Welding makes sparks fly for Cinnamon and Tatjana. Women are still something of a rarity in welding technology, making up only around 5 percent of all welding specialists. So it’s especially interesting to get their take on the industry. In this article, we find out why Cinnamon and Tatjana chose this professional field, what fascinates them about welding, and why they are a key weapon in the battle to overcome the skills shortage.
Cinnamon, or “Cinn” as she is usually known, grew up on an idyllic horse farm, spending a fairly secluded childhood surrounded by nature. It was also her horses that sparked her love of welding. Cinn’s very first welding projects were made from horseshoes found lying around on the farm. She once welded little snowmen from them at Christmas time, for example. She practiced her art on a practice-focused agricultural course, which also introduced her to other trades as well as welding.
“I’d just take along my horseshoes and make my own artwork. We only had a very outdated welder and it only did electrode welding, which was not the best technique for my little art projects. But it worked okay and I took to it instantly,” Cinn recalls. Looking back, she says: “The decision to become a welder made perfect sense for me. I’ve been passionate about the craft from the start. I just love it.”
After graduating from high school, she completed an undergraduate degree in Welding & Fabrication Engineering Technology at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. Shortly afterward, she started her current job at Fronius USA in Brighton. Her day-to-day work there currently consists mainly of technical support. She helps customers to solve any problems they are confronted with in their welding work. For example, when someone wants to start welding with a material that has never been used before, she helps them to find the ideal welding parameters.
Cinn also does voluntary welding work for charity, including for Rescue Rebuild, an organization that builds and renovates homeless shelters and animal enclosures with the support of volunteers. Last year she helped the organization to build metal raccoon enclosures. “I’m able to use my craftsmanship to help others and give something back to the community. I love what I do and it means I can make a difference. That’s a great feeling,” says Cinn.
Unlike Cinn, Tatjana’s route into welding wasn’t so straightforward. In fact, it was only after a stint working in a completely different area that Tatjana figured out what she wanted to do as a career. She’d reached her early twenties and had around three years of work experience as an office clerk under her belt by the time she realized: “This isn’t it. This isn’t what I want to do. I’m going to look for something new.”
And that’s exactly what she did. Tatjana left her office job behind and began an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer. She was able to be fast-tracked through the course, doing 1.5 years instead of the usual 3, because she had already completed an apprenticeship and the time from that was credited to her.
When she looks back at her childhood, Tatjana herself is surprised that she didn’t go for a more hands-on job sooner. After all, as a kid she was always helping out with manual tasks. “I used to get taken along wherever my parents went and I always found it so exciting to see what you could make yourself from all sorts of materials,” says Tatjana. With welding, she has always been fascinated by the fact that you can see the fruits of your labor at the end of the day: “It’s about creating something tangible, whether it’s a railing or a work of art. You connect metals and create something new; it’s just amazing.”
She explains how it was her desire for a more “solid” and diverse education when she was young that led her to become an office clerk. Today she sees things differently and wants to encourage all women to listen to their instincts and trust their talents. She now subscribes far more to the “suck it and see” approach, and advises girls to simply try their hand at a trade. According to her, you’ll realize pretty quickly if you have the right skills for the job, especially with welding.
To this day, Tatjana is glad she had the courage to embark on a totally different career path. She recently completed her apprenticeship in mechanical engineering and now works as a maintenance technician in a leading global company for plastic and foam solutions. She also welds works of art, such as flowers, stars, and other items. She envisages herself selling her work one day, via social media, for example. “You never know what the future will bring,” says Tatjana, and adds: “Sure, it’s nice being in your comfort zone, but it’s not somewhere you can grow. Sometimes you have to step out of it if you want to find your dream job.”
What Cinnamon and Tatjana’s stories both show is that your choice of profession isn’t dependent on typical gender roles, but on your enthusiasm for the job. Ultimately it was their true passions that led them both to their current roles. The usual clichés about women in manual trades haven’t passed them by. Both Cinn and Tatjana have felt a sense of having to “prove” themselves in order to be fully accepted as women in the industry, both in their training and in the workplace. In fact, long-held ways of thinking can be very persistent, especially in male domains such as manual trades.
However, when you look at the profession and its requirements, there’s no real reason why the number of female specialists in the welding sector should be so low. Among the attributes required for welding are patience and dexterity. According to a study by the University of Munich, the latter in particular is an area in which women perform even better than their male counterparts. The results of the study showed that women’s fine motor skills were about 10 percent higher than those of men, and around 6 percent higher when you look specifically at the fingers.
Cases like those of Cinnamon and Tatjana are proof that gender stereotypes cannot be magically eliminated overnight, but that there has definitely been a shift in thinking, and preconceptions no longer need to be an obstacle to pursuing a profession you feel passionately about.
It goes without saying that the steady dismantling of clichés and entrenched patterns is essential if we are to counteract the rampant shortage of skilled workers we are currently experiencing. By increasing the number of women recruited into welding technology, we will automatically increase the number of specialists overall. One starting point for this would be career orientation in schools, where more effort could be made to get girls interested in manual trades. Projects like “Women in Trade: Fit for Leadership and Digitalization,” initiatives like “FiT – Women in Trade and Technology,” and organizations like “Women Who Weld” are also key in helping women see beyond the boundaries so often set by society, recognizing where their strengths lie, and realizing what opportunities there are to pursue a career in manual trades or other professional fields.
» I think that nowadays we finally realize that it’s irrelevant whether a job has been typically done by men or women. The only thing that really matters is enabling everyone to do whatever it is they really want to do. That's what it’s all about. «
Cinn, Female welder
