Chloe Hudson aka "Arc Welding Angel"

[shogunpanda007]

Chloe Hudson earned a Work Ethic scholarship from Mike Rowe's foundation for a professional welding career

Should more women get into the male-dominated trades? Your thoughts / opinions are appreciated.

https://mikerowe.com/2021/03/chloe-huds ... he-trades/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcweldingangel/

[MrMan]

If a woman wants to be a welder, I don't care. I did a little electrical work--not the highly skilled end of things--back before I finished college. One job site had an female electrician. I probably interacted with dozens of them, or at least dozens of construction workers, and she was the only female. I don't remember any female tile layers or construction workers on the site. I did a bit of work on floors, not for too long.

Most women don't want to do this type of work. Women who want to take legislative action to get 'equality of outcome' in the workplace want women CEOs and members of parliament or legislatures. I don't hear them lobbying for more women laying bricks or welding.

Some small percentage of women will opt to become mechanics or weld. If they want to do that, okay, I guess they can. Maybe the men on the job sites will use fewer cuss words and tell fewer dirtier jokes, or the women will just join in. But I think they will mostly self-select out. Women tend to prefer care occupations like nursing, also school teaching, social work, etc. They also work in various office roles. For lower paid jobs requiring less education-- cashiers, cleaning, etc. There are women who do well in academia. Certain fields tend to attract more men. Most men aren't interested enough in completing the coursework that they would need to become engineers, but even fewer women are wired that way.

[Cornfed]

This is absolutely disgusting. Denying young men jobs in favor of useless skanks will do nothing but harm, which is the intention. I always knew Mike Rowe was a bad guy.

[MrMan]

Some of the numbers thrown around here don't give a realistic picture. There are some top-tier schools with huge endowments where the presidents make huge salaries. But there are a lot of smaller schools that don't have large endowments whose chief officer makes in the 300's. I don't envy a dean's job, kind of the lower range of university administration. The administrators do play a role in running a university. They use a lot of figures from the higher-end more expensive schools and the debt you could rack up at those schools.

On the other hand, the video does make a valid point. It's not a sin not to go to college. You can earn a decent degree in the trades. The government allows near limitless borrowing to get a university degree to young people who don't care what they pay in tuition because they can borrow it. University degrees are not for everyone. If your or your parents have enough money for you to pay for a degree to enjoy the intrinsic benefits of education, go ahead and spend it if you want on a liberal arts college. Get a degree in fine arts, music, psychology, or some other field that doesn't have a great chance of producing a great return on investment.

But if you are someone who has to work for a living, if you borrow, study a field that will give you a positive ROI on your investment. If you die young, the US government eats the loss. As I recall, that is part of the deal. Disability is another matter.

You can learn a trade from a low cost trade school or technical college or a union program, and earn a good living doing that. The video mentions electrical linemen. I believe that is largely union in the US, and if you can get into the program, they train you, and Florida is hiring people from other states during hurricane season. So you can make a lot of money from overtime.

If you go to college and get a degree in nursing, cybersecurity, engineering, maybe chemistry, or some kind of business degree if they are hiring in your area, the loans may make sense. State schools in your own state tend to offer discounts. Nursing might charge just a bit more, but I read the mean salary for an RN is over $77K. If you went to a state school that costs $8K in tuition and charged $10K for tuition, fees, and books, were able to live at home (assuming mom and dad are in a city near a university that has a nursing program), then you might be able to scrimp and save and pay that off in a year or a year and a half with a salary like that, especially if mom and dad let you live with them an extra year.

If you want to be a doctor and be a general practitioner, why not go to a state university all the way. Go to an okay but cheaper school. If you are a GP, your patients don't care if you spent a lot of money at Harvard or if you paid extra out-of-state tuition. I don't care if my dentist went to the top dental school as long as he does a good job with my teeth.

I hear dental hygienists study for two years and make around $70K. I heard cybersecurity is so hot that they were paying $90K for someone right out of a two-year program, and $150 for someone with a bachelors. That was a year ago. I expect salaries to level off a bit as the word gets out and more study it.