Women doing mens jobs.

[Kimberly]

Not really a job but I was an amateur body builder for a couple of years. It was during the late 80's when there were not too many women doing it.

 

[gluegungeisha]

Very nice, ladies!

I'm too much of a youngun to qualify for any of the above positions, but I do have one out-of-the-box "female" activity I participate in...

I help out at a women's self-defense course taught by my Karate sensei, and after helping the women out with techniques, I take the "dead meat" position...meaning I get to take all the hits, scratches and (missed) stomps and kicks these women use to kick perpetrator butt! I'm pretty sure I'm the only assistant who doesn't yet have a broken rib. I love helping to bring out the warrior inside of every woman.

 

[pigeon toe]

These are great stories ladies! Right now I work a sort of secretarial position in the library business offices at my university. It's horribly boring, I'd rather die than work there my whole life. All these jobs you ladies are talking about sound so exciting (but hard work)!

It's not my job, but I am studying art, photography most specifically, and that certainly is a man's world. There has certainly been hundreds of amazing female artists, but it's a lot harder to get respect, I feel. Plus, I've taken four 10-week art history courses and learned about probably 3 female artists the whole time. And believe me, there were more than 3 female artists who had an impact on modernism.

When it comes to my photography, it tends to be a lot more personal than many of the men I have had classes with. They usually focus on the conceptual and use the most expensive cameras possible, and try to make their work as technically complex as possible. This gets MUCH more positive feedback (conceptual over the personal) in classes and in the art world in general, which is totally annoying to me. Since all the female photographers I know also tend to make their work more personal, I wonder if there's a gender bias (logical over emotional, perhaps).

A lot of my other art works, such as video and sculptures, are conceptual, but still deal a lot with issues of gender, femininity and sexuality. They get really great feedback and I feel that new genres/video/performance art is a lot less sexist, perhaps because it's so new. But when it comes to photography it really feels like a man's world.

 

[gluegungeisha]

It's not my job, but I am studying art, photography most specifically, and that certainly is a man's world. There has certainly been hundreds of amazing female artists, but it's a lot harder to get respect, I feel. Plus, I've taken four 10-week art history courses and learned about probably 3 female artists the whole time. And believe me, there were more than 3 female artists who had an impact on modernism.

I've DEFINITELY noticed the gender issues in the art world. I'm sort of a comic nerd, and it is absolutely ridiculous how many amazing female comic artists have been overlooked. Women have been creating comics for as long as men! It's the same in the world of literature. Frustrating...

 

[ShooShooBaby]

pigeon, i don't know much about art but i heard many of the things you said in my women's studies classes from other students. two of the gals in my thesis seminar were artists and wrote on art topics for their thesis - one on the performance artist vallie export (i'm sure i spelled her name wrong) and the other on european painters. it was really interesting (especially getting to see export's work) and seems like an interesting field. one of my housemates is a photographer as well, and her work is very personal. and rad!

ggg, the only female comic book artist i've read much by is Jessica Abel. i love artbabe! i did just read "fun home" by alison bechdel, and i really loved it. it's her autobiography, but the element tying it all together is how her dad is obsessed with creating this perfectly period victorian home over the course of her youth. who else would you recommend? sorry, fftopic:

 

[pretty faythe]

that's probably where i would take it, faythe, although i probably wouldn't do a whole certificate! i mainly just want to weld cool sculptures out of used bike parts for my backyard and stuff

community colleges are great, aren't they! i also have my eye on a couple of natural building course being offered at my local cc, as well.

Yeah, I am slowly taking the classess that I need right now, the apprenticeship gave us college credits, so I am taking the ones that we didn't get, I think. I need to check with the coucelors again, make sure I am taking the right ones lol. Then I can furthor my untradtional roll with either building inspection or emergeny adminstration management. I havent decided which yet.

 

[pretty faythe]

The only problem with welding is the sparks and teeny tiny burns through clothing and skin that make it hard for me to weld. (For the record, no I'm not trained, one of my ex-husband's is a welder, and I learned to do very minimal welding from him for all of about half an hour. I still have scars on my chest from it.)

Hmm.....he should have given you the proper protective leather outter wear.
Bad ex-husband

 

[Elaina]

Yeah, you'd think, right? Might be why he's the ex.

 

[Technonut]

Years ago, I dated a woman that was a coal miner. She actually worked down in the mine. Great looking gal too... Very sweet. One would have NEVER guessed her occupation.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I had a girlfriend who'd studied locksmithing. Completed the course and got her license. She then changed over to electronics and got a job with a telecommunications company. Unfortunately, the job included climbing poles, and she's acrophobic. (Also claustrophobic, but for some reason glass elevators didn't bother her.) I've since lost contact with her, so I no longer know what she's doing.


Lee

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I have a secret wish to be a plumber. Because all the plumbers I know seem to be loaded, and women plumbers are in demand, there's even companies specifically for women to hire female plumbers! But i just can't bring myself to give up my more creative job to train!

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Driver of the Year

I spent six years delivering furniture for a nationwide company (that is now defunct). The company was called This End Up and was based in Raleigh N.C. and Richmond VA.

In the entire company, there was only one woman driver. Her name was Tammy. During the time I was there, Tammy had achieved "Driver of the Year." Not just for California, but the entire comany!


Lee
_____________________

And we're talking three-hundred pound sleeper sofas!

 

[beaucaillou]

Nice thread, Brooksie.

Women are still new to the wine industry. As little as a few years ago I would show up at trade tastings and be one of only two women in the room. In most places wine is still an Old Boys Club, and that has made it very interesting for someone like me. Often still, when I show up to tables to talk about wine, people are visibly taken aback as they were expecting a man. Many of them even say so.

A few years ago a leecherous man at a trade tasting actually *put his hands on me.* Fortunately, I was tasting Chateauneuf du Pape at the time... it was a no brainer... it ended up directly all over his white shirt. "Oh I'm sorry... didn't see you there..."

Trade liquor tastings are often still antiquated affairs, often times with female models dressed up in some ridiculously skimpy costumes (Captain Morgan's will have women in pirate/wench costumes for instance), which is always fine until myself and my female peers sidle up to taste and then the models become visibly awkward and uncertain. It harkens back to a time when airline stewards were required to be young size 2 females.

 

[hotrod_elf]

I'm a Tile Setter. I went through the apprintceship program through our union and got my journeyman's card. Now I run my own business setting tile.

There was one woman before me that came through the union and there was one woman that started as I was leaving.

I remeber on one state job there was a woman for every trade. We had enough numbers to hijack a port-a-pot and write WOMENS on it. It was never stinky or discusting.

 

[pretty faythe]

OOOOOOoooohhhhhhhh I hate when I work construction and somehow one of the guys get their hands on the womans port a pot keys....:rage: If they want nice and neat they should just stop being such slobs in the ports a pots. Makes you wonder what there bathrooms at home looks like.

 

[Brooksie]

Nice thread, Brooksie.

Women are still new to the wine industry. As little as a few years ago I would show up at trade tastings and be one of only two women in the room. In most places wine is still an Old Boys Club, and that has made it very interesting for someone like me. Often still, when I show up to tables to talk about wine, people are visibly taken aback as they were expecting a man. Many of them even say so.

A few years ago a leecherous man at a trade tasting actually *put his hands on me.* Fortunately, I was tasting Chateauneuf du Pape at the time... it was a no brainer... it ended up directly all over his white shirt. "Oh I'm sorry... didn't see you there..."

Trade liquor tastings are often still antiquated affairs, often times with female models dressed up in some ridiculously skimpy costumes (Captain Morgan's will have women in pirate/wench costumes for instance), which is always fine until myself and my female peers sidle up to taste and then the models become visibly awkward and uncertain. It harkens back to a time when airline stewards were required to be young size 2 females.

beau, I did not realize that about the wine industry at all, learn something new everday. That is cool though because I have attended the last two wine tasting's we have had at my job. It makes me feel good to have helped out with the wine selections there. Plus I got to take home a bottle of wine to which is not a bad trade off.

 

[hotrod_elf]

"OOOOOOoooohhhhhhhh I hate when I work construction and somehow one of the guys get their hands on the womans port a pot keys.... If they want nice and neat they should just stop being such slobs in the ports a pots. Makes you wonder what there bathrooms at home looks like."


Pretty Faythe I remeber your pain. I would hold it unit work was over b/c they were so bad!!!!!! Now I get special treatment. I'm the only one allowed in the house to peee. Everyone else has to find something else. A house wife will let in a grungy female but not a grungy male. Huh..... I have sever my time to make that statement!!!!!

 

[Paisley]

My father was a welder. He had the little holes in his shirts and a year-round tan from the arc. He always found welding work, and the pay was good. From what I hear, it still is. However, he worked in heat, in cold, in close spaces, on ladders, and in dangerous areas. He was scalded once and on another occasion, he fell and cracked his ribs. Welding pays well for a good reason.

I think he learned to weld from his parents. His mother was a welding inspector during WWII and his father was a blacksmith. My father's mother also had her own homestead. Women were homesteading out West--on their own in some cases--while their sisters back East were still trying to get the vote.

 

[Miss Brill]

I don't. None of the women in my family will take masculine jobs.