Page 11 - HIWT Summer 2018 World of Welding

Women in Welding

By: Ross Wyszomierski

Being a woman in the welding industry is a rarity, but René L. Baldwin feels right at home.
Typically, the industry is dominated by males. The American Welding Society suggests that
only 5.8 percent of welders are women.
After high school, Baldwin enrolled in an adult trade school to jumpstart her welding career.
At that time, she decided to sharpen her skills at the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology
in Troy, Ohio and once again found herself in the minority being the only female student.

After leaving HIWT, Baldwin became a boilermaker where she worked for 13 years until the
plant closed. Her next career stop led her to traveling extensively, welding aluminum bus for
substations.
After meeting and marrying her husband, Jamie Schuller, she decided to stay closer to
home and continue to do what
she loved: working with her
hands. Schuller is a farrier by
trade shoeing horses for a living,
so there are plenty of shoes
to choose from as she takes
discarded metal and transforms it into art. After cleaning, heating, bending and
welding, Baldwin is left with unique creations such as signs, tables, lamps, gates,
wine racks, fowers and much more.

Baldwin loves her career and her ability to create, crediting many of her
relationships with colleagues, friends and customers over the years to her
passion for welding. She strongly recommends a career in welding, regardless of
what the statistics say.

In addition to her competitive rife shooting, when Baldwin isnt in the shop,
she and her husband enjoy standing their stallion, raising and showing their all-
around horses.
Photos taken and provided by Shawn Cox

www.welding.org - 11 - 2018 SUMMER ISSUE