What’ s your job? I am 56 years old, and I am on my second or third career. I have a strange work resume. In younger years, I worked in jobs that were really predominantly male, and then in my current career, I teach in an elementary school where it’ s predominantly female. So, I have experience with two end
How did you enter this field? I went to school to be a scientist. I studied Geology at Bryn Mawr College and accomplished my Master degree at the University of Michigan. I took a job in Alaska and worked there in the oil industry, but the reason I took the job was about its location. That’ s a male-dominated job. After I had children, a lot of things changed. I worked for five years in the industry after my son was born. It all worked out when he was in daycare, but when he entered school, it was a challenge for me to manage because kids have a lot of vacation. They had more time off than I did in my job, and I got very frustrated with that. When my daughter was born, I quit my job. I looked at the jobs that allowed me to work but also be a present parent as well. I came back to New Hampshire from Alaska. I put my kids in school that I had attended when I was a child. They offered me a job to be a teacher. I have been teaching here for 14 years, and I have changed what I teach. When I came here, I taught eighth grade, and it was more like traditional courses such as Physics and Math. Sometimes, I was frustrated that the school might not have enough art for kids because the art department was not strong when I was young. I spoke to the director about it, and they offered me a job of revamping and changing the art program. So I stopped teaching eighth grade, and now I teach art to the whole school. Even though I am a teacher in the same school, it’ s totally different than when I taught eighth grade. So my experience of entering this field is really different than anyone else’ s.
How did you feel of being a woman in this field? Being a woman in an elementary school is the norm. Sometimes, it’ s even hard for me to work with so many women because I used to work entirely with men. I like both environments, but women and men are different kinds of colleagues.
What are some specific differences? When I was working with men, I was working in oil rigs which are blue-collar work. It’ s dangerous, so it’ s kind of rough. There are nice guys, but they are little rough on the edges as they receive a different education. They were conservative politically while I was a young liberal white girl. I had to be aware of that I was on others’ turf, so I had to be strong and respectful. But I had to stand up for myself or I would be railroaded. After that, I worked on the rigs for almost two years. Later, I worked in an office environment, wearing nice clothes. People in that environment were much more educated, and were a little more diverse in their political opinions. I worked mostly with engineers, who were all about numbers and percentages instead of being creative. Now I work with women. I feel we are much less territorial, less ego-driven, and are more willing to collaborate. But partly because this is a different field because a lot of male teachers are like that too.