Get more women into the industrial design profession and we will em-power women. Here is my reasoning...
My son-in-law is six feet four inches tall and lean, but solid as a rock strong. His wife, aka my daughter, is five foot seven inches, and lean, but rock strong. My son-in-law works from a home office, while my daughter builds and restores their homes and I am her assistant.
In late 2022, they finished restoring their old house in town, bought some property and began to build two new homes - one for them and one for me.
Through winter, summer and fall, my daughter and I dry camped and used generators to work. My daughter got a road in, the septic system in, underground lines for water and electric laid, the foundation in, framing up, roof on, doors and windows in, electrical and plumbing in, passed inspection, then got insulation in, dry wall up, and bathroom fixtures installed. As soon as the house in town sold, we all moved to the property.
My house is still a shell, but the internal framing is done, and two weeks ago my daughter passed the electrical inspection and started on the plumbing which will be finished this week. While we work on my house, that is also where we are building the cabinetry for her house, so the empty space is really great.
My house should be done by spring and I will be happy to move in. My trailer is nice, and its great to live right next to my house, but its a bit cramped in here.
I tell you this for a reason. I've been doing this kind of work all my life. What makes this kind of work super hard for women, is that men design tools. Men have big hands, and they design tools for their hands. Give a woman a smaller tool and she has as much power as a man - even more than some men.
I bought us three small power drills from Snap-On (an auto mechanics tool supplier). I bought them in pink, and everybody calls them the "Lady Drills". All of us, including men, prefer those small drill motors to all the regular sized ones. The smaller size translates to more power for men too.
My daughter can handle the big power drill but not when she is on top of a ladder, fifteen feet in the air hanging dry wall on a ceiling all by herself. My tool box has all women-sized hand tools collected over the years and it is in constant use.
Women have been planting and harvesting crops for thousands of years. If you've ever worked in the fields, you know there are as many women working out there as men. Even pregnant women are working in the fields right up until delivery. American labour laws are different for agriculture, so children as young as ten are also working in the fields. Yes, I am talking about thousands upon thousands of documented and undocumented, often migrant farmworkers who plant, tend, pick, haul and package the food Americans eat. The same highly-skilled farmworkers who tend vineyards for wine producers.
I have a girlfriend in her thirties who drives road equipment on wind farm installations. I have two more girlfriends who drive 18-wheelers across the country. All three women have empowered themselves by modifying their heavy equipment controls to woman size.
Anyways, I just had to say a few words about em-powering women.
PS good article Walter. :)
