Last Sunday, in The
New York Times Magazine cover story, Michael Sokolove reported that in the
world of sports, “Girls are more likely suffer chronic knee pain as well as shinsplints
and stress fractures.” And, according to some research, ankle sprains, hip and back
pain are more prevalent among women athletes, as are concussions in sports that both
sexes play.
I guess I’m lucky. I played soccer for three decades and while my knees do hurt on
occasion, I never tore an anterior cruciate ligament (aka ACL). After a mild sprain
or two, my right ankle isn’t quite as strong as it once was, but I’ve never been on
crutches for more than a week. And no concussions (at least none I remember). What
finally ended the game for me was a snapped wrist during a stint as keeper. I was
in a cast for four months, and my right wrist is now chronically weak – and I’m chronically
afraid of breaking it again. (But for the record, I blocked that shot.)
The difference between men and women, according to experts Sokolove interviewed, is
biometrics. Quite simply, men and women are built differently, and after puberty,
men tend to add muscle whereas women tend to add fat, so women don’t have the same
intrinsic strength to support muscle and ligament movements. And, because of women’s
hip shapes, we tend to run differently. According to some experts, the female body
can be trained to address these differences, which may reduce injuries.
I find a similar issue in woodworking from time to time. At 5'5", I’m of average height
for a woman. But the benches in our shop were built by men, and my bench used to belong
to Editor Christopher Schwarz, who is just shy of a foot taller than am I. So, properly
using a hand plane at that bench is for me impossible, as my elbows are always bent
far more than they ought to be. This is an easy fix — either build my own bench…or
wear high heels. (Thus far, I’ve opted for the heels.)
On the left, I'm wearing 4" heels; on the right, I'm in flats.
Sawing is also a challenge, at least for some women. In “How to Saw” in the Spring 2008 Woodworking Magazine, Chris illustrates proper sawing stance, with his legs and body positioned straight on to the cut, and the elbow of his sawing arm swinging freely past his torso. Let’s just say that if I line my body up in the same way, my sawing arm cannot swing straight back unimpeded. In this situation, I opt to stand a bit left of center…or wear a sports bra. Again, it boils down to a fashion choice.
It took me a long time to get comfortable with our Powermatic table saw, too. Pushing
a board through the cut is quite scary for me. Compared to the guys, my torso is a
lot lower and closer to the blade when I lean forward, and my arms are a lot a shorter.
So, my hand, arms and chest are always closer to the blade. Thus, I have to more often
give up some workpiece control by using a push stick when one of the guys might not
choose to use one.
And then there’s gloves (no, I
don’t wear them at the jointer). One size does not fit all. It doesn’t even come
close. Forget the home center or hardware store. When I need nitrile or vinyl gloves
for messy finishing jobs, I have to drive miles to a medical supply store. And even
then, I’m not always able to find women’s smalls.
Hand-held tools can also be a challenge. We have some drills in our shop that I simply
cannot pick up and use with one hand, due to their weight. And on others, the grip
is far too large to be comfortable. I realize these tools are designed for the “average”
user – but I do wish more manufacturers paid attention to the fact that far more women
are now buying and using tools. I don’t think our relatively smaller frames and hand
sizes are usually factored into that “average.” (Of course, my chronically weak right
wrist doesn’t help matters. Darn – guess I can’t use that Firestorm pictured above.)
In my soccer “career,” until college I was usually the only girl on the team. I wasn’t
the best player, but I could hold my own. By age 16, most of the guys were faster,
stronger and a whole lot bigger than was I. So I compensated by improving my blocking,
tackling and passing. I’ve had to learn some similar “fixes” in woodworking. And of
course, it affords me the opportunity to match my pounce
bag to my shoes.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
Last
Thursday evening after a regular workday, I jumped on a plane to Charlotte, N.C.,
to attend a 
The
LumberJocks and Popular Woodworking partnership to design, build and publish
a winning bookcase has come to a close, and a winning entry has been selected. I must
say this turned into a difficult task for the magazine editors. We didn’t come to
fist-to-cuffs. It wasn’t a knockdown, drag-out, office-clearing brawl. But, each editor
brought to the table their favorites to have them applauded or shot down, one by one.
"I
can’t tell you enough how thrilled I am to be the lucky one that was chosen as the
winner of such a wonderful table saw," wrote Burris.
Sometimes
a search for one thing leads to the discovery of something more interesting and a
change of plans. Friday night I was looking for a book and as I was going through
my shelves I came across a small volume I hadn’t seen in a while. 