Only 5.3% of US welders are women. After years as a professor, I became one

Re:Only 5.3% of US welders are women. After years as a profe... by Baeocystin on Wednesday November 06, 2024 @05:58PM (#42070886)

I did a couple of years at the NASSCO shipyard in San Diego as a welder after the first .com crash.

The (literal) toxic work environment is why I left welding, even though I genuinely enjoyed the work. But I was already starting to see real changes in my health, even though I was super careful about respirator use, etc. What really sealed the deal was learning that my shift lead, who I thought was a good decade older than me, was actually a few years younger, but had just been welding longer, with the body damage to show for it.

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Re:Only 5.3% of US welders are women. After years as a profe... by TylerE on Wednesday November 06, 2024 @07:22PM (#42071727)

Yea, that’s one thing that really stood out to me when I did a 2 year mechanical engineering program - mostly training to be a cad jockey. Some of my teachers looked waaay older than they should have, and the welding instructor was the worst.

Now think of how many guys there are out there doing it with no repository protection and the good ‘ole safety squints.

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