Hear Her Story: Sue Silverstein
At Women in Manufacturing, we are committed to supporting women in the manufacturing sector. We firmly believe that mentorship and community-buildling will help attract and retain women in manufacturing. As part of our mission, we feature the stories of women we admire who are currently working in manufacturing here on our blog. The following is the latest installment of our "Hear Her Story" series.
Sue Silverstein stands 5 feet tall and weighs in at an a slight 95 lbs. She studied ballet for 9 years. She is also a welder.
“You don’t have to be masculine to excel in manufacturing,” she says, laughing. “I’m a welder and I wear makeup!”
After graduating from high school at age sixteen, Sue wasn’t sure where to turn next. Waiting tables in Milwaukee, Wisconsin felt like a dead end. So when she got an opportunity to take a job on an assembly line at a local factory, she jumped at the chance.
The job appealed to Sue. Her father was an inspector at an automobile factory and he used to sneak her into the factory on Saturdays to let her check out the assembly lines. He also had a shop in the basement where he taught her to work with her hands.
But that first factory job wasn’t all she hoped it would be. The working conditions were horrible. She burned her hands when she was required to move parts immediately after they got out of the oven and she earned a pathetic three dollars an hour.
So when a training program opened at a larger plant, Sue signed up. There were four women in the program and they were all assigned to different shifts.
“I started working in manufacturing in the late 70s and 80s,” Sue says, “when workers, especially female workers, were not protected from hostile working conditions by the laws on the books today. I felt pressured to constantly prove myself and never show weakness.”
Eventually, Sue completed a sheet metal apprenticeship and earned her title as a certified welder. The certification meant job security as Sue successfully navigated the landscapes of the manufacturing and construction industries.
Sue overcame the obstacles she faced by finding many different, unexpected ways to excel at her job. For instance, her ballet training proved handy with the balance she needed to complete jobs on construction sites.
Over the course of her career, she encountered many expert welders who were very knowledgeable, but who struggled to instruct others on improving their skills or completing a job. Those experiences led Sue to pursue a master’s degree in education and take a position as a welding instructor at the Milwaukee Area Technical College where, today, she serves as the program chair.
“I enjoy helping students become the best that they can be, she says. “Shaping the talents of students is just as exciting as shaping metal.”
Sue reports that she usually has about one female student per year. She notes that she would like to start recruitment earlier in order to attract more women.
“The environment in manufacturing today is very different than when I started out,” Sue says, “It is much better for young women. My male students don’t bat an eye about having a female instructor or female classmates.”
For Sue, manufacturing has been a rewarding career. She enjoys seeing the fruits of her labor at the end of the day and found value in the stability, flexibility and salary welding has provided.
“Being a woman is not a limitation,” she says. “You can be anything you want.”
Hear Her Story: Sue Silverstein
Sue Silverstein stands 5 feet tall and weighs in at an a slight 95 lbs. She studied ballet for 9 years. She is also a welder.
“You don’t have to be masculine to excel in manufacturing,” she says, laughing. “I’m a welder and I wear makeup!”
After graduating from high school at age sixteen, Sue wasn’t sure where to turn next. Waiting tables in Milwaukee, Wisconsin felt like a dead end. So when she got an opportunity to take a job on an assembly line at a local factory, she jumped at the chance.
The job appealed to Sue. Her father was an inspector at an automobile factory and he used to sneak her into the factory on Saturdays to let her check out the assembly lines. He also had a shop in the basement where he taught her to work with her hands.
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| Sue Silverstein |
So when a training program opened at a larger plant, Sue signed up. There were four women in the program and they were all assigned to different shifts.
“I started working in manufacturing in the late 70s and 80s,” Sue says, “when workers, especially female workers, were not protected from hostile working conditions by the laws on the books today. I felt pressured to constantly prove myself and never show weakness.”
Eventually, Sue completed a sheet metal apprenticeship and earned her title as a certified welder. The certification meant job security as Sue successfully navigated the landscapes of the manufacturing and construction industries.
Sue overcame the obstacles she faced by finding many different, unexpected ways to excel at her job. For instance, her ballet training proved handy with the balance she needed to complete jobs on construction sites.
Over the course of her career, she encountered many expert welders who were very knowledgeable, but who struggled to instruct others on improving their skills or completing a job. Those experiences led Sue to pursue a master’s degree in education and take a position as a welding instructor at the Milwaukee Area Technical College where, today, she serves as the program chair.
“I enjoy helping students become the best that they can be, she says. “Shaping the talents of students is just as exciting as shaping metal.”
Sue reports that she usually has about one female student per year. She notes that she would like to start recruitment earlier in order to attract more women.
“The environment in manufacturing today is very different than when I started out,” Sue says, “It is much better for young women. My male students don’t bat an eye about having a female instructor or female classmates.”
For Sue, manufacturing has been a rewarding career. She enjoys seeing the fruits of her labor at the end of the day and found value in the stability, flexibility and salary welding has provided.
“Being a woman is not a limitation,” she says. “You can be anything you want.”
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