...bring a greater economic return compared with more traditional employment opportunities for women with only a high school diploma or its equivalent.
A 1999 poll of women in trades by the Northern Research Institute, a Yukon, Canada-based group, cited better wages as the leading reason for women to enter the industry.
Selena Cryer, a Local 584 journeywoman ironworker in Tulsa, Okla., entered an apprenticeship program, paid her dues and worked as a traveling apprentice for a year before she learned a man at the union hall had pocketed her dues and never entered her into the system.
“I guess he didn’t think I would make it through the first year,” says Cryer. “Since I lost that first year I [spent] an extra year in the apprenticeship. But I really loved what I was doing.”
Many women—like Laura Kelber, a former Local 3 electrician in New York City—say they end up quitting because of jobsite conditions that are oppressive. While Kelber was able to gain some respect at worksites, when a project ended, she says she would be back to square one on the next job.
“Women are mad as hell about being shut out of the construction industry,” she says.
The rejection of women from the skilled trades has a deep history linked to intentional union exclusivity, says Moccio, author of “Live Wire: Women and Brotherhood in the Electrical Industry.”
Embedded social mores prevent school-age girls from taking advantage of the opportunities in the skilled trades, Harris says. They aren’t even considered by most recruiters, and most girls do not consider a trade career as realistic. It’s not what they have been taught.
“We’re up against a centuries-old social stigma,” says Harris. “We show [when recruiting] the girls images of female construction workers. These are images no one is putting out in modern society.” To that end, the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust has funded a calendar featuring female ironworkers, thus highlighting their contributions to the construction industry.
Harris says one big problem is the number of women in any given trade in any given area is usually minuscule, so they don’t have a chance to galvanize change. Around the world, SBT is trying to bring them together.
“We recently connected two organizations [that were] unaware of each other in Australia—from here in Washington! We are connecting women from all over the world,” says Harris. “We have spent almost five years working to network to build the largest team of those ‘needles in a haystack’ to help change the sadly dormant numbers.”
Moccio says the organizations are tremendously helpful, but they won’t be able to change anything alone.
“A lot of women are interested in these jobs,” says Moccio. “But the only thing that can get them into the trades is to have federal oversight committees.”
“Bricklaying is hard work,” Casillas says, “This trade is hard on the body. It beats you up regardless of your gender. You don’t get sick days. You have to be dependable or you’ll be expendable.”
