Featured Article
from Sawinery
Women aren’t easily associated to power tools and work that involves woodworking. It could be that the woodworking industry is predominantly male-populated and it could also be because of the misconception that women can’t work with power tools and do woodwork.
Thankfully, in the recent years, we’ve seen the rise of the number of women who actually proved this notion wrong by not only trying out woodworking, but actually flourishing in it. Through them, we know that passion isn’t really bound by gender. And despite all the stereotypes and misconceptions, there’s a place for women in woodworking. Here are some examples of successful endeavors of women within the woodworking field.
Woodwork for Women
Woodwork for Women is the result of years of learning, continued passion, and desire to share opportunities in woodworking for women who are interested. It is an endeavour started by Patt Gregory who also experienced quite a lot of difficulties when she started out woodworking. The lack of actual women to work with in her career was one of the challenges she encountered, so she was inspired to provide a “safe place” for women to learn woodworking and not feel intimidated. Aside from the classes she holds for Woodwork for Women, she also published a book with the same name.
7 Mile Designs
7 Mile Designs is a woodworking website owned by Jennifer Gripe, who also got into a woodworking profession by learning from blogs and Youtube videos. She has only been in the industry for a few years, yet her passion for it only grows as she continues to put out content through weekly blogs, selling gear, and accepting custom orders online. Admittedly, she knows that many women are intimidated by the common notion that woodwork isn’t for women, and some are intimidated by the tools alone. However, she believes that the only solution to intimidation is just powering through and actually doing it.
Thankfully, in the recent years, we’ve seen the rise of the number of women who actually proved this notion wrong by not only trying out woodworking, but actually flourishing in it. Through them, we know that passion isn’t really bound by gender. And despite all the stereotypes and misconceptions, there’s a place for women in woodworking. Here are some examples of successful endeavors of women within the woodworking field.
Woodwork for Women
Woodwork for Women is the result of years of learning, continued passion, and desire to share opportunities in woodworking for women who are interested. It is an endeavour started by Patt Gregory who also experienced quite a lot of difficulties when she started out woodworking. The lack of actual women to work with in her career was one of the challenges she encountered, so she was inspired to provide a “safe place” for women to learn woodworking and not feel intimidated. Aside from the classes she holds for Woodwork for Women, she also published a book with the same name.
7 Mile Designs
7 Mile Designs is a woodworking website owned by Jennifer Gripe, who also got into a woodworking profession by learning from blogs and Youtube videos. She has only been in the industry for a few years, yet her passion for it only grows as she continues to put out content through weekly blogs, selling gear, and accepting custom orders online. Admittedly, she knows that many women are intimidated by the common notion that woodwork isn’t for women, and some are intimidated by the tools alone. However, she believes that the only solution to intimidation is just powering through and actually doing it.
Danielle Thomas
Danielle Thomas plays a lot of role in her life, including being a wife and a mom, a fitness lover, and a woodworker. For eight years, she has been doing her own woodworking projects, which was a passion sparked by a Pinterest post about DIY project. She just went ahead and tried out to make a coffee table herself, and after being full of pride about the outcome, she found her passion for woodwork. And the rest is history.
PF Woodturning
Peggy Farrington is the “PF” in PF Woodturning, a Facebook page where she shares her passion for woodwork through sneak peeks of her project that usually have a whole complete video in her Youtube channel. She is only on the first year of her venture into woodwork, which is just currently her hobby as she also works as a healthcare professional. But despite being quite new to the woodworking industry, Farrington isn’t one to be intimidated by huge power tools and machineries. Her pure passion for woodwork enables her to go ahead and create beautiful things with her bare hands and the help of a few tools.
These four endeavors by four women woodworker prove to us that women are thriving in the woodworking field, even if there are still misconceptions about it. Their passion and braveness to venture into the woodworking world despite the intimidation or the very few women to look up to as they started are truly admirable. And as they make the woodworking world a more enticing environment to attract more women to try it out, we know that there’s a bright future ahead for women in the woodworking industry.
To learn more about the experiences, passion, and lives of the Patt Gregory, Jennifer Gripe, Danielle Thomas, and Peggy Farrington, head on over to Sawinery’s full interview with them:
www.sawinery.net/blog/woodworking-women-interview/.