Students at Haven are working to start breaking glass ceilings as early as possible.

Women are weaker and less capable than men. That stereotype has crippled the self-esteem of every woman who has faced sexism in the workplace, especially at jobs that require physical labor or engineering expertise.

According to an analysis from the Center of American Progress, male-dominated fields continue to struggle when it comes to attracting women workers. To combat that mindset that women aren’t capable of “men’s work,” students are exploring a diverse set of career paths. 

From girls in trades, to wrestlers, to robotics engineers — and so many more — here’s how Haven girls are working to close those gaps and inspire future generations of girls to follow in their footsteps. 

Emergency Protective Services Track at DCTS

While most students are battling algebra in the classroom, senior Liliana Fletcher is learning how to save a life.

Fletcher is in the Emergency and Protective services track in the School of Health and Biosciences at Delaware County Technical School, where she also partakes in field training that allows students to get real-world experience. 

“You are going to show up on probably the worst day of someone’s life in some situations. You have to be compassionate,” Fletcher said. “There’s going to be a sick kid who you can’t help, and then you’re going to have to go and pick someone’s grandma off the floor because she fell and she couldn’t get up.”

Fletcher notes that there’s been a more even split between the girls and boys in her class this year, while last year, there were only four girls out of 20+ students. Many of the boys had years of experience in the trades already due to family teaching them, and developed a sort of “bro code” as a result.

“I would say something to the entire class, and no one would say anything. No one would move. And then [a male student] would repeat exactly, word for word, what I said, louder, and everyone would respond to him,” Fletcher said.

Her parents encouraged her to ignore gender stereotypes when considering her future career path. Because of that environment and mindset, the divide between the girls and boys in the trades class surprised her.

“I hadn’t really experienced things like that before. I’ve learned, even if I don’t think it’s a male dominated field, it really is,” she said. “I may not see it that way, but society sees it that way. So I have to realize that everybody else is going to see me in a different light, and I have to just learn to live with that, but also keep fighting it.”

Fletcher urges girls to look beyond gender stereotypes, particularly that women are weaker. She has worked to build her self-esteem by refining her physical strength and emphasizing her mental strengths, like her skill with teaching.

“The equipment is built for a certain kind of person, but as long as you have good technique, that’s all that matters,” Fletcher said. “There’s also gonna be great people who will walk you through everything and help you get good technique in practice so that you can do anything.”

Girls Wrestling Team

Her brothers and her dad all wrestled in high school, and she grew up going to practices with her family. It was only natural that she wanted to be a part of it too.

“​​We were all little, so no one really knew how to wrestle and the difference between men’s and women’s strength wasn’t a ‘thing,’” Harrington said. “It was fun. I was definitely always a little on the outside, just because I was the only girl, but it was still a lot of fun, and I made a lot of good friends.”

The major struggle as she grew up was the natural difference in strength between girls and boys, which led to more difficult matchups for Harrington even if she was in the same weight bracket as her opponents.

“As I got older and kept doing it, it definitely became a lot harder for me to wrestle at the same level as all the guys, because even if my technique was equivalent, my strength was always deficient compared to them,” Harrington said. “That’s why it’s nice to now have a girls team — especially in my freshman year, it was impossible for me to hang with the guys compared to when I wrestled with girls.”

Her struggle on the boys team led to Harrington working to found the new girls team, which started last year at Haven and grew as she started recruiting. PIAA voted to begin sponsoring girls wrestling as an official sport in May 2023. There are now 277 schools competing in the sport.

“It was mainly just my dad and I really advocating to our coaches and to Ms. [Lynelle] Mosley, the athletic director: ‘hey, we want this, we need this, we have the numbers to do it, can we do this?’ And it was just kind of the repetition with bringing it up that we needed, and everyone was really supportive of it,” Harrington said.

Wrestling stuck with Harrington through highs and lows, and she’s grown a lot as an athlete since she started.

“I’ve loved it [since the beginning]. It sparked a joy in me. And even when it was hard, it just felt like something I could never give up. Even on the days where I was dead in practice, it was just something I never could see my life without,” Harrington said.

Robotics Team Member

The Positronic Panthers’ competition robot is made up of multiple complex electronics, protected by plexiglass walls. Those essential walls were built by junior Maisie Sentivan.

Sentivan was interested in the robotics club when she was introduced to it during her freshman year, but didn’t join until after she took the class as a sophomore and became interested in engineering.

“I’ve always been interested in technology and building things… I’d already wanted to do more with the club, and I ended up joining, which gave me even more opportunity, going to competitions, meeting people who are interested in robotics, even people who go to our school who are on other teams. I just really enjoyed it,” Sentivan said. 

However, Sentivan has faced limitations when it comes to how robotics functions as opposed to her other extracurriculars.

“There’s about one other member of the robotics team that’s a girl who regularly comes to meetings, and the environment is definitely different. Sometimes you really have to push to get to do work and get to participate,” Sentivan said.

 Though she loves it, it can be hard to break into a male-dominated field with no prior knowledge.

“It’s kind of harder if you want to ask to learn,” Sentivan said. “There’s a lot more pressure. As a woman, when you’re asking for help, it’s very different, and there are sometimes assumptions you can’t do as much when we’re building the robot. Sometimes you have to push to be able to help build and work on it.”

Even if she faced issues establishing herself in the club, it was worth it for what she got out of it.

“If something stops working, we get to try to solve the problem. [We] look at all the different parts, which I think is fascinating, and it’s so fun to think of ideas for solutions, looking at old robots. Look at how they did it, how you could fix it, and just try to make new things great. I think that’s so fun,” Sentivan said.

Sentivan wants to encourage more girls to join robotics, because she finds it to be an incredibly fulfilling extracurricular.

“I think it’s just such a fun and creative way to use your ideas,” Sentivan said. “Each year we get a challenge that we have to complete, and it’s just a lot of fun.”

Building Trades Track at DCTS

Boerth chose the Building Trades track at Delaware County Technical School for its versatility — the track focuses on mastering all the skills required to build a house. 

Although construction is one of the most male dominated fields, Boerth has found many positive role models to encourage her.

She joined as a sophomore and was the youngest in her cohort, but the senior girls helped to guide her in learning the skills. Boerth also feels inspired by one of her friends, who pushes to overcome her medical disadvantages every day so she can become stronger.

“Skills-wise, she’s taught me a lot of what I know, and also she’s taught me a lot about attitude and how to handle certain situations that could get me down,” Boerth said.

Boerth says that there are teachers that encourage equal opportunities for everyone in the class. This is because the teachers understand the students’ strengths and assign projects accordingly. She hopes that more girls will join the construction trade, even if they don’t plan on pursuing it for a career.

“Historically, the trades have been very male dominated, and so I think even with the growing female percentage in actual trade careers, it’s still a very small minority just because of historic expectations,” Boerth said.

Boerth says that girls tend to try to shrink away, which causes them to be more hesitant to put themselves out there. She encourages people who are not planning on doing DCTS to still take classes like Wood Tech to become more comfortable with working their hands and building self-esteem.

“I’ve definitely learned to not doubt myself as much, because there have been instances where I was really questioning if I actually knew what I was doing, and my product turned out great when I trusted my gut,” Boerth said.

Initially Boerth was uncertain if she would enjoy construction, even though she considers herself a hands-on person. 

“Even if you don’t end up going into the trades or going into construction, they’re still really valuable skills to have. You shouldn’t let something that’s male dominated just deter you from that,” Boerth said. “You’ll never know what friends you’ll make or who’s going to be there, and honestly, the way you interact with people really depends on you how you put yourself out there.”