The Philippine Online Chronicles

Formerly typecast in office, teaching, and nursing jobs, or at assembly lines and small-component fabrication units in electronic factories. or as packagers in food companies, today’s women are rushing in where their mothers feared to tread or were barred from.

"If men can do it, so can women," they implicitly declare as they bend gender stereotypes with aplomb. Not exactly true: quite often, women do "it" better.

"It" refers to fields of work formerly exclusively earmarked for men. Welding. Electronics repair. Automotive mechanics. Not to mention working as jeepney and tricycle drivers and their more high-flying counterparts, pilots. And what about women soldiers, policemen, security guards? Electricians? Plumbers? Fork lift operators?

TESDA's Women Center

TESDA (Technical and Educational Skills Development Authority) has opened its welding training programs to women since the 1990s. So tremendous was the response among women trainees on one hand and companies absorbing the graduates on the other, that the program was expanded in time.

Today, TESDA runs a Women’s Center (TWC) in Taguig where young, enthusiastic women enroll in increasing numbers in non-traditional technical vocational (tech-voc) courses: shield metal arc welding, automotive mechanic servicing, and consumer electronics servicing. They must also be open-minded and far-sighted, and yes, confident and daring enough to try an unconventional, "unfeminine" career that might confound and even shock their families and friends.

According to TESDA Director General Augusto Syjuco, the program has clicked because of the rising local and global demand for these technicians, the high pay scale for this type of workers, and the growing preference for women workers by industry.

TESDA trainor Leah Rose Cruz says that 20-25 women per batch now take the twice-a-year automotive mechanic servicing training, up from 12-15 a few years ago.

Preference for women

Cruz elaborates on why women are preferred as welders and service staff. "Ang mga babaeng mekanik ay matiyaga, malinis at maayos magtrabaho, kaya nababawasan ang accidents. (Female mechanics are diligent, meticulous and smooth workers, so accidents are minimized.)" She adds that they generally exhibit a good attitude towards work and perform exceptionally during training.

Companies seem to agree with this assessment. International shipping companies, for example, reportedly prefer women welders because they are meticulous and quality-oriented. Specifically, Filipinas are the welders of choice because they are highly adaptable to new, even difficult conditions, and because they speak English well. According to University of Cebu president Augusto Go, openings for women welders abound in Canada and Australia, where companies even offer relocation to the employee’s family.

Case story

Raline Perez Oliquino, a general automotive graduate of the TESDA Women’s Center holds the distinction as the first female automotive technician of Ford Philippines.

Indeed, she at first perplexed her family when she announced her plan to enroll in automotive training in 2000. When she explained that companies practically fall in line to hire trained female technicians due to high demand and low supply, they understood and gave her their support. Besides, she asked them tongue-in-cheek, "we might sooner or later buy a car – who would maintain and trouble shoot it, just in case?" What the family already knows is that Raline is a natural fixer-troubleshooter who seems happiest when tinkering with gadgets, even as a child.

At TWC, Raline was taught not only welding, battery-checking, and overhauling, but also the rights and potential of women to chart their own career path, regardless of whether it is norm-conforming or convention-breaking.

Within a month after graduating from TWC, she landed a job with Ford Alabang. Starting as an apprentice, she became a regular employee after a year. Today, she holds the position of quick service supervisor with a service crew of five technicians.

She found love and romance too, at Ford. It was there that she met a co-technician whom she married in July 2004.

Motivations

Female trainees at TWC give diverse reasons for taking up the non-traditional voc-tech courses. Salvacion Napoles of Albay, a seamstress for many years, is excited over the chance to venture into something new . From fabrics to metals is practically a 180-degree turn! At first she thought she might be too old, at 37, to make the life-changing step. But then, she reckoned that if her aunt, who was much older, was able to finish the course and find work with a ship-building company, then her own chances to make it should also be good. Katrina Guinto, 32, had her eyes on high-paying welding jobs in Australia when she enrolled at the Center. Compared to the boringly repetitious tasks she used to do as factory worker, welding is many times more stimulating as it allows her to multi-task. To Maria Clara Estrera, 18, taking the course and working afterwards are just a means to make money to put herself through college in the near future.

While most women who enroll in the programs are high school graduates, it is not unusual to find a college graduate or two in a batch. Alpha Dasmarinas was an accountant whose pencil-pushing and calculating bored her to tears. She found more challenge as a welder after training at the TESDA-affiliated Labor Link Technical Institute, the first welding school in Quezon City.

Not for all women

Welding is not for every woman. It is for the strong in body and in spirit. It is also for the sharp-minded and alert. Eugenio describes what is required very well: "Bago ka pumasok sa welding, dapat i-prepare mo sarili mo na magbubuhat ka, masusugatan, mapapaso. Delikado kasi ito, puwede kang mabulag, yung gas puwedeng sumabog. Kelangan alerto ka at maingat para sa sarili mo at sa mga kasamahan. (Before you venture into welding, you should prepare yourself for fetching and carrying, getting wounded, getting burned. This is dangerous work, you can be blinded, the gas could explode. You need to be alert and careful not only for yourself but also for your co-workers.)"

This warning should not be glossed over.

March is Women’s Month, and paying tribute to women achievers -- including those who succeed in crossing gender boundaries – is in order.

But it won’t hurt to probe into little-known biting realities. We should listen to the precautionary tale.

A woman welder in Canada writes in a piece entitled Women welders - perceptions:

"It doesn't matter how careful you are, you’re eventually going to sustain superficial burns to any number of bodily areas.  Burns never heal without scars.  Consider that if you like the way your skin looks."

"…Working with steel all day is a tough job.  Frequently you’re working with the stronger sex.  Face it.  Unless you can deadlift 240 lbs you’re going to be impeding the production line any number of times during the shift.  You might have to ask for help ..."

"Heaven forbid asking for help.  The guys no doubt will let you off easy a few times but after a while if you’re not putting out for them they will make your life considerably harder."

A reason for a woman to think hard before trying on those men’s boots. And also so much more cause for the rest of us to celebrate these female stereotype breakers and risk-takers.

Photo: from TESDA's Women Center - Success Stories.

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