By Cami Ford
Stockbridge HS
1st Place
Division 4, Yearbook
Academic Writing
Teens tend to automatically think of men when any industrial or factory-type job comes to mind.
“Most people are really surprised when I tell them that I do automotive tech at Capital Area Career Center because it’s different. Like, they don’t expect it from a girl,” Hailey Fisher 11 said. “The boys in the class do not treat me any differently; they treat me like one of the guys.”
More and more women have been getting into industrial arts type jobs such as construction, welding and automotive according to media reports.
CACC construction technology instructor Jerry Johnson said, “This year, there are three girls in construction tech which is two more than we had last year. So, more girls are getting interested.”
“I’m personally interested in this field of work,” Autumn Shingledecker, a senior enrolled in the program, said. “To assume otherwise would be the opposite of normalizing it.”
Out of 51 students who attended CACC, 20 participated in one of the four industrial arts program. According to Catalyst, a non-profit organization concerned with the inclusion of women in the workplace, women make up less than 25 percent of all industrial jobs.
“I wouldn’t be able to have an industrial job,” freshman Samantha Argento said. “It’s really just not my thing.
But for some who are ready to break the norm, going a new way works well.
“It’s really fun because he lets us go on our own to let us learn that way, as long as we get our stuff done,” senior Grace Schniers said of her instructor.