In 2022, Hilary Peach wrote a book called THICK SKIN: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood, about her twenty-plus years working as a pressure welder for the Boilermakers Union.

The book is a deep dive into the secret language and hidden culture of one of the most esoteric heavy construction trades: boilermaking. Ultimately, the core of Hilary’s message is the power of storytelling, and how sharing our stories can keep us from being invisible, a workplace hazard for tradeswomen. She also offers survival tips, discusses the importance of allies, and how finding connections and common ground leads to success.

Hilary will read from her book and host questions and discussion about her two-decades of experience as a transient welder and one of the only women in the Boilermakers Union.

Light refreshments provided by Oregon Tradeswomen.

Buy the Book!

Copies of her book will be available for sale at the event. Can’t make it? You can purchase THICK SKIN through Anvil Press.

About the Author:

For more than two decades, Hilary Peach worked as a transient welder – and one of the only women – in the Boilermakers Union.  Distilled from a vast cache of journals, notes, and keen observations, Thick Skin follows Peach from the West Coast shipyards and pulp mills of British Columbia, through the Alberta tar sands and the Ontario steel belt, to the colossal power generating stations of the eastern seaboard of the United States. At times edging up to the surreal, Thick Skin: Field Notes From A Sister In The Brotherhood, is a collection of strange stories carefully told, in tenderness and ferocity, for anyone who has spent time in a trade, or is curious about the unseen world of industrial construction.

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