Fed up female!

When you are new to trucking it’s pretty much an all or nothing gig. Once you have around two years experience it becomes easier to find the sort of job that may suit your life style.
I ran five years team with a lady friend that started trucking in the 70’s. She was a rare bird in those days. She started doing payroll for a trucking company that two of her brothers drove for, so she got to see their pay cheques and figured she’d like to make that kind of money. Her brothers taught her to drive truck. She got her license on a Saturday. Showed the boss on Monday morning and he promptly fired her. They could get away with that back then.
But she persevered and got a shot driving at another outfit.
It’s probably easier today, as staying in touch with family and friends is easier than back then.
I use to go on long drives for my holidays. I’m in Canada. But I drove to Florida, another trip to the Grande Canyon over to San Diego then up the west coast. Another trip to Alaska. After all of that I figured I might as well go on the big road trucking and at least get paid for my adventures.
Initially I drove straight truck (just a 3 ton box truck) for over two years, then graduated to semi truck. That’s one way for you to get experience and be home nightly.

 

Which city/town are you in?
If you can pass a drug test, plenty of trucking jobs available. Some you can take the dogs with you.

 

Lots of women in trucking these days. As with anything, females need to be more cautious for their safety than men. But, I don't think your safety is any worse being a truck driver than anything else. I haven't seen any knuckle dragging behavior from other truck drivers where women are concerned. Plus, to the best of my knowledge there actually is pay equity for women. Companies seem to care about drivers getting loads delivered safely and on time. Otherwise, age, sex, gender identity, LGBT status, none of that seems to matter much. If you can safely drive a truck. Manuever it where you need it and get to your pick up and delivery places, the other stuff doesn't seem to matter. That's my observation.

 

There is article about Women in trucking on todays NPR news website.

 

Most of the trades , no one cares if you have fallopian tubing or not .

and in most trades , everyone gets paid according to their knowledge, ability and work ethic .

If you are a quick learner , I’d look into all of the trades , not just trucking . Hvac , plumbing , electrical contractors , welding , etc .

Check with the nearest community college or vocational school, to see if they have a CDL class . They will also have plenty of other classes you may be interested in .
And don’t overlook the medical / healthcare stuff .

the in house lab at my docs office has been closed for months because they can’t find a phlebotomist.

 

Go for it

 

If I were you:
I would ask myself if I would be a truck driver because I love driving or is just for a paycheck.
Because there are other careers you can do, most probably, just for a paycheck.
According to BLS, truck driving is the most dangerous job in USA.
About 900 deaths/year and thousands injured.
If I decided that I can/want to do only trucking, then, I would follow Mr. @tscottme posts.
His ability to explain to newbies in simple terms a very complex reality is amazing.
Very few people are doing it like him or better than him.
Once I understand the reality and accept it as it is:
If I want to go forward with it, I would follow Mr. @Chinatown posts to find out what companies are hiring in my area of interest and to make a decision if I need to relocate or not.
Women in trucking are not a novelty in USA, but only represents 3% of the trucking workforce.
For many, many reasons.
If I would be a woman I would try to find why are so few of them in this industry.
The answers are easy to find. Accepting and understanding them, may be harder.
Once I followed and read as much as I can from those posters posts, I would come back to this forum with a defined set of questions and a plan and ask for more input.
Good luck to you.