As the first female IBEW member at Cook, Sally Barber retires leaving a lasting impression on craft co-workers

“Pioneer Woman” may be the last thing long-time IBEW craft member Sally Barber would call herself. In fact, she’d probably bristle at the phrase. But to the many friends and co-workers she has met over the years, she’s all that, and a whole lot more.

On Wednesday, October 16 a standing-room-only crowd in the Maintenance Outage Facility at the Cook Nuclear Plant bid a proper lunchtime farewell to the Mishawaka, IN electrical worker — complete with celebratory cake — as she spent her last day at Cook, in the union and in the industry. Sally’s tenure dates back to 1974 where she was the first female apprentice in Local 153, and subsequently the only union woman here on site at Cook for quite some time back in those days.

“Being a female member of the craft during those early years was difficult nearly everywhere you went,” Sally said. “Acceptance came hard. In some places you even had to share the toilets with the men, or use the port-a-john if you wanted privacy. There were nice people and not-so-nice-people, and you heard the word ‘no’ a lot.”

But for Sally, pushing past the difficulties wasn’t so much about having something to prove as it was about having something to do.

“I needed to take care of my family,” she explained. “I needed the work, and the benefits this kind of job provided met those needs.” Yet it wasn’t really all about the paycheck.

“I just love this kind of work,” Sally admitted. “When I was younger, all I wanted for Christmas was tools. I love working with my hands. It’s something I know how to do and I do it well, just like all of the great people I get to work with here at Cook — both women and men.”

Regardless of her gender, Sally is extremely proud of the craft she represents — “the finest people in America,” she says — and she wants those continuing beyond her retirement to remember that there are no limits to what you can do.

“It was my destiny to do what I’ve done in life. But above all, I had to believe that I could.”

“Pioneer Woman” Sally Barber