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Women's Success Stories
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WENDY KAHAN-WRIGHT "You have to get aggressive, step forward, and get the job done. Usually, as soon as people see your ability, the fact that you’re a woman goes away. You just have to kind of shrug off [people’s misconceptions about what you can do].” |
Career Quick Look
| Salary: |
Electronics technician: $23-28/hour
Part-time instructor: $78-91/hour for lecture, $53-69/hour for labs |
Education: |
| Years in Field: | 22 years | El Camino College: A.S. degree in Computer Technology (now called Electronics and Computer Hardware) |
| City/State: | Gardena, CA | Cal State University, Long Beach: courses toward B.S. degree in Occupational Studies |
Getting Started: Wendy Kahan Wright was exposed to electronics throughout her childhood, because her father taught the subject for many years at El Camino College, and often worked with electronic devices at home. Her older brother also worked in electronics. Since she already knew a bit about the field, she decided to take some electronics classes, which helped her realize how much she liked working with her hands. Soon, electronics became so interesting to her she decided to stick with it. Her father and brother were both role models for her, and have continued to support her work. “My dad is 100% thrilled to the bone that I have this position at El Camino.” Her father is retired now, but Wendy still talks shop with him and her brother at family gatherings.
When she graduated from high school in 1986, she got a job as an attendant at the tool room at El Camino College, and was later promoted to electronics technician. In 1989, she got a second job at a pneumatics controller company called Conveying Services, where she repaired computer controlled robots. She held down both these jobs until Conveying Services closed in 1995. In about 1999 or 2000, she was asked to teach her first course at El Camino. She found she loved teaching, and she continues today as a part-time instructor teaching electronics and robotics.
Education: Wendy attended electronics classes at El Camino College, and completed a certificate as an electronics technician. Later, in 1991, she received her Associate Degree in Computer Technology (this program has since been renamed Electronics and Computer Hardware). She found the professors at El Camino outstanding, and she appreciated that the program incorporated great hands-on labs to bring learning to a real-world level. The equipment was kept current and met the standards in industry at any given time. She credits her education at El Camino with giving her the knowledge and skill she needed to be able to advance into a teaching position and share her knowledge with others.
Wendy also took courses at Cal State University, Long Beach. She is now about 13 units shy of her B.S. degree. The courses she has taken through the years raised her confidence in exploring how things worked, so she was able to learn on her own much of what she knows about technical repair.
Greatest Professional Achievement: Wendy describes her greatest professional achievement as a teacher as “walking into Raytheon [an electronics corporation] and seeing one of my students pulling down a $100,000 a year position. I must have done something right because they’re working at a major company and making really good money.”
Barriers: Although Wendy was the only female in her electronics classes, she didn’t encounter any barriers at El Camino. However, she sometimes felt invisible at her job in private industry. When she arrived at a company to repair a robot they often assumed she was not a skilled technician and would address their comments to the male in her company. “You have to get aggressive, step forward, and get the job done,” says Wendy of her successful efforts to change these misconceptions. “Usually, as soon as people see your ability, the fact that you’re a woman goes away. You just have to kind of shrug it off.”
Working with Men: “I’ve learned a lot about how guys think,” says Wendy of her experience spending most of her adult life in a male oriented environment. For a long time, she noticed that conversation stopped when she entered a room. At first, she thought they must be talking about her. Later, she realized they were talking about something they weren’t comfortable talking about with a woman in the room. That all changed over time as they adjusted to one another. “Guys are gonna be guys – go with it, have fun with it,” she advises.
Advice for Women: Wendy suggests that any woman considering a technical field decides up front whether she’s comfortable with a hands-on experience. “Most technical positions are going to expect you to take something apart and work with tools. You have to want to work with your hands.” She believes that the soldering skill required in the field is more artistic than technical, and she believes women typically do it better than men. Women who think they don’t want to be in electronics because of the calculations, math and engineering stuff should know that this career will tap their creative side as well.
She also advises women not to be bothered by others’ looks or opinions as they enter a maledominated field, because once they show what they can do the gender difference will fade away. She tells the story of when she was new in her job at the tool room at El Camino. An older male employee tried repeatedly to get her to quit her job. At the time, her older brother advised her to call him on his behavior. So each time he harassed her, she stopped what she was doing and confronted him, saying, “Look, why don’t you explain exactly what you mean by that.” It worked, and the behavior stopped.
Typical Workday/Environment: Wendy holds down two part-time jobs at El Camino, which total close to 50 hours per week when you include the prep and follow-up time for her teaching job.
Instructor. She teaches robotics and electronics on Tuesday and Thursday each week, including three hours during each afternoon at a local (rotating) high school, and three hours each evening at El Camino. Each three-hour session includes about 1/3 time in lecture, and 2/3 time in handson lab work, which she organizes and supervises. Although she is paid only for the time spent lecturing and in the lab with students, Wendy spends a great deal of time each week in preparation and follow-up activities.
Because of the rapid change in this field, she frequently develops new lesson plans to address new technologies, which may include computers, robots, cell phones, radio-controlled cars, automated teller machines, and other communications devices. For example, to teach about a robot, she may have to first build a robot herself, see how it works, and then create a lesson plan that will help students understand what she has learned. She also grades papers, and prepares and grades tests during her non-teaching time. When she is teaching, she dresses professionally yet casually, usually wearing slacks, since her role may include working with equipment.
Electronics Tool Room Technician. Wendy works in the tool room on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and all day on Monday and Wednesday. In this role, Wendy is responsible for all the equipment that students use in her department. She purchases new equipment, components, and supplies, and also trouble-shoots and, where possible, makes equipment repairs. Because she primarily works alone and does not interact with the public in the tool room, she can dress more casually in jeans and t-shirts.
Career Ladder: For a part-time instructor, the next career step might be to a full-time teaching position, and then a department chair position. The department chair role includes extensive responsibilities for extracurricular work, committee membership, and conferences. Each position has educational requirements and may be competitive depending on the availability of candidates.
Since there is only a single electronics technician position similar to Wendy’s at El Camino, the career ladder in-house is limited to regular pay increases, but the skills learned could be applied in other environments.
Professional Associations: Wendy belongs to the California Industrial Education Association (CIEA). She also belonged to an electronics association for community college teachers in the past, and found the conferences useful for staying current.
Hobbies: In her spare time, Wendy enjoys travel, scuba diving, remote-controlled cars, dragster car racing, and ocean kayaking.
 Copyright 2010 National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science | http://www.iwitts.com |