Nervous couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt walking in to do a weld test at my fourth potential place of employment. By this time, I had been the only female welder in all the shops I’d been in and it was the same here. I waited in the break room for the QC guy to come get me to do the test. It was a one inch thick plate that was twelve inches long and had to be welded vertically. I tacked the run-off tabs on it and got started.

I got a lot of stares. It was kind of comical to lift my hood and see men quickly look away as I made eye contact with them. It was as if I was an alien to them.

After I finished welding the front, I was asked if I was any good at gouging.
HAH! I’m a better gouger than I am a welder. I got a rod and got to work blowing molten metal everywhere. I got the QC man to check it out and his jaw literally dropped. He said, “Come with me. We gotta talk to the boss man.”

I stepped into the office and sat in front of the GM. He looked at QC and asked how my welding was. His eyes bugged out of his head and he slowly nodded. Then he asked, “And her gouging?” QC said, “Just as good as the welding. She’s good.”

Had I finally found a place that appreciated my hard work?
The answer was yes. I was put in the “big bay” where the most work was done. I was welding three inch full penetration beams. It was for the new soccer stadium that was recently built in Nashville, Tennessee.

I’m not saying everything I did was perfect, but my supervisors never made me feel stupid for messing up and having to redo something. I was extremely hesitant doing some of the work because I had been criticized so harshly before for not knowing something. I got better and better and did my best welding there. I got where I was passing nearly 100% of my UTs and my bosses left me alone as long as I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

I worked there for seven months before the carpal tunnel and tendinitis became so painful that I had to quit. I cried when I left. I loved my superiors. I feel like they treated me as one of them and not some dumb woman.