Girl / lady electricians....?

[Dan]

Do we have any female electricians on the boards?

 

[katysparks]

i have nothing against women in the trade, per se, but from my personal experience, i've never seen one that can cope with it. i'm sure there's female sparks out there that can. it's just that the only ones i've met are too far up their own feminist arses. ( no disrespect to any competent female sparks/engineers/train drivers/lineswomen/etc.).

oh this thread has been raging me up all day. what are you even talking about?

 

[telectrix]

oh this thread has been raging me up all day. what are you even talking about?

thought my post was pretty straightforward.

 

[telectrix]

i blame the 1st world war. because so many men went off to fight ( and die) in the trenches, women worked in factories, making munitions etc, then the war ended and due to women like emily pankhurst, these women refused to get back into the kitchens, thus creating mass unemployment for the returning men, leading to the general strike of 1926, depression of the 30's, jarrow march, and all ills that have befallen men ever since. this post is said more in jest than anything else, and i have my garlic, cross, and silver bullets to defend myself from the feminist fall-out.

 

[Rpa07]

Could you imagine people selflessly mucking in for Queen and country if the same scenario happened today - the country would fall apart as soon as the iPhone batteries failed - that goes for men and women, boys and girls alike.

 

[yogimull]

Do we have any female electricians on the boards?

I am a female electrician, well, an apprentice. And in the U.S. so maybe my reply is even less helpful. Despite those caveats, I've been working in the trade for three years and earned an Associate's Degree (2yrs) in Electrical Technology.
Yes, there are some problems working in a predominantly male field. Yes I have children and finding childcare for them is extremely difficult, especially when I need to be on a job by 0600. But that's life, single Dad's struggle too. And no, I'm not as strong as a 6'+ male who weighs 200+lbs, but neither are a lot of the scrawny male electricians out there.
I love working in the electrical trade. It's interesting, and challenging, and I don't have to be in an office. We recently moved unfortunately and I'm currently having some trouble with old fashioned/narrow minded hiring managers, (ie-"Well I ain't but never seen a girl electrician!") it won't deter me. My last bosses were both excellent Journeymen and perfect to work for, because they were mature and professional. They never even asked what I was doing trying to become an electrician and they respected my work. I never took it personally when they yelled at me for *@$#ing up because if I did wrong, I deserved to called out and they were correcting me because I was new and needed to fix the mistake, not because I am a woman.
As for the guys on construction sites who treated me horribly, that's their problem, not mine. And none of them were electricians so it didn't really affect the job overall. I never felt too threatened or unsafe, and if they had a problem with me working there, they'd just say it behind my back (and usually in Spanish). I'm a Veteran though too, spent my twenties upset/mad/confused about being a female in a male environment. I guess now I'm just burned out on caring. Too old maybe to worry about proving my worth or paving the way for women's rights. I don't want to be or act like a man, I'm proud that I'm a competent feminine tradesmen. And it's not my fault men tend to have cooler hobbies and jobs.
Let's just work. Forget about the rest.

 

[KennyKen]

There's Loads of Female Sparkies who work onsite's in Australia. My Old crew had 7 blokes and 4 Chicks. All treated with the same respect.. The Trade is different here though. An Electrician is seen as a decent career. Something that seemed the polar opposite when I worked in London.

 

[Spoon]

An Electrician is seen as a decent career.

It was here once.....

 

[KennyKen]

I'm hearing ya mate. One of the reasons I left but that's a different subject entirely

 

[katysparks]

There's Loads of Female Sparkies who work onsite's in Australia. My Old crew had 7 blokes and 4 Chicks. All treated with the same respect.. The Trade is different here though. An Electrician is seen as a decent career. Something that seemed the polar opposite when I worked in London.

A 12hr plane journey has never sounded so appealing

 

[kkkkk]

Yes, me

 

[sjd_electrical]

I'm not an electrician but I am a woman who runs a successful industrial electrical contracting business. Ten years ago I chose to help my father expand from a sole trader / subcontractor, now he's retiring imminently and I directly employ 15 engineers. Haven't come across a female apprentice in this area nor had any approaches but I do go into schools to explain to both boys and girls the different work opportunities in contracting.
I've been involved with the NICEIC Jobs for the Girls initiative and personally know about 30 female electricians, mostly sole traders specialising in domestic work, a handful of site contracting electricians and the rest working for social housing or FM companies. It is a male dominated industry facing lots of challenges including skills and standards of work but I think women can thrive if they choose to. Everyone's different and there is so much variety in this industry so outdated gender stereotypes aren't particularly helpful. We should support solid apprenticeships and recognition of properly trained, skilled electricians only... whether male or female is irrelevant.

Do we have any female electricians on the boards?

 

[str1ke]

Hi everyone, I am an (almost) qualified female sparky and just thought I would weigh in with my 2 cents worth.

I work on building sites for a large electrical contractor and I don't expect to be treated differently from anyone else- If I was unable to do all aspects of the job then I wouldn't expect to still be employed. The other trades I work with are all friendly and positive and we all rub on together just fine. After working with me for a while they tend to come to me to sort out any problems and we cooperate well to make the work happen as efficiently as possible. People no longer run after me checking everything I do because they came to me me in the first place because they wanted it done right first time. Not because there is anything wrong with my collegues work but because I am mainly based there and know how they like things done. People like working with me because of my general attitude and professionalism, not because I am a woman.

People tend to like to tell me how nice it is to see a female sparky etc or ask me why I chose it as a career. (However did my lady brain come up with such an idea?!). I generally avoid such conversations because they make me feel a bit awkward. It generally comes out of the blue, when I am least expecting it and it always startles me a bit. This may come as a surprise to some people but I don't constantly walk around with the self awareness of my gender all the time in my brain. Do other people in other jobs? I pay attention to what I am doing. To be good at my profession I need to develop my knowledge, understanding and practical skills. I don't see myself as separate from my male colleagues- My team leaders never refer to my gender in conversations about our team with site managers. They have always referred to us as 'my lads'. If I work for someone who is at pains to bring up my gender just for the sake of it it does mean I enjoy working with them less. It doesn't affect my work. It's always a bit disheartening to have site managers start to say 'hi lads' and then look awkward and say 'and lady' as well. Especially when you've been working with them for a while. If I'd gone to work with nail varnish on then fair enough! But since I don't it's kind of annoying. Also it makes the conversation that little bit longer and as a trade I like keep my talks with site agents to a minimum and just get the damn job done! Am I right?! Maybe we should just invent a gender neutral word and then maybe no one would have to feel awkward.

Younger guys on site generally don't make the distinction or ask me about it. I like to think that it is because they are part of the up and coming generation who are more progressive in their thinking.

I know threads like this are well intentioned and for changes in attitude to happen the discussion needed to be had in the past but we are beyond that now. There have been drives to get more women into the industry generally and the enthusiasm has led to just trying to encourage any woman that's interested into the industry. Which ultimately is damaging to our reputation. The intention is grand but actually we should be encouraging the right women into the industry- the ones with the ability and skills. Not everyone gets to do every job they want to do. Ever. Otherwise we would all be astronauts and race car drivers .

The pathways for women to train and qualify exist- even though it may sometimes feel like we have to work harder to get there. If people think that that is unfair then they should go away and read the book 'the dip' by Seth Godin and then decide if that is really what they want to do.

I know 'are there any female sparks out there on our threads' is an innocent enough question and probably well intentioned but I think it inevitably just stirs up the haters which leads to the kind of discussion where everyone just gets a bit angry and frustrated because we all have our own lives and experiences which have shaped our opinions in the first place and some words on a forum are not going to change them. It also means that any female who is interested in becoming one will type a query into a search engine will end up reading negative opinions about what other people think about what she is thinking of doing before she has even started her journey which is not a good place to start. Would it be ok to start a thread with - any black/transsexual/gay/non British sparkies out there? Why don't you introduce yourselves?

I could tell you countless stories of where I have experienced sexism in the industry but it is not something I choose to focus on or spread. I choose to function on a daily basis as if it doesn't exist. Because it doesn't serve my needs or help me reach my goals. Think about it. If someone doesn't like you as a person and you know someone doesn't like you as a person do you let that affect your life in any way? Do you think to yourself 'Dave from (for example) football club doesn't like me - I won't play football there anymore. I won't get the same amount of enjoyment out of playing football if he's there. Of course u won't. You might not like him anyway. You may think the fact he is more successful with women and constantly banging on about how much he can bench press is just really dull'. Does it affect either of your passing or goal scoring ability? Of course it doesn't. Does it mean you won't socialise after the game? Probably. Or at least at opposite ends of the bar. Does it affect your overall happiness as a person?

It's a fact of life. If people choose to underestimate you or have a low opinion of you based on things like age, sex or race then so what. It's illegal to discriminate now. All everyone needs to do from now on is show up and do a damn good job and get suitably and fairly rewarded. Let's stop drawing attention to irrelevancies and just judge people on more important things like the colour of their hair or if you like their piercings or tattoos

Peace out

 

[Midwest]

I've been bumbling around the forum today and spotted this one. I thought who's resurrected a thread, you know a really old one. Thought this one was started back in the 1960's (from the responses). Nope, dear me.

 

[Dan]

I think some of it is tongue in cheek but some of it reflects on the people who posted it which is their problem to be frank.

The thread it's self was to get the women out of the woodwork and give them a chance to find each other to talk about making sandwiches and stuff.

(Jokes!!!!)

 

[BruceB]

Zs on IET site if you need a female electrician