Girls' Day at DVS Tooling: Carolina Gerlach kicks away stereotypes

As part of Girls' Day, Carolina Gerlach from Balve is a guest at DVS Tooling in Hemer today. The twelve-year-old is in the seventh grade at Balve's municipal secondary school. Three internships await her during her school career. The first is Girls' Day. The Federal Office for Civil Society Tasks organizes this day of action once a year. Usually in April, girls are invited to get a taste of supposedly typical male professions. The aim is to improve women's employment, career and earning opportunities in the medium term. However, when Carolina looks around, she notices that it doesn't seem to be just men working here.

Two out of five employees are female. “We no longer have such a sharp distinction between male and female jobs,” explains Oliver Prior, who guides Carolina through this department.

The situation is different in sales, for example. It's mainly women who work there, he continues. Carolina would actually like to become a nursery school teacher. She does not see this work as a woman's job. Now that she has gotten to know DVS Tooling a little better, she can also imagine starting an apprenticeship here. She would be following in the footsteps of her father Michael, who also works here. She didn't really know the company before her “taster day”. Now she has already inspected the “diamond gears” that are produced here, including the grinding machine and the milling machine. “I like the laser best!” says Carolina. After starting her working day at 6 a.m. today, the student is pleased that people in the tool industry get off work early. The file falls at 2.30 p.m. and then it's back to school tomorrow.