Breaking barriers
Conference encourages girls to challenge gender stereotypes
By Payge Woodard
Special to The Star-Herald
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Northern Maine girls left the classroom and took a steam roller for a spin last week.
The Totally Trades Conference, held April 27, 2016, at Northern Maine Community College, gave 175 female students from 16 schools, a taste of what it’s like to work in traditionally male-dominated fields.
Students had a chance to explore fire trucks, build with power tools and learn about working in the trades.
“They are sometimes given the message that they aren’t strong enough to do that work or it won’t fit in well with their lifestyle,” event organizer, Suzanne Senechal-Jandreau, says, “We wanted them to explore careers that they otherwise might not consider for themselves.”
Career workshops included auto collision repair, welding and heavy equipment operation.
Amber Moir, a freshmen at Caribou High School, has an interest in welding but says it isn’t the type of jobs females are usually encouraged to do.
“Usually people tell a girl, ‘Oh you can be a nurse, you can be a hairdresser, or you can work in an office,” Moir says, “But it’s not true. You can drive truck, you can be a welder, you can do any of that stuff. It’s not just for guys.”
Workshop leader and owner of the chain of The Cubby Thrift Stores, Cindy Johnson says she was impressed by the drive the students had.
“They are really reaching out and they’re passing typical boundaries and they’re extending themselves into fields that they wouldn’t have in the past.”
Johnson says the gender stereotypes in the workforce are slowly fading.
But women pursuing a nontraditional career may still face hardships.
Presque Isle High School junior, Haley Moro, is taking part in the welding program at Caribou Technology Center. She says being one of the few girls in the class isn’t always easy.
“Some of the boys in my class try to act like they’re better than me, sometimes they’re nasty,” she says, “But you’ve just got to brush it off your shoulder.”
Moro says it just makes her want to work to be better than her male classmates.
Senechal-Jandreau says women from the work world take part in the conference to talk to students about the barriers they may face going into a male-dominated career.
“We want to offer female role models to them who can say, ‘Yes I did it and here are some of the barriers I ran into but here are the ways I handled that.’,” Senechal-Jandreau says.
Johnson, one of the conference role models, hopes she instilled confidence in young women.
”I just told them that anything is achievable. If nothing else I want them to take that away with them,” Johnson says, “That they can achieve absolutely anything.”
