Will women help bridge the gap in the skilled trades workforce?

·51 min·3 clips

Dan says Local 13 graduates can make $156,480 a year with two retirement plans and full paid health care.

1. Connections Podcast asks whether women can help bridge the gap in the skilled trades workforce. 2. Evan Dawson hosts the discussion with Stacey Merva, Lily Hugie, Honesty Harmon, Jim Putnam, and Mary Golden Shoe, all of whom connect training, hiring, and student pathways to the trades. 3. The episode centers on whether welding, plumbing, machining, and related jobs can become a bigger career option for young women. 4. Stacey Merva says she is a metal artist at Ironwood Studios in Springwater, New York, and she teaches welding workshops primarily for women on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. 5. Lily Hugie, age 16, says she found welding at one of Stacey's classes and decided she wanted to do it for a career. 6. Honesty Harmon, also 16, says she chose metal trades over carpentry because she likes working with metal more than wood. 7. Jim Putnam says he has taught welding at Edison Tech for eight years and has welded for 50 years. 8. Mary Golden Shoe says Livingston County Workforce Development and Youth Bureau runs a one-stop career center and helped Stacey with a grant letter. 9. The episode begins with CNBC reporting that women are only 3.1% of carpenters and plumbers and 3.5% of electricians in the United States in 2025. 10. Stacey says she was one of the only female sculpture majors at Syracuse University and has rarely worked around many other women in welding. 11. She also says many young women do not know welding is an option because nobody shows them. 12. Jim says his female students often pick up welding as fast as the boys, and sometimes faster. 13. He adds that the main struggle is heavy-duty physical strength, especially when moving materials like I-beams. 14. Stacey says she compensates with leverage, body weight, and tools sized for smaller hands. 15. Lily says welding feels like therapy because her helmet goes down and she stops thinking about everything else. 16. Honesty says she was scared of fire at first, but a women-in-welding setting made her pay attention and feel comfortable. 17. The tone is conversational, local, and hands-on, with Evan Dawson moving between student stories, labor data, and listener calls. 18. The format mixes studio discussion, phone feedback, and practical explanations of tools like chop saws, MIG, TIG, lathes, and CNC machines. 19. People interested in trades careers, workforce development, and hands-on education should listen. 20. People wanting a deep technical welding lesson or a purely academic labor-market debate may skip it.

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