In a similar feis Dave, after finishing my apprenticeship I got a position as a Production Engineer in a company making both air and hydraulic braking systems for commercial vehicles. On day one, in suit and tie, I rocked up with another new starter, and we had a briefing in the meeting room about company history, products etc.

Then like you we were taken through the factory department by department. First one was a fabrication area where they made the air receivers that were mounted on Lorraine's, lots of welding, metal rolling etc. So far so good. The next one was the machine shop with auto lathes and cells of two, three and four machines usually operated by one operator...90% female but they were too busy to take any notice.

Then the final shop and that walk of shame/fear. At the time there were about 300 women assembling vales etc. Some in teams of two or three and others on conveyor production lines. That was a walk through a torrent of jokes, piss taking, and ALL based upon sex. Every day for a couple of weeks various teams would concoct a problem, fault met had query to get us young new guys out into their controlled war zone...sorry workplace. The entire work,force thought it was the funniest thing that ever happened at work. It only lasted a few weeks until some new tooling designers started, and then it was their turn. If current societal norms applied many of these lovely ladies would have been sacked. Happy daze as the old boy would say. 😂⚙⚙😂