Women Speak Drastically Less When They’re Surrounded by Dudes. And That’s Bad.

[JoeyT]

11. Yep, me too, mostly.

Rigger, electrician, boilermaker, fitter, ironworker, VFD, etc.

I wish there were more women in those jobs. I prefer working with them because they're generally less dangerous to themselves and less dangerous to others.

It's very rare I've ever had to grab a woman and say "What the hell is wrong with you? Stay out of pinch points or you're going to lose a limb or die horribly." or yell "GTFO from under my load, you moron!" or "Slingshot! Slingshot! Move! Move!" at them. It happens with d00dz on every single job I've ever been on. Every. Single. Day. Every. Single. Job. And then they argue with me. Because the lethality of having several tons dropped on you from several hundred feet in the air is debatable.

The only helpers I ever had as an industrial electrician were women. One of them is a journeyman the other is a master now. The master is generally the lead on whatever job she's on. The helper that hires in with me when I do rigging work is a woman, and she's just about ready to sit her NCCER and become a journeyman. (Journeywoman?) Men are much harder to get to listen when you're trying to tell them what they're doing might get them killed. (And before an MRA wanders by and hauls out a cross to nail themselves to: I'm also a dude. And hardheaded. )

I think once we get enough women in those kind of jobs, the companies are going to find out they're less likely to have to scrape them out of a crater of shattered concrete and be much more receptive to hiring them. If nothing else, the insurance rates and equipment rental rates are lower for companies with employees that don't get hurt or tear stuff up.