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Women In Woodworking

Traditionally, woodworking has been a male dominated occupation, as far back as biblical times, it was the always the male, who made a living as a woodworker. It has only been in the past several decades that women have been recognized for making inroads into woodworking. I personally think it’s about time.

Woodworking is not a secret society, nor is it a private club, with a secret handshake. Today’s woodworking is a multi million-dollar business, and anyone who has an interest in it should be welcomed. The more people involved the better for all of us. Woodworking, like most things we deal with everyday, is constantly evolving. New ideas bring about new tools and processes. It is very foolhardy to think only the male mind can bring about change to the woodworking world.

If you do not think women are important to today’s woodworker, just take at look at, Rockler, one of North Americas largest Woodworking Supply companies. The CEO is Anne Rockler Jackson. If that is not important, I don’t know what is. The stories of women in woodworking doesn’t begin or end there.

Thinking back to the stories about World War II, who do you think ran the milling machines, lumberyards and hardware stores while the men were over in Europe or South East Asia? Women, of course. We have all heard of”Rosie the Riveter”. Well women did more then just build airplanes. They built homes, made furniture, and learned the Art of Woodworking. I am very sure that many very skilled and crafted women came out of that era.

Moving forward 60 years, to today’s women woodworkers, I like to think that some maybe are the daughters and granddaughters of those women, and that the skills and artisanship have been passed to another generation.

Despite, all of all the involvement of Women in Woodworking, women do not get equal exposure in the media. Take a hard look at any of the DIY channels on TV. I can only think of one or two where women have an active part of actually building something. On the rest, the women’s role is always that of the decorator, or consultant. Before you get upset, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a decorator. It is just that not all decorators are female, and not all crafts people are male.

I recently saw a PBS show, on America Master’s. The shows detailed the work of some of the great craftspeople in America, and guess what? Some of the best work was by women. I want to see more of them.

Oh yeah, one more thing, are men and women woodworkers the same? The answer should be easy. Of course not. There are physical differences, thank God for that, but some of the practical differences are that women’s hands tend to be smaller then their male counterparts. Tool manufactures need to keep that in mind, Not every tool has to weight 20 Lbs, and the handles don’t all have to be the largest possible. Wait a minute…. now that I think about it, I would not mind those changes either!

Thanks for listening and check back soon. We’ll be adding more as time goes by. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions for anything you’d like to see on this site.

Anne Rockler Jackson

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