And so far she loves it.

But its really hard for women, too, considering how male dominated the trades are. My girlfriend is older, late 20's, and has worked regularly for a while until she got the apprenticeship; she can roll with the punches a bit more. I think it would be very difficult for younger women in a first job to have to deal with all the sexism.

Greetings

Seriously its a great job and quite lucrative, there is no sixty cent dollars - all the Pipefiter, Plumbers, Electricians and other tradespeople get the same rate regardless of gender. Wages, health care and retirement benefits are all part of the union gig.

As the population of workers in craft unions age the opportunities are there.

We've oversold college, much of it is snobbery over getting your hands dirty but its time to rethink the careers. Nobody can set up a call center in India to phone in a welding job and the wages are good enough to buy lots of soap...

Enjoy the journey

WarLord

Especially those trades where you fix big expensive things, are a great place to put in your fourty hours a week (fifty hours if your lucky, due to overtime).

Our society in general has over emphasized the importance of a colegate education over these trades for decades now, and as a result we've got an entire generation of students with worthless degrees, massive debts, no real prospects for success.

The upside to this tragedy of course, is that because the trades have been abandoned, smart people who otherwise were blocked from these trades by tradition and overt discrimination can now fill the ranks, and make a good deal of money.

Unskilled blue collar workers have been a dwindeling dead end lifestyle in this country for years, which is what lead to the

"collegate" boom of recent memory.

Instead this country needs to focus on producing skilled tradesmen and women not only to repair and maintain our increasiningly complexe and energy efficient products, but also to add to the knowledge pool to determine the next best way to circumvent and jerryrig (or gerririg)higher efficiency and out of our dwindeling resources.

For the most part I like this article, but then at the end Ms. Harding writes:

"It makes no sense to me that staying home changing shitty diapers and wiping up barf for no pay is considered by some to be the most "feminine" job out there, while being a highly compensated plumber is considered somehow unladylike."

The problem with that statement is this: If you are a woman and you have a child then really nothing is more lady-like then caring for that child, it is called being a mother. It is excellent that more women are going into the trades, however that has nothing to do with one's responsibilities as a parent. No one I know would frown upon a lady plumber, but most people I know would frown upon a lady who has a child resenting her duties as a mother.

Pretty people in pretty suits in corner offices might pretend that they built the cities, but they didn't. Tradespeople did. Give me a woman or man with callused hands every damn day over someone with soft hands.

In theory, it is great that women should become plumbers and car mechanics. I have never, ever seen a woman car mechanic or plumber in my life. Why? It can't just be snobbery. Could it be that these jobs frequently require a lot of sheer muscle power? Not everything can be done with power tools. Try lifting a toilet and putting it precisely in the right place. Takes strength. Some women could do it, but not many, and a lot of men couldn't either.

Hands on jobs cannot be outsourced. And the people who do them generally need proficiency in English, at least on the retail end of things.

I think it would be very difficult for younger women in a first job to have to deal with all the sexism.

I don't know if it's as much sexism as tight deadlines, frustration, outright panic. In all fields there are jerks.

One of my first jobs out of school I worked for a construction manager. He reduced me to tears with yelling, name calling, etc. I was beginning to think it was me until the job foreman called me, his voice shaking, explaining to me that he was a good worker, didn't deserve to be yelled at by our boss. The foreman was this low key 6'5", 250 lb, rock solid personality guy. It was then I realized it wasn't personal and to either fight back or ignore it.

I moved on, but now it's client that can get very upset when projects are behind schedule and even the best clients start freaking out when there are problems in the field, even if they are beyond anyone's control. Not everyone can control the weather, or the fact that fires have closed the building dept. where you were supposed to get final sign off...

To be fair, gate agents in the airport, customer service reps, etc. (not particularly male dominated roles) all have to get used to tempers and rude outbursts, too. I've seen barristas talked down to and yelled at as it they were idiots...becuae they misspelled a name on a coffee cup, his name was "Geoff" not "Jeff", he refused the freaking paper cup.

I'm still very happy I'm not in a traditional field, I hate office politics and can't imagine being pleasant to whiny people.

Actually, employers who have had experience with women trades workers tend to prefer them. They'll actually read the manual for instance. Tend to have better customer relations skills. Steal less. More punctual. Less likely to show up drunk or horribly hungover. And most trades don't actually take a lot of physical strength these days, just ones like masonry.

My wife made her living for a few years as a painter, earning rather more than I did at the time. She's a pretty good carpenter too.