Welding: It's not just for boys anymore

In the 1980's, I used to work for the Oklahoma State Department of Vocational Education, and one of the books we produced every year was about diversity, and how girls can take welding or auto mechanics classes while boys can take beauty and cuisine ones. I suppose it's still unusual in this day and age to see a lot of women welders, but they are around. And they're usually good hands.

This from the Greenville Tribune Times stresses that we'll see more girls learning to weld and entering the field. Good news, I think.

Many children go off to camp during the summer, but a group of 12 middle school girls are going to class instead. And they're learning traditional guy stuff: how to change the oil in a car, weld metal and make benches and bookshelves.

Several Golden Strip girls have attended the workshop classes that started June 8 at J. Harley Bonds Career Center in Greer. Children in the program, called Rosie's Girls, are taught skills in activities that have been generally male-dominated in the past. They learn welding, carpentry and automotive maintenance from instructors who specialize in those areas.

"It's been really enlightening for everyone involved," said class teacher Christina Hunter.

Studies show that girls have interest in math, science and mechanics until about age 12 when they begin to lose interest. This class is trying to combat that trend.

"I don't think it's that we lose it. I think it's that we don't use it," Hunter said. "I think we do it to them as grownups. You don't want someone to be different and instead of thinking of it as unique and special we think of it as different."

During the first week of the class the students learned safety tips especially for welding where one girl made sure that everyone knew to wear boots along with their safety goggles, face mask, coat and gloves. The girls learned different welding techniques and performed each of the techniques, even welding a steel palmetto tree cutout onto a base shaped like the outline of South Carolina.