Hi everyone! I was wondering if it was common or uncommon to see women as machinists?

Thanks!

Maybe make this a poll?

ive seen a few operators but no "machinist"

Hi, everyone I,m new to this site. I have been in the machinning busines for more than 30 years and for the past 15 years I have been supervisor of a conventional and CNC machine shop. I have had three women work for me as CNC machine operators and all three have worked out fairly well. I don't see anything wrong with women persueing a career as a machinist.

Joerg Berger
Ontario Canada

I have met one female machinist, and several female operators. I have found them to be just as qualified as any male candidates for the job. The only thing that we men have over them in this field is the fact that as a whole, men are physically stronger than women. However, it is a fact that intelligence levels of women are just as capable of grasping mechanical subjects just as well as men. I think there are two reasons we don't see more female machinists.
1. Women are more likely to choose a traditional (sexist term I know) female career, such as nurse, secretary, teacher, waitress, etc.
2. Men in general feel threatened by women in the workplace. I would hate to count the times that men have forced women out of companies just because they feel threatened by their presence.

I'm a woman!!! And love the look on your face when you find out I have I have skills ..hee hee

I do not think any trade is limited to gender. It is only limited to ones vision and imagination.

BTW: Welcome to the forum all of you new members, No gender specific.... :)

Joe

My interest was piqued, not by the concept of female machinists, but by "Craft is What I do All Day. Art is what I have at the end of it" Jean Weller". So I Googled, of course! And got caught in a recursive loop which swung me right back to 'charper' on cnczone.com. Can I request asistance in breaking out of the loop, please.

Nope. ur stuck with me. And trust me I am far from a feminist. I am more for the shock value. If you question it..check out my myspace..not for the conservative. I probably shouldn't drink and post...bye!

And trust me I am far from a feminist. !

a simple phrase i can respect (i WAS married to a feminist)
there is no real reason that a woman can t do most trades , other than the will to step up to the plate , the machinist trade takes a good head with good consentration skills ,and that is a trate that would be fairly equal between men and women ,
in my experience bimbo's and airheads are apparently about the same between both genders as well

well said
there are plenty of women and men who are a clueless
take my husband. he is an excellent retina surgeon, but tools, hah. he leaves that up to me

I don't know why everyone always lumps people into catagories. Personal I lump everyone into Me and everyone else. Or if you can do it I can do it (although I might not want to ;) )

My words to live by: "if its to be, its up to me!"

or my dads old school version "if you want something done right do it yourself"

Hi everyone! I was wondering if it was common or uncommon to see women as machinists?

Thanks!

As a girl I can tell you it is very uncommon. 99% of machinist are men.(You do see a few more up north though.). I set-up and run a Cincinatti Milacron Lathe. How bout you? :)

Yeah...and 100 percent of mothers are women.....

Anyway....some time back I posted on a trend that is occuring in India...where the Government is training women to be operators and machinists at no charge....seems that the men who are operators/machinists are taking jobs outside of India.....leaving India with a growing demand for operators/machinists and nobody to fill the jobs....

....leaving India with a growing demand for operators/machinists and nobody to fill the jobs....

Traditionally in time of war, the majority of machinst are women, They are up to the Job, but as a group, do they really want to persue a career as such?.:)
Al.

Well given that poverty is rampant in India and their caste system....I would expect most any able bodied person would jump at an opportunity to change their family's fortunes...and apparently thousands of women have jumped at this opportunity in India....

Well given that poverty is rampant in India and their caste system....I would expect most any able bodied person would jump at an opportunity to change their family's fortunes...and apparently thousands of women have jumped at this opportunity in India....

I had wondered for a while why India with a huge pool of cheap labour was not ahead or keeping up with China in its production of exports to the west, after all it has a huge advantage as being the largest English speaking nation outside of the USA.
I had the opportunity to speak with an economist that is familiar with India, and he claims that among many reasons, the caste system is one that is keeping this from happening.
( One up side would be manuals that make sense):confused:
Al.

Nope. ur stuck with me. And trust me I am far from a feminist. I am more for the shock value. If you question it..check out my myspace..not for the conservative. I probably shouldn't drink and post...bye!

I'm anti-feminist.

Men and women are NOT the same. If you don't believe me, ask your doctor. :)

After saying that, I'll say that women (generally speaking) would make better tool makers than men if they choose to. Women typically pay better attention to detail than men do. Sure, they're not as strong, but how strong do you really need to be if there's a fork lift or a crane nearby?

Men would have a slight edge on spacial awareness that may help them in understanding prints, and complicated 3d issues, but that is a trait that can be learned.

While women would make great tool makers, I have to ask myself if that's what I'd want my daughter to do. The answer is probably not. It's a better environment than many trades, but not what I'd want for my wife, or my daughter.

...., I have to ask myself if that's what I'd want my daughter to do. The answer is probably not. It's a better environment than many trades, but not what I'd want for my wife, or my daughter.

Surely what your daughter wants to do is up to your daughter?

Surely what your daughter wants to do is up to your daughter?


Of course it is. But, it's my job to help her make important decisions. If I didn't warn her of the problems she may be facing, I wouldn't be doing my job. If, after we considered the potential pros and cons, she still wanted to be a tool maker, I'd just be glad she didn't want to be a stripper. :)

Women machinists? I want pictures for proof :) Dave

...
My words to live by: "if its to be, its up to me!"

or my dads old school version "if you want something done right do it yourself"
Just stumbled across this post.

It's been a hard week and i haven't had much sleep, but that sentiment has kinda become my mantra lately. My version is "Take care of you and yours because no other bugger will!"

If you can live sustainably and know how to make or trade for any tool or toy you need, what need have you of politics and government? Because they are doing a bang up job of taking care of things at the moment.

I personally am going to try cram as much "tech" know how into my girls that i can. I believe the only way out of this quaggmire of poo the world is heading for, is to prepare the future generation as best you can, coz it's them that will have to learn to sink or swim through it; not us!

...or maybe i've just been drinking too much coffee lately?

:rainfro:

(boring rant deleted)....I personally am going to try cram as much "tech" know how into my girls that i can. I believe....(boring rant deleted)
Oh no! I have become sarah connor from terminator II! :eek:

Hi all, a very controversial subject.
Who in their right mind would want to smell of cutting oil and have rough calloused hands from gripping cold steel all day? Men of course, or rather I should say the male species.
Males have the muscle power to do the things that males have designed to be worked with by males.
Any females that decide to get in on the act are in my opinion nuts.
Metal work is predominantly a male envionment.
It's dirty, greasy, dangerous, tiresome, backbreaking and thankless.
Except that is when there is a war on and then you've got to do what you wouldn't do normally.
As a choice how many females choose to do engineering as an occupation.
I'd like to see the husband/wife relationship when a woman works a 12 hour shift and stinks of cutting oil, rough nails and works nights.
I bet there isn't one woman out there that would get excited at the thought of a big HSS shell mill ripping into a lump of mild steel with the coolant flowing and the chips twanging off the guards.
Horses for courses, I'd be amused to see a gaggle of females heads down in a newly designed gearbox, discussing the technology that went into it.
It's a mans world, and don't you forget it my son.
And don't give me the old twaddle about the number of things designed by female engineers, I agree they do have a good brain for design and all the disciplines that dictate sound engineering knowledge.
Here is where I define the parting of the ways, You can sweat your little butt off working a pencil over a bit of paper, no matter if you are a male or a female, but to really want to get down to the coal face and hack with the boys, feeling sweaty, smelling sweaty and aching for a cold beer,takes a maleness that females just don't understand.
I wouldn't look down on any female engineering worker who was a genuine "want to do it" type as opposed to "only here for the beer" type.
In forty years of metal working I've not come across ANY women workers in engineering that did it for the love of it, and for that matter I've also rubbed shoulders with quite a few males that just wanted to score big so they could get out of it and do something else.
How many women can't pass a machine showroom without getting all excited?
I don't take my hat off to a woman who decides to pursue a career in metalwork, I just don't understand why.
It must be the blue overalls and steel toe capped boots with the hard hat, safety glasses and heavy riggers gloves to really turn you on.
Ian.

Handlewankers politically incorrect rant, at least in my neck of the woods, reminds of both a newspaper article and meeting I went to on the topic of "Women In Trades". At both of them a woman who had taken up welding as a career and then dropped it gave the explanation that they didn't like the noise and dirt and hard physical work.

Hi, I don't blame them for one bit, when you've been handling hot metal with bare hands the skin becomes unbelievably hard and calloused, and apart from that the noise levels are somthing to put you off anyway.
I think those big angle grinders really seperate the men from the boys, but that's par for the coarse.
When I was apprentice in the mid 50's, (last century), we had a local girl who wanted to become a fitter and turner like her father.
The site was in the Namib desert, and in winter it's freezing at 7.00AM and boiling when the mist cleared at 10.00AM.
Apart from the muck and filth we had to work in, there was the blood, sweat and greasy overalls that put her off.
I don't blame her. It's like working with horses, I love them as beautiful creatures, but can't stand being around them.
I think a lot of the trouble is the romantic view people take of various jobs, but get down to actually doing it and the dream becomes a nightmare.
I was born with nuts and bolts for toys, couldn't get enough of 'em.
I made my first soapbox cart when I was 8 years old from a couple of pram wheels and a few planks of wood.
When my parents bought me a Meccano set for Christmas one year I was hooked.
Now, at 68, I've just sold my Bridgeport mill to a mate, and bought another turret mill like it, but the model is an Ajax, with Int 40 spindle taper and quick traverse and feeds to all movements, it's also got a built in coolant pump,
and that's just for fun, no pecuniary advantages to be pursued here.
Why do we do it? I put this question to an old guy I met in '75. He was a retired engine driver on the British railways, drove diesels, and he retired and bought a full sized steam loco, actually a small 0-4-0 shunter, from the scrap yards at Barry in South Wales, UK. He always wanted to do steam but diesels came in and he just went along.
Now he and a few mates drive it around a bit of track on week-ends.
If you have a passion for all things mechanical, then no matter what the barriers you will always gravitate towards the thing that turns you on, even in retirement.
I've yet to see a woman who would like to get messed up just playing with machinery.
Girls grow up, boys never do.
Ian.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with two woman machinist for about two and half years in the same shop. Both easily held they’re own. It was kinda wild because one excelled at the lathes and the other excelled on the mills! And I new another woman that stayed in the trade almost her whole adult life. She’d jump in and get dirty with the best of em. I’d look over at her from time to time and she’d have grease& grim all over her face and her cloths. I remember thinking, “wow that’s a mother of two kids?” Crazy

I used to do business with a Polish guy that only had women in his cnc shop. He told me they are on average much better than men, they are more gentle on their machines (women= multitasking = excellent multi tasking machine operators!), they hear better than men and therefore LISTEN to the boss much better, LOL!
I also met a women that had her own business as a automotive repair shop, wow! she was one hell of a women, she sort of resembled the Iron Lady of British politics.....
MnotLyon, if my dainty little daughter ever wants to pursue a career as a tool & die maker i expect only one thing (OK two things) 1) that she becomes the best artisan sha can be, and 2) that she enjoys her career....

Good on you Charper, women are "better" than men i know, i asked my wife! (sorry i just had to pull your leg a bit!) :)!!

For most girls the passion for machines are not the same as for boys but if a girl does have the passion for it she should go for it. I have worked with girl mechanics in the past and they did just fine.

I forgot to mention one of those girl mechanics is my daughter. Go figure I had 4 boys and one girl and she is the only one that payed attention when I tried to share my experience with mechanical stuff.

Sure, just don't tell them they are wrong... Light years ago i took a cnc class that had a female instructor. The first day in the shop, after the bookwork portion, she put steel about 12" long in a vise and told us she is programming 10 inches per minuit for a face cut. I raised my hand and said, i think you programmed 100 inches per...she said no way...i said if you programmed 10 inches per, wouldn't it take a minuit to go 10"? and you made it across there in about 5 seconds..........if looks could kill, i would be dead!!!!

I made my first soapbox cart when I was 8 years old from a couple of pram wheels and a few planks of wood.
When my parents bought me a Meccano set for Christmas one year I was hooked

lol edxactly the same as me... kids must be the same the world over :) I used flattened tin cans and nailed them across the pram wheel axles to hold them onto the plank of wood with a bit of 2"X2" nailed to the side for a brake and rope for steering, used to flip over when you oversteered and a front wheel went under the main plank hehe. Good memories :)

*back on topic* I went to Wales the other day to discuss some design details with the company director and I was amazed at her level of engineering knowledge (I would have been amazed if it was a bloke too)- she knew everything I did and more. Incidently, there were at least 3 female operators actualy getting down and dirty... perhaps because she was hiring?

When I used to work up in Scotland there were plenty of female operators (mostly elderly who had continued after the war) and they were more than competent. I was an apprentice and learned more off the women than the men.... for some reason they seemed more patient with my inneptitude than the grumpy old men.

Hi, I'd like to see some of the girls go through the initation ceremonies that the apppies subjected the new arrivals to.
When I started in 1957, it was with great glee that the other appies informed me that I would be initiated that afternoon.
Everyone, including the journeymen, took great pleasure in informing me of the ordeal ahead, things like head shaving and beer guzzling, or if resistance and refusal to be initiated was met, then pubic hair removal with tin snips and a good lathering with mechanics blue and thick grease mixed with sawdust.
My father just grinned and said I'd get over it.
If you didn't get done on the appointed day and hid out to avoid the "mob", there was the ordeal of jeering fellow workers the next day, who informed you that you wern't "one of them" yet untill you'd been done.
In that year we had a late arrival to the ranks, and he was to be done by himself.
So we coyly invited him to a "party" after work at the men's single quarters.
Only problem was he was a 6ft-2" lad with a body to match a bull, and he wasn't having a bit of it when it became obvious what the party was for.
It took a half a dozen of us to hold him down while his trousers and underwear were removed to do a bit of shearing.
It was indeed lucky that we'd had the forsight to apply alcoholic stimulents, laced with a generous dose of neat Vodka before hand, to slow him down a bit.
I wonder how many girls would see the funny side of that ordeal.
I never met anyone that was traumatized to the extent that actual body injury occured.
Ian.

Well as a matter of fact,,, We had something quite similar we use to call “Smarfing!” It would consist of a tube of liquid dikum (blue). The plain was you put spots of dikum in unsuspected & hidden areas were the victim was sure to touch later and not be aware that it was there! And true to form the victim would in deed handle that item or touch the affected area or what ever it was we covered! Then like average people do, rub their face, their ears their eyes and everywhere else that people rub & touch on themselves! And guess what, “you got a smurf!!” We had a woman that was absolutely covered! Her face and her neck were covered, her cloths were reined. No body was immune! The flip side was dealing with temper tantrums! And the girls actually took it better then the guys!

Ha all something I forgot to mention in case you were wondering, it’s the stuff in a tube (way dykum) It takes forever to dry

In my expeiences, I honestly prefer working with women...they leave their stations cleaner they are calmer screw up less parts and most of all LISTEN much more than male machinists I have helped