Rahel Jakob is a carpenter at Schreinerei Room of Life in Lauenen, qualified to train apprentices, plan and build kitchens and undertake a full range of carpentry projects. Rahel spoke to GstaadLife about wood, precision and why Switzerland is leading the way for women in the trades.

What drew you to carpentry?
It goes back to when I was a small child - my father is also a carpenter, so from about year one or two at school, I always said I was going to be a carpenter like my dad. It wasn't a straightforward path; my class teacher questioned whether it was the right choice for me, and I tried two or three other professions before a work placement made it clear. From that point, I committed to many years of training. It was a long road, but so worth it.

Was it unusual for a woman to enter the trades?
Yes, I think it was still considered rather special. In fact, I only found out at the end of my apprenticeship that my master craftsman had told my mother: "We’ll see if this works out. If it doesn't, we'll stop.” But funnily enough, I completed the apprenticeship successfully, and after me, the company basically only took on female apprentices.

What skills are important for your work?
You have to love wood and to have a real fascination for it as a raw material. It’s also very important to enjoy precise, exact work, to have a mathematical understanding, and to have the spatial awareness to read plans. More 3D plans are coming through now, but we still work with 2D a lot. You look at two dimensions – height and width, or length and width – and you have to mentally add the third dimension.

Women in construction and trades seem far more common here than in other countries. Why do you think that is?
I've thought about this too. I recently spent six weeks on a building site in Spain, and our Swiss team of three were the only women on site. But in Switzerland, more and more women are entering these trades, traditional gender roles are breaking down, and that, in itself, makes it more normal for others to follow.

I think it connects to education too. In my grandmother's generation, it was normal for women to train for nothing at all – or if they did, it was considered a great honour. Then came my parents' generation, quite traditional, learning what was considered appropriate for women, with the expectation that they'd end up at home once they had children. And then came my generation, where everything is open to us.

Women pioneers fought for this. The more women who do it, the more will follow. For me personally, I never even asked myself whether I was allowed to do this because I'm a woman. I just did it. So before women were in the kitchen, but now I’m the one building the kitchens.

What gives you the greatest joy in your work?
Seeing a result at the end of the day, being able to say: I made that with my hands. A day in the office gives you a plan, but it's not the same as a day in the workshop with a piece of wood in front of you. Variety matters to me too; five days doing the same thing doesn't suit me. This region gives me so much because craftsmanship is sought after here, the projects are interesting and then there's the mountain life. That's hard to beat.
ANNA CHARLES

Schreinerei Room of Life
+41 33 765 50 55
www.schreinerei-roomoflife.ch