"You can be loud!"

Experience craftsmanship, meet role models: How girls discover new paths at their school's career orientation day with "Inspiring Girls."

This article is part of the special feature on women in the trades.

Sssstt – the cordless screwdriver hums, and the wood screw is already firmly embedded in the chipboard. Thirteen-year-old Serap has done it on her second try. She beams, and her classmates applaud enthusiastically. "Are you enjoying this?" asks Zelma Schütz, an apprentice at the Heimlich carpentry workshop in Cologne . "Totally!" Serap exclaims, laughing. The other girls are also intrigued and now want to test their own skills. Patiently and with a calm voice, Zelma demonstrates how to hold the screw and position the tool correctly. The 23-year-old, herself in her second year of apprenticeship, has brought tools and materials from her workshop so that the students from the Geschwister-Scholl-Realschule in Cologne can try everything out.

Zelma , a role model for the " Inspiring Girls" initiative , is at the school's career orientation day , showing the eighth-grade girls what a carpenter does in her daily work. "You can be loud," she encourages one student, who is initially quite hesitant, hammering a nail into a board. The 14-year-old then hammers away with considerably more force, her enjoyment evident.

Zelma Schütz at the workshop with the students Photo: © Anne Kieserling

The idea behind "Inspiring Girls" is to encourage girls to pursue career paths beyond traditional female roles, rather than just pursuing typical female jobs . The initiative sends women working in male-dominated professions to schools and businesses for short workshops . There , these role models share insights into their work – for example, as programmers, entrepreneurs, and craftswomen . In doing so, they provide students with examples and motivate them to explore different career options and not just stick to the well-trodden paths.

More women in the trades!

This aligns well with the skilled trades' campaign to attract more young women to apprenticeships. There are still too few female tradespeople , especially in traditionally male-dominated professions. A change in mindset is needed – among parents, teachers, and society as a whole!

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At least there's some good news: A recent study by the Competence Center for Securing Skilled Workers shows that there were more female master craftspeople last year . The largest percentage increase was recorded in civil engineering and construction – certainly not a traditionally female domain. To encourage more young women to consider traditionally male-dominated professions, what's needed is stereotype-free guidance , a gender-equitable training culture in companies and vocational schools, practical experiences like Girls' Day , and above all, visible female role models.

Build an entire car yourself 

For the two craftswomen, who are serving as role models today , encounters in their everyday lives were also the decisive impetus for their career choice. Zelma Schütz helped with the setup at a festival and enjoyed it so much that she switched from her literature studies to carpentry.

Bodywork specialist Victoria Schneider also came to the trade from a different background: The 28-year-old worked as a kindergarten teacher for several years before deciding to pursue an apprenticeship at the Hürter bodywork specialist in Cologne . The idea came to her when she restored her own 40-year-old Mercedes . Today, she also leads a workshop at the secondary school and has brought along her boss's master craftsman's piece as a demonstration: a self-built convertible model. She uses it to explain what good welds look like.

Victoria Schneider shows the girls how to work on body panels. Photo: © Anne Kieserling

"I love restoring classic cars. You need a lot of creativity to repair old cars because every one is different. There's no one-size-fits-all approach," says Victoria. When she asks the group who knows what a car body builder does, she only sees blank stares. "If I know the chassis number, I can build an entire car by myself at the end of my apprenticeship ," the craftswoman explains.

The students are impressed. Now they get to handle the special tools , use the tin snips, and hammer on metal. "I like to let out my frustrations this way," the trainee emphasizes, highlighting the added benefit of hammering for the soul. "Just give it a good whack!" she encourages the girls. Here, too, their initial hesitancy quickly disappears, and they enthusiastically hammer away at the sheets of metal they've brought with them. "You're all very accurate; even with small pieces of metal, not a single finger gets caught," Victoria praises.

Role models inspire

Like Zelma, she has been given half a day off by her employer to present her profession as a role model at school. At the end, she tells the students about Womenwho went their own way early on in a profession dominated by men and groundbreaking contributions made by Bertha Benz, the German pioneer of the automobile, who made the world's first car journey in 1888; Dorothy Levitt, the British racing driver who invented the rear-view mirror and campaigned vehemently for women's right to drive; and Mary Anderson, who received the first patent for a windshield wiper in 1903. 
Truly inspiring role models! Stories like these are encouraging and demonstrate that women can achieve great things in the skilled trades.women in craftsWomen have recently held a relatively constant share of about one third. The proportion of women among apprentices was 14,1 percent in 2023. However, in industrial and technical professions, women often still remain underrepresentedProfessions such as tailor (female share in 2023: 86,1 percent), goldsmith (72,9 percent), and pastry chef (85,0 percent) rank high. Even though hairdressing remains the undisputed leader in terms of apprenticeships, the trades are becoming significantly more female in many areas. Increased sharply is the number of young women who become automotive mechatronics technicians, carpenters, opticians, electronics technicians or painters and varnishers. Almost one in five successful master's certificate was completed by a woman in 2023 – 18,1 percent. (Source: ZDH)

Inspiring Girls, a non-profit, volunteer-run initiative, aims to encourage girls to explore careers beyond traditional gender roles . It collaborates with educational institutions, companies, and associations. The organization connects female students with women from diverse professions who serve as role models , sharing their career paths and daily work experiences in schools and businesses. Female craftspeople are especially welcome! The current Miss Crafts , concrete and demolition technician Katja Lilu Melder, is also involved. The Frankfurt-Rhine-Main Chamber of Skilled Crafts supports the initiative.

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