Girls at St. Timothy High School are no strangers to the Cochrane school’s carpentry and welding programs.
Breaking gender stereotypes, more and more girls are taking the school’s optional Career and Technology Studies (CTS) classes and Fabrication Studies classes, which are offered when students reach high school.
Keith Routhier, the teacher running both programs, finds that girls tend to excel in his classes.
“They’re more detail-oriented (and) they’re very critical of their own work.”
He says they are also less-prone to horseplay, a problem he seems to encounter more with the other gender.
“They’re not in the shop wrestling around and poking each other – boys can be like a pack of dingoes sometimes.”
“Sometimes it can be a little hard to handle the boys but I’m glad I’m in the class and I can’t complain,” said Mackenzie Eichinger, a Grade 11 student at the school currently taking the optional Fabrication Studies class.
Julie Sachkiw, a Grade 9 student currently taking the mandatory CTS class, plans to take the optional CTS classes when she enters high school next year.
“It’s really fun and it’s different from all the other subjects in school,” said Sachkiw. Sachkiw’s class just finished designing and building carbon-dioxide-powered cars and spent the morning of Dec. 4 racing them amongst each other.
Her car went undefeated, which she attributes to her “aerodynamic” design.
Her twin Katie, who is also in Grade 9 currently taking the mandatory CTS class, feels the same way about the program, saying it’s “fun” and “interesting” to participate in.
“If you get the proper help, then you get used to it and it becomes really easy,” said Katie in regards to learning about the different tools used in the class.
Routhier says if there is any drop-off in girls’ participation in CTS and Fabrication Studies in high school, it’s only because of conflicting schedules.
“It’s not because they don’t want to be in the shop, it’s because the programs bump up against their core subjects – especially for the more academically-oriented kids,” said Routhier.
That’s one of the reasons he offers the optional open shop nights every Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the school.
“It gives them a chance to get in there and participate.”
Routhier is confident that in the coming years, more girls will choose trades as a career and that the stereotype that trades are for men will be a thing of the past.
“I find women can actually make better tradesmen than men – or I should say tradeswomen.”
Lynn Fleury, a former professional welder, knows it is a challenging career for females but wants to encourage them to try anyway.
“Being a female, going to job interviews, I got a lot of questions like ‘Are you sure you’re strong enough?’ or ‘Are you sure you can do the job?’ ” said Fleury.
“It was definitely hard to get a foot in the door.”
She didn’t let the challenges hold her back and went on to lead a successful career in the industry. Fleury, who now works as a farrier, uses her knowledge of welding often in her new career.
She was at St. Tim’s on Dec. 10 to demonstrate to a welding class how to build horseshoes from scratch. Fleury thinks a lot of girls are simply “intimidated” by the thought of welding and implores anyone interested to “just try it” before making judgments.
“I’d like to see more girls getting into it,” said Fleury. “There’s no reason for the trade to be so male-dominated.”
