job–but her husband (owner of Red’s Muffler shop in Urbana, Ill) told her NO.

She ignored him and she’s been welding on the job ever since!  For 35 years!

A steady hand at welding — and in all of life’s endeavors

by Melissa Merli, The News-Gazette

URBANA — Many first-time customers at Red’s Muffler Shop are surprised to see a woman in one of the two bays, cutting and welding parts in exhaust systems.

Particularly older male customers. Some say they don’t want a woman working on their car or truck.

One man like that was really mad when he saw Nelda Shaw working on his truck.

Later, he returned to Red’s, apologized to Nelda and told her he wanted her to work on his truck again…. CONTINUE READING ONLINE–>

Recently, in response to our post “Women Welders in the Workplace” (advice for women working in the welding industry) someone left this comment (which I’ve not approved):

I know companies that won’t hire female welders because they are a distraction to the other male employees. Additionally, I speak from experience that when I tell a male welder he messed up and he has to fix that which he just spent 8 hours making, he just sighs and fixes the mistake. I told a female welder and she started crying.

THERE’S NO CRYING IN WELDING.

I’m supposed to treat my employees equally but if I did that with a female welder I’d end up with a huge human rights case so what do I do? I don’t hire female welders.

 

One reason I didn’t approve the comment was because he used a fake email address and didn’t use his name. Chicken.

The other reason… it REALLY ticked me off. Jerk.

Women Welders in the Workplace

First, that female welders are a distraction to the male welders… sounds like maybe he shouldn’t hire male welders if they can’t keep their mind on their jobs and focus.  Second, crying?  What’s the big deal. She cries, or she doesn’t cry (not all women cry when frustrated). Then she fixes the mistake. Get over it!

And finally– the most egregious statement:  ”I don’t hire female welders.”

That’s his solution to having a dysfunctional company with weak willed men who can’t keep their minds on their jobs and who can’t handle a couple of tears.

Women are different — (that’s why Arc-Zone carries the Angel Fire line of welding apparel), women have curves, they tend to be shorter,  they don’t have broad shoulders and their hands are smaller.

But that doesn’t mean better or worse, just different.  In fact, the ability to cry, and the propensity for crying is a biological difference and in terms of human survival may in fact be an improvement over the male version of our species.  And don’t even get me started on the fact that women have excellent hand/eye coordination, can usually crawl into smaller spaces for out-of-position welding, and have tons of patience.

Crying While Welding

While it may be difficult to actually WELD while crying (blurry vision, your helmet lens steaming up), taking a minute to compose yourself, to take a breath, really shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

I’ll admit it. I’ve cried at work.  One time I would say I was completely justified.  My dad had just died, and this was on the heels of my Granddad dying and my sister fighting breast cancer:  I was dealing with a lot.  Fortunately my boss was completely understanding (as in he didn’t freak out or make a big deal of it–he just let me work my way through it). I pulled myself together and got back to work in the time it would have taken me to refill my coffee cup.

Another time:  I was 19, working a summer job in Washington D.C. and one of my superiors, a middle-aged MARRIED man, had propositioned me.  It was creepy.  He was creepy!  Anyway, I somehow managed to clarify that I was NOT interested in a steady and strong tone of voice….  but I was so mad when I got back to my cubicle, I just fell apart and began to cry.  ( I don’t know about you, but when I’m angry I cry–as opposed to some men, who may punch things).

Another memorable crying moment–when I found out my car needed a new engine.  In my defense, this was my beloved 1971 Super Beetle.  The car my grandparents had bought in Germany, and toured Europe in before returning with the car to the U.S. (Granddad had been stationed at the U.S. Naval Base at Rota, Spain).  I had learned to drive on that car.  And I was broke.  When I got off the phone with the mechanic the tears just started flowing.  And of course there were two co-workers (both male) standing at my desk.  As I squeaked out what the problem was– they laughed. They thought it was hilarious that I was crying about a car.  Of course I wasn’t crying about the car, I was crying because I felt helpless, broke, frustrated, and mad at myself for crying which made me cry even more!  Now, some 15 years later, I too think it’s funny that I was crying about a car.

Crying is perfectly natural, biologically driven response for women.  What I didn’t know until recently is that women have more of a protein called prolactin in their system (more as in 60 percent more!). It is the protein that triggers crying (and also lactation, but that’s another blog post).

Crying is also good for you.  It actually helps keep your eyes healthy and it releases stress (maybe one reason why women don’t have heart attacks at the same rate as men).  Tears actually get rid of toxins in our bodies and cortisol, a stress hormone.

Wouldn’t you like an employee who handles stress better and won’t punch things, or worse…   drop dead of a heart attack?

Bottom line, if you’re not hiring women welders, you’re missing out!