I have been reading Pride and a Paycheck, http://www.prideandapaycheck.com/ an online magazine by and for trades women for years. It comes out 4 times a year, and you can sign up for free for the e-mag to be delivered to your email address.  I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Sue Doro, its creator, and find out the inside scoop!

ME(KAHLA): HI SUE, SO HOW WOULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF?

Sue: Well, I have never really called myself a writer. But, I am! I have been writing since I was 12 years old. Lately I have been trying to do more of it!  Publishing and editing is something that I did and I'm doing. My favourite thing is finding other writers.  I love networking! I just love it.  I like to connect people together with common interests.

K: IS THAT HOW YOU CREATE PRIDE AND PAYCHECK?

Sue: Yes it's all created by and for tradeswomen.  I call it worker writing. There have been people writing about workers for a long time, but in the 60s people like me started writing about being a worker. From the inside.  The thing about worker writing is its writing by people that didn't even know they could write, about working.  It inspires people into the trades, because they can see what it's like to work the job.  

Pride and a Paycheck just fell right into it. Most of the women that have written for the magazine do not consider themselves writers. Some of them you have to get on their tail to write another thing. They feel like they wrote that one thing and that's it, they don't want to write another thing. So it's a challenge for me to get them to write more, and probably about half of them do.

www.prideandapaycheck.com
www.prideandapaycheck.com

K: SO WHEN DID PRIDE AND A PAYCHECK START?

Sue: When I was working for the Department Of Labour Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program, I got injured on the job, carpal tunnel, neck and back problems.  So I needed to change my job.  A friend of mine and I created a job, a newsletter for women in trades, paid for by the San Francisco Women's Foundation.  Thus the creation of Pride and a Paycheck.  In the beginning it was mailed out to schools, training programs, and people who signed up for subscriptions. It was always free. It evolved into becoming a business and an e-mag, and I now pay for it with ads, so I am always looking for ads to print! 22 years later, it's still going.

IN THE WORDS OF SUE:

“Within the pages of Pride and a Paycheck Magazine are the faces of women in the trades. Their words are Work Pieces. Their voices are fundamental tools serving the most useful purpose of telling the world what it’s like to be blue collar female workers. Their words are change agents working in the repair departments of human conditions. Pushing and nudging consciousness to higher levels of thought. Trashing the obsolete and dangerously backward ideas. Their bodies direct their words. Their actions shine a spotlight on the future of women in the trades of any ethnicity and sexual preference. They are INSIDERS in their reportage. They tell it like it is….and they tell it like it should be. They recruit and support sisters from the INSIDE. Enjoy the magazine and support it with your donations. Please.”  -  Sue Doro, Editor/Owner    tradesis@aol.com

A Worker Writer

Is like a pregnant midwife

Assisting at a birth while

Her own water’s breaking

She helps deliver

In between

Moans, pants and

Deep breaths watching

Blood mix with her own pain

She works

When she'd

Rather be creating

Yet she knows

She can't afford

To create

Without working

Sue Doro© Oakland CA 2009

Sue Doro on the job at the Milwaukee Road in 1976
Sue Doro on the job at the Milwaukee Road in 1976

Sue Doro, Editor and Owner of Pride and a Paycheck magazine is a national expert on the topic of women in the skilled blue collar trades.  Sue was the first and only female machinist at the Milwaukee Road Railroad in the 1970’s and ’80s.  She is also an author whose work is included in more than 100 anthologies as well as scholastic text books. Doro has had 4 books published on the topic of women working in the trades. Of Birds and Factories; Heart Home and Hard Hats; Blue Collar Goodbyes, and Sugar String. She is a past Executive Director of Tradeswomen Inc. (Oakland CA) and has worked as a Compliance Officer for the U.S. Department of Labor, OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance) where she specialized in helping construction employers with Federal contracts recruit and retain females.  Find more of her writing on the Pride and a Paycheck site, and do be in touch with her to collaborate for articles! See an interview with her here: https://vimeo.com/275461679

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