Girls can do anything

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 39, 17 March 1987, Page 5

Girls can do anything

Donna McGrath of Raetihi has proved the popular belief that 'girls can do anything', by taking on a 4-year apprenticeship in automotive engineering, a job usually favoured by males. Donna worked for 12 monthsat Reynolds Motors in Ohakune as a service station attendant and said she got tired of working with vehicles while being ignorant of the mechanics of them. She spent her first week with her head under a bonnet, getting blisters on her hands and ruining her nails, but says she loved it! "The work is very strenuous and I'm always extremely tired by the end of the day, but the work is so interesting — there's always something new," she said, Donna said she has yet to gef used to wearing steelcapped boots around, which make her legs very tired. "Everyone's been very encouraging. 1 feel that we (women) have something to prove to men, that we are just as capable at doing heavy manual labour," she said. Donna is the first woman in the Wanganui area to be accepted into an automotive engineering apprenticeship under a new apprenticeship scheme.