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I was in the logging business on our property until I got too old, but did it for 25 years and my favorite employees/workers were the gals. My wife and both daughters could run a chainsaw as well as most guys and better than some. Ours was a typical family operation but we did hire alot of help seasonally. There were a couple extremely motivated and talented guys who stood out above the rest (including myself by far). They were the two who could run the skidsteer and load trucks with logs. I didn't expect the girls to attain that performance. Another feature of having girls in the workforce...........for some unknown reason it motivated the guys to excel. I think it was a ''show off'' syndrome at work. :) Overall I liked to work with the women; they gave more attention to detail and didn't bring their drama to work with them.
Kudos to the parents and/or caretakers who raised a good employee........it makes a difference.
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My father taught me everything I know about this kind of industry.. It does take parents who have a thing for this industry to show their kids that everything does not need to be done the same way of the way of society... Like about how a girl should work or even a guy... With things today I personally wish that technology wouldn't take it over... I love working out in the field and everything.. but the more and more people get lazy or forget that hard work gets you far.. it just makes things harder on other people...
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I would say things have changed here and that females really do have equal opportunity. Given the free will choice ... they seem to choose the jobs where they're more protected. They seem to choose store clerk, bank teller, the medical industry, caregiving, office work,teacher,professional positions, etc.
Given a choice ... most seem not to choose jobs that involve hard manual labor or poor working conditions. They might try it out for awhile but they almost never stay with it for the long term.
I run a small carpentry / construction business. I prefer to work alone, but there are some jobs where i need to hire a temporary helper. Over the years i've hired an equal number of female and male helpers. You have to run the job differently depending upon who you are working with.
I just finished up a project last week where the helper was female. In the beginning, she seemed like a pretty good prospect. She had a strong work ethic, was well organized, and had a logical thought process. These are all good qualities for an apprentice.
Once the job got started things went terribly wrong. She was horrible to work with. She had this chip on her shoulder and something to prove.
A construction site is run something like the military. Things are done the way a man would do them. There's order and there's structure. The Master carpenter is the leader and the apprentice is the follower. She had a real problem accepting direction from a man.
This actually put her life in danger. She wandered out onto a staging that i had already begun to take apart. I looked up at her and in an even tone ordered her to get off the staging. She hesitated for about a minute and wouldn't move until i explained that the staging was about to collapse under her feet. That attitude of female pride & arrogance almost cost her life.
We got through that fiasco and then she started questioning why i tend to limit my work days to six or seven hours. I explained that it was to help keep the job costs down. That as a master of my trade i know how to work efficiently and can get an eight hours of work done in five or six.
What i didn't explain was that it's just as much about job safety. Over the years i've found that most accidents happen during that first hour of the day when you're not quite awake -or- during the last few hours of the day after fatigue has set in.
The final day of the project was a tough one. Another construction crew was scheduled to come in and re-shingle the roof the following day. Our part of the work had to be finished by the end of the day and that meant that it was going to be ten hours of hard labor. I didn't treat her any differently than any other helper but that was a day where we both had to work hard.
By 12:00 P.M. her shoulders were slumped forward and she was showing signs of fatigue. By 1:30 she had lost her concentration and production had slowed to a crawl. She kept making mistakes. By 3:00 she really wasn't moving at all but her pride wouldn't allow her to knock off for the day even when i said there's no shame in being tired.
She was a good prospect but it didn't pan out. After that experience i don't think i'll hire any more helpers at all. That one gave me some sleepless nights.
Wish i could offer something more encouraging babe but the idea that men and women are equally interchangeable on ANY job doesn't seem to hold true in my experience.
Good in theory .... maybe not so good when put into practice. :-/
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Miked - On partnerships (post #3), That's my experience, one partner will always carry the other partner(s), until their is no more partnership.
Speaking as a man, my partner in life, the lady I wake up with everyday has made me a better man. Way before her my mom raised me to be the man I am. For any decent man, freely admits it's the women in our lives who make us complete.
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It might of been something she was never taught.. I myself was taught from my father who had owned auto body business, scrap yards, and even worked at a naval ship yard in southern Maine and then in northern Maine. My father took the time to teach me the things that I had to learn. I myself looked up to my father and didn't even have an issue taking order from him. Even my partner that I currently work with I listen to him about everything he says about taking breaks and slowing down even with going to the doctors(I am scarred of the doctors where the point I have avoided the doctors about things when I shouldn't of). It may be the way my life was set and how I learned things. I was mostly on my own for most of my life due to my parents being separated and a kind of military almost hard knocks life. I don't think that some girls could of gone threw of I went threw and took my life the way that I did..
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I have to agree with scrapbabe about it might have alot to do with how she was brought up. We had two girls working at one point and only Raven ended up staying on the job. The other was let go due to inexperience and having to be explained every little thing from either one of us depending on which one was supervising.
Raven has a hard time quiting and I can admit that since I had to convince her to go to the hospital for her wrist that night she injuried trying to pickup a log by herself at a site cleanup. Even her first day I had to tell her to take a break because if I didnt she would have kept going without quiting. The longer I work with her the more she knows she has to take breaks every few hours even if I dont. She listens very well it may be the influence of her father and other male roles in her life. Some times in a weird way you can mistaken her as one of the guys. NOT to make you sound like a guy! LOL
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I don't mind working with people who don't mind me drinking beer.
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Ultimately, you just have to find the courage to be true to yourself wherever that leads. The people that matter most will find a way love you unconditionally & accept you for the person that you are. The rest don't matter as much. Why try to measure up to somebody else's standard ?
The partnerships aren't easy whether it's a marriage or a business arrangement. It takes a lot of effort to bridge the gap between two people who may be very different from one another. A lot of times it doesn't work out but sometimes it does.
Why not give it a shot if it's something you really want to do ? :)
