When I was growing up in Long Beach, this school didn’t exist yet, and that’s a pity, for me, and for thousands of other girls who didn’t have the option of going HERE:
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Nailing a trade at Rosie the Riveter High
Long Beach charter school seeks to put young women in nontraditional jobs such as welding and carpentry.
By Bob Pool
December 3, 2009
Students are welding the old to the new at Rosie the Riveter High School.
The Long Beach charter school was created in 2007 to help prepare teenage girls for careers as welders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians and other trades.
Today, its 50-member student body includes girls and boys, but its organizers still attempt to break down barriers for women seeking careers in what largely remains a man’s world.
“It’s about trying to change the way society looks at women,” said Lynn Shaw, who helped create Rosie the Riveter High. “We just feel that women should have an equal opportunity.”
Shaw, who lives in Long Beach, teaches electrical technology at Long Beach City College.
She heads the board of directors for Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles, a nonprofit economic development group that sponsors the charter school.
