Our Women in Manufacturing series highlights the innovative, skilled, and dedicated women who have chosen a manufacturing career. Women hold less than 30% of the global manufacturing jobs, yet represent nearly half of the global workforce. We hope our series encourages more women to consider a career in manufacturing.
If not for her husband, Anna Steademan could have wound up an auto mechanic rather than a mechanical engineer.
“From childhood, I didn’t necessarily know I wanted to be an engineer,” said Steademan, product engineer II, who works in JELD-WEN’s Klamath Falls, Oregon office. “But I did have the drive to create things – and it didn’t matter what those things were. I liked painting and knitting. Since high school, I have owned and worked on old cars. If someone gave me a broken bike, I’d fix it.”
When her husband was studying to become a civil engineer, he suggested mechanical engineering as a career path for her. “He said, ‘You love mechanics and you’re a jack-of-all-trades,’” she recalled. “Mechanical engineers get to learn about everything.”
Steademan earned an associate degree in science with a focus on engineering at a community college in Hawaii before transferring to the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) because she liked the smaller class sizes and hands-on curriculum. The summer before earning her bachelor’s degree, she applied to JELD-WEN for a position that wasn’t available.
“It worked out well because it’s how I met my boss,” she said. “He encouraged me to try again, and within a week of graduation, something had opened up in composite and vinyl.”
Steademan has been in JELD-WEN’s research and development department working on vinyl windows and patio doors for three years.
“A big part of my job is troubleshooting and figuring out how we can identify problems and develop solutions.” Steademan is responsible for the testing and certification process for product line. But her work begins long before testing.
“I actually build the prototype unit,” she said. “And then I take those into testing. We test them for air, water and structural integrity. Once they’ve passed all those tests, we get certification and then we can produce them for the market.”
The certification facility is next door to Steademan’s office. For every test, independent outside certification vendors come in and watch it all unfold. They’re there to verify that JELD-WEN’s products function as they should.
How disappointing is it when a product Steademan has built from scratch does not make the grade? “I’ve tested well over 100 units at this point, and the stress involved with testing is always there,” she said. “I am always so nervous on test days. If it fails, it’s back to the drawing board.”
Steademan is often the only woman in the room.
“I get a lot of questions about being a female in the industry,” she said. “I don’t really notice that I’m the only woman because when you go through engineering school, there are maybe four girls out of 25 guys in your classes. You get conditioned to it. For women who aren’t in this environment, it may seem daunting. But if you’re good at what you do, people will listen to you. There’s nothing I’ve ever been afraid to say here.”
In the unlikely event a customer’s window or door doesn’t perform as promised, Steademan will hear about it. The unit doesn’t physically get sent to her, but a customer service rep will meet with the customer, take photos and send them to Steademan. She and her team will perform an analysis to determine where that issue originated and if it’s a flaw that requires an immediate fix across the board – or if it was a fluke. She and her team ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“When I'm building units, I’m by myself,” she said. “When we’re testing, it’s in a group. Everyone likes to come in and see what’s going on. We try to give everybody a chance to see what everybody else is working on. We’re really open here, so if someone from another department wants to watch a test, they can.”
If she’s creating something entirely new – an exciting opportunity she relishes – she’ll work on it to a point she feels it’s worth sharing with colleagues. And then, she’ll wrangle as many engineers as she can to review and ask questions about the product.
“At that stage, we’re trying to get as many opinions as possible,” she said.
