If a woman’s place is in the home, at Aimee Bourdon’s house she’d be framing a new kitchen and designing furniture rather than cooking at the stove. The 2002 Career & Technical School Construction Trades alumna and current SUNY Delhi Cabinetmaking student became interested in her field while helping her mother and stepfather remodel their kitchen a few years ago.

"We were ripping out old flooring and framing the kitchen," Bourdon related, "They asked me to lay out the new cabinets on a piece of paper. I also helped put up the trim."

When the time came to plan Bourdon’s junior year at Cobleskill-Richmondville High School, Kelly Baumann recalled her daughter’s affinity for woodworking and suggested she enroll in Building Trades at Career & Tech’s Schoharie campus. Bourdon resisted at first.

"My mom had to push me. While I prefer working with my hands to sitting at a desk all day," Bourdon said, "I was nervous because the class is usually all guys. I thought they would act like jerks. I was wrong, though. They were really respectful."

Building Trades teacher Doug Harple, who now teaches at the Albany campus, recalls Bourdon as "a hard-working student with a real love for working with wood and who paid close attention to detail." Her positive, can-do attitude and efforts, he added, "set an example which benefited the entire class."

"When you are interested in a career, it is something you just have to stick up for," Bourdon stressed. "Sometimes the guys at Career & Tech could be difficult, but I would say it was due to immaturity rather than meanness or the fact that I was a girl."

Bourdon is still the only female student in most of her classes at SUNY Delhi, where the reputation of a female professor, Nancy Macdonald, attracted her to the school. Macdonald’s Design and Joinery class is Bourdon’s clear favorite, and her Career & Tech education has enabled her to succeed in a class of mostly seniors. "Aimee is one of my top students because she came into the program well prepared and does the work," Mcdonald said. "She also has really good people skills that enable her to fit in with a class of male students, which can be tough."

Bourdon will complete her studies at Delhi in June with a one-year Certificate in Cabinetmaking. While further education is an option, Bourdon said she seeks "a position in woodworking under someone’s wing where I can develop my skills in trimwork and furniture-making and work with different designs rather than in repetitive production." Owning a business or being part of a small firm are among Bourdon’s dream jobs.

"There are incredible opportunities for women in the construction industry, and employers are actively recruiting them as an untapped resource," noted Maryella Bell, who teaches Construction Technology at Career & Tech’s Schoharie campus. "Employers recognize the value of investing in an educated workforce and minimizing employee turnover. Construction involves increasing amounts of academics such as chemistry and math and has become so technologically driven, that it is no longer a job that is worked from the shoulders down. It’s not about just physical size or strength, and students today are not as hung up on gender as people of my generation or older."

Construction and related fields, according to Bell, offer women substantial salaries, independence and the ability to advance through education, apprenticeships and certifications such as those offered through the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), upon which the Career & Tech curriculum is based. Bell speaks from experience: She formerly worked as an engineering technician and inspector, construction designer and drafter, contractor’s foreman, and solid waste engineering planner, positions held predominantly by men.

Bourdon’s mother concurs about the field’s potential for women. "Construction pays better than many occupations that employ mostly women," said Kelly Baumann. "Aimee is a good student, and Career & Tech offered her the opportunity to focus on her interests and talents while getting a start on a solid and rewarding career."

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