Women in welding!?

[Tara]

Heya all,

Im new to the site so please forgive me if ive posted in the wrong place!

Ive been wanting to get into welding for a while now and finally have got round to doing something about it!

Im going to uni to do mig and tig welding and hopefully to complete another course on metal fabrication.

Ideally i would like to become a mobile welder once im qualified, was just wondering as welding is normally portrayed as a male dominated industry, would this be worth my while, would i get the p*** taken out of me or would it be better for me to get a job welding somewhere.

I would like to think that people would not be horrible about it but really would just like all your opinions on it.

Thanks

Tara

 

[Chrissi]

Hi Tara

I'm not a welder but I do work in the industry. I have met a few women welder and they are held with great respect with the companies that have employed them.

They have a great ability to make sure that they are the ones taking the p$$$.

As long as you have a good sense of humour and thick skin you'll be ok.

Chrissi..

 

[Wozzaaah]

Tara, when you say mobile welding, what type of stuff are you thinking of?
I do think it might be worth you gaining some experience before jumping in with both feet and I'd say that whether you were male or female. Try a few local fab shops and see if they'll take you on. It's not the sort of thing you can just wake up and decide to do one day, there's an awful lot more to it than just sticking bits of metal together, the more experience you have, the more confident you'll be about being able to do the job well.
Sparkey is a female welder who works in an almost entirely male factory and she loves her job. She hasn't been on here much lately but hopefully she'll soon be back and will have some words of encouragement for you.
you're bound to get a certain amount of stick from people who live in the dark ages and believe that women should be at home raising children, cooking and pandering to their man's every whim and not out welding for a living, don't let that stop you from pursuing your dream.

 

[Tara]

Tara, when you say mobile welding, what type of stuff are you thinking of?

Ideally i would like to get in to welding cars, exhaust's and making manifods really.
My bf is in to drifting and is currently studying motorsport tech at uni.

So really would like to do work along those lines to help him out with the car and maybe the lads at santa pod and that with their cars.

I do help him out a bit at the moment, but his welding is not to great, he's more in to fixing the engines, that another reason i would like to do it.

I wouldn't jump straight in to the mobile welding as i understand it takes time and patience to become good but was thinking maybe do it in the evenings and weekends for my bf's car and mates to get my practice in.

Then eventually maybe get a business going of some sort!
Its something i have always been into, but only just decided to something about it and i think im ready to do it now.

 

[knoba]

Well done on the courses!

My sister is quite a high ranking operations manager in the transport industry (PSV, ADR, Class 1 & 2, NEBOSH etc.). She's great! Very much a male dominated sector. She gets a lot of unnecessary flak. She has to work twice as hard to get the same breaks in her career. It does, of course, make her twice as good as anyone else.

When I was apprenticing as a mechanic, there was a female on my college course - excellent mechanic! Same story as above.

In my experience, I would much rather hire a female as I find they are more conscientious, better communicators and more likely to be honest about the job and the terms. I'm pretty sure I'm in a minority though and what Chrissi said is definitely true of my sister.

I say go for it! There are much better anti-discrimination laws in place today. After a few issues, my sister now keeps a work journal that details events in case of any come-backs. Guys don't have to do that!

 

[Wozzaaah]

I really don't think you'll have any problems in that field Tara, I was thinking you were intersted more in the structural side of welding which is really the male dominated side.
Automotive welding is completely different, no heavy lifting involved so there's no reason why anyone with the relevant skills and equipment couldn't do it. Some of these so called exhaust specialists are pretty shocking, a recent thread on here about one that a company built was an eye-opener, the quality was appalling!
Another good thing is that the setup costs can be fairly low, start off with only what you need then build your equipment up as and when you need it.
Good luck, hope you make a go of it .

 

[fingers99]

One place that's fairly near to you which specialises in manifolds and such is OJZ: they have good rep and are pretty much at the top end of the trade. Might be worthwhile seeing if you could have a look round or even convince the U to set up a placement.

 

[runnach]

Hi Tara,

I have taught a few ladies welding, different processes, all were learning welding with regards to moving into metal sculpture, furniture making ect. I can recall a few who just could not grasp the concept, I can get this with guys too. if your keen, you will succeed. I can only think the most difficult part is getting a place on a college course, all my young lads are employed, funded through a training provider (college fees) if you are looking at working within motor industry, search for a college that provides for this industry, I don't know if they will cover fabrication though?

Cheers..........

 

[Smart the paint]

Hi Tara ,
Where I work we had a lady welder and was very good only problem was got screwed over by the managerment but they screw everbody in our place ( the gits ) seam to get rid of all the good people ! But she is now a tech. manager in our place (Gets me all the goodies I need for a coffee in the morning )
She really missies the welding been trying to get her on this site just to keep up !
Everybody has the p*** taking out of them known some blokes who could not take it .
Myself I to encourage women into engineering helps keeps us chaps looking tidy .

I find it better if you can tell yorself you have done a good job because you can you do the best damn paint job absoloutly spot on and people will still take the wee wee . So thick skin is a must .


So good luck and weld your **** off !

smart

 

[migmag]

I think(know) you will find it easier than you think.

As already said automotive is a different ball game that heavy industry.

Go for it you got my vote!!

 

[raylaw]

Go for it Tara,No good having babies,they cost too much to keep ! better off going to work.You never know you may be a millionaire welder one day LoL..Ray

 

[Sparkey]

You never know you may be a millionaire welder one day LoL..Ray

hahaha!!NOT!!!