For Kathryn Maslanka, 16, to build or not to build is not the question.
Of course she wants to build.
"One of the most satisfactory moments that I have ever had is when I saw somebody reading a book, sitting on a bench that I had put together," she wrote, in a recent essay that won her a trip to New York.
When Traci Resler was 10, her brother was learning car mechanics in high school.
"I would watch him for hours under the hood in the garage," said Resler, 17. "I was mesmerized by the way the pieces fell together and have been in love with puzzles ever since."
The Sentinel High School junior now is considering mechanics as a possible future career. She even job-shadowed a master service technician as part of a school program.
"I've never seen the grease under the nails or calluses on hands as a downfall," she wrote in her award-winning essay. "A job as a service technician or an engineer is appealing to me."
Resler joined Maslanka as one of two winners of an essay contest sponsored by Missoula's Gearing Up, a project of WORD - Women's Opportunity and Resource Development. Gearing Up trains women in nontraditional high-wage occupations such as carpentry, construction, surveying or lead and asbestos abatement.
The two high school students returned this week from a trip to New York City where they attended the founding convention for "Tradeswomen Now and Tomorrow," or TNT, a new national coalition formed to increase emphasis on women's participation in high-wage, technical and blue-collar trades jobs.
They met dozens of women with successful careers in the trades and compiled a collection of compelling stories about hurdles the women faced and overcame. Among them were more than 100 builders, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, contractors and heavy-equipment operators.
Rosie the Riveter, the fictional character who inspired millions of women to work on the home front during World War II, would be proud.
Coincidentally, upon arriving in New York, they were transported to their hotel by a female taxicab driver; about 450 of New York's 10,000 or so cab drivers are females. And on their return to Montana, a female commercial airline pilot flew their plane; about 700 out of about 9,000 United Airlines pilots are females, said Carol Bellin, Gearing Up project director who accompanied the teens on their trip.
"It was kind of funny we were attracting women in all these different roles," Bellin said.
Resler and Maslanka will now create a report and slide show about opportunities for women in trades and technologies; the role models they met; and what they learned about preparing for nontraditional work and breaking down barriers.
They will take their show on the road to area high schools and other classrooms that request their presentation.
Both students returned with a new view of their futures and an appreciation for women who have succeeded in nontraditional careers.
"I was really impressed with how many there were ... there were so many women in so many different jobs," Resler said.
Among the women Resler met and interviewed were a steamfitter from Portland, a plumber/author and an electrician.
"What I saw through them was that they did succeed and they did make it. It was hard - the sexism and racism was hard - but they made it through," she said. "This is a community and you can go anywhere once you have the skills just as long as you stick to it."
Resler said she didn't know they went through so many hardships.
"I never realized they went through so much just to get where they are today," she said.
Bellin said Gearing Up, which has a 12-year track record of providing support services for adult women already employed or seeking a nontraditional job, is now also reaching out to younger girls to inform them of their career options.
The essay contest was part of a larger project sponsored by Gearing Up called "Breaking Through the Barriers." Bellin said the local organization wanted to bring Tradeswomen Now and Tomorrow's new national coalition to life for Montana high school students by making it the centerpiece of an interactive educational project.
"Breaking Through the Barriers" begins within the Missoula County Public Schools system, but it contains elements that could serve as a pilot project that could be made available to interested high schools around the state, she said.
It aims to break down the conceptual barriers girls have formed about the work they see themselves doing in the future, open a window to view the world of nontraditional employment and prepare girls for choosing a more certain path to financial self-sufficiency through trades and technology careers.
Maslanka and Resler haven't decided on their career paths yet, but both said they feel like they have a wider field of options available to them now.
"It really opened up in my mind a lot of opportunities," Maslanka said. "If I decide not to go to college, I now know there is this available for me too. I hadn't really known about these options."
Whatever Maslanka chooses, she wants to make herself available to other girls interested in learning more about careers in the trades.
Though she is leaning toward a career as a chiropractor, she said she guarantees woodworking will always be a big part of her life because of the ease in which she can forget the world and her problems when she walks into a wood shop.
"To me woodworking is a gift that keeps on giving," she said.
Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com.
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