Friday, February 8, 2008

REAL WOMEN IN MEN'S WORK...ALICE


Alice Suszynski
Cabinetmaker/Bench Carpenter
Aunt Alice’s Woodshop
‘Building beauty with her own two hands’
Diminutive Alice Suszynski has been a journeyman cabinetmaker for many years. Pixie-ish, and not much over a hundred pounds, she doesn’t look the part, but she can single-handedly build perfect cabinets, shelves and counters for offices, entertainment areas, and kitchens. She makes beautiful custom furniture, too.
Alice realized she was pioneering the field for women when, on applying to Chicago’s apprentice carpentry program she received a form letter notifying her of the aptitude test date. The very official letter began ‘Dear Sir’. How many guys do you know named Alice?
Alice became the first member of the Chicago Carpenter’s Union. This was a surprise to her. She thought becoming a carpenter was no big deal. “I like doing offbeat things.”
When Alice graduated from high school, she thought about college, but was anxious to leave home and the control of her parents. She took a bottom-rung office job, and knew very soon that it wasn’t for her. While reading Eric Fromme’s The Art of Loving, she was intrigued at the thought of a job where she could carry the process of crafting from start to finish, as he described. Which careers offered this ‘no disconnect’ feature? Shoemaker? Carpenter? Well, she’d always loved blocks as a kid. Suddenly, “I knew I wanted to build”. Carpenter it was! Her parents were stunned. Her uncle, an architect, urged to her become a cabinetmaker, not a rough or finish carpenter. Once Alice joined the union, they arranged for school one day a week and got her a job on the South side of Chicago. Talk about entry level. A whole year of floor sweeping. “It was horrible. I think they made me do it on purpose, to see if I’d be tough enough to hang in there.” But over the three-year apprenticeship, she met mentors who got her to think like a cabinetmaker, read drawings, and set up large equipment.
After her apprenticeship and her marriage, she and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon, where she went straight to the Portland Union to register. During her meeting, the interviewer inquired, “What makes you think you’re qualified for this job?” Surprised, she gamely outlined the particulars of her cabinetmaking experience in Chicago. The light finally dawning, the man asked “You’re not here for the secretarial position, are you?”
Here’s how Alice describes her job. “Measuring. Thinking. Using hand and power tools. Most of all, deciding and planning the process to accomplish a task. As a journeyman, you’re on your own. You may need to learn to direct a helper. There’s a certain amount of lifting, but not as much as you’d think. It’s manageable. Today’s cabinets are in smaller modules, and we have carts with leverage that help us lift pieces onto the saw.”
What does Alice love about her job? The creativity involved, and the opportunity to exercise her natural meticulousness and affinity for detail. Then, of course, there’s the satisfaction of seeing the completed projects (I saw a couple of her finished furniture pieces, and they were gorgeous).
Are there drawbacks to the job? “It’s pretty stressful because small mistakes have big consequences.” She was in the midst of a dilemma as we spoke. A customer was displeased with the shade she had chosen for her now-stained wall unit.
I asked Alice whether being a woman had held her back. “A long time ago, guys seem sort of appalled to have a woman in the shop, but that has really changed. I don’t get much reaction now.” As for clients, she did remember one incident where she had worked up a very thorough proposal for a couple from the Middle East. The wife was delighted with the plans, but the husband put the brakes on when he learned Alice would be doing the work herself. Such incidents are so rare as to be insignificant. “Most people just say,‘You do the work? Wow!’”
Alice had plenty of advice to give girls thinking of entering the trade. “It takes a girl who’s not afraid to use her strength. You must be able to think for yourself, be inclined to say, ‘I can do that by myself.’ Show initiative. Be ambitious. A curious, observant person will naturally want to get to the next step in the craft. It helps to be meticulous.”
According to Alice, the cabinetmakers making the most money are those with business instincts. “You kind of have three choices. You can keep working for someone else in a large shop. You can take it to the next level and go out on your own, as I did, or you can hire others and expand. I didn’t really have that kind of business acumen, so I think I hit kind of a ceiling as far as the earning potential.”
Alice had one more great tip. “I saw a few other women get into this at about the same time I did. They seemed to bitch a lot about the work, and the guys they worked with. In this job, it’s way better to be clever and classy in your response, not whiny and complaining. Instead of creating extreme hatred, it’s much better to figure out a way to inspire mild embarrassment!”

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