July Organization to Watch: Tradeswomen Archives: A growing community-building collection of tradeswomen resources FROM tradeswomen

Tradeswomen Archives is a project that uses innovative approaches for the collection of digital and paper materials to build community resources by and from women who work in non-traditional blue-collar jobs.  In order to document our lives, Tradeswomen Archives has set up an interactive Facebook page and a website  for women to upload their stories and images as well as inviting people to send in traditional hard copy materials. The idea behind the project is that women have made history by breaking into non-traditional jobs and we don't want to lose it!

This is a tool for building the community of women in the trades, in longshore, and other male-dominated blue collar jobs, and a resource for activists, researchers, and teachers. Started by four tradeswomen in 2007, the collection houses  the personal papers of Vivian Price, Jane Templin, Pat Williams, Lynn Shaw, and many photos, interviews, videos, and flyers from tradeswomen and tradeswomen groups.  There are international materials in the collection as well as sources from the US.

Please contact Vivian Price vprice@csudh.edu if you have ideas and comments about building the archives, or if you want to donate to the collection, which is housed at California State University Dominguez Hills.

Tradeswomen Archives http://www.tradeswomenarchives.com
Tradeswomen Archives Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tradeswomen-Archives/182586774318

Construction class builds esteem, better-paying careers for low-income women

Construction class builds esteem, better-paying careers for low-income women


By Petula Dvorak






Tuesday, June 1, 2010; B01



Jackelyne Aguilera has had enough of hair, she told me, putting the safety goggles on her head and brushing off the sawdust in her braid. For years, she's worked in a beauty salon, on her feet all day long, endless hours, chattering customers, body aches and for what?

"Maybe $300 a week. That's what I make. Even as a manager," she said before leaning back down to tackle the chisel and door hinge she is learning to mount. "These men who do this work? They make $1,000 a week. I can do that."

It's Saturday morning, and Aguilera, 29, is among a half-dozen women who are working hard in a basement classroom, ready to switch careers to something more lucrative and less traditional.

There's a housekeeper, a couple of nannies, a lab tech and the beautician. Their Langley Park classroom looks like Bob the Builder's dream -- a row of half a dozen faux doorways, another row of toilets, an entire wall of exposed wires and circuit breakers and hanging sockets. There are alcoves waiting for tile.

Migdalia Pavilla, who is 63, swings her knee up to steady the baseboard she is sawing, so she can get that tricky angle so elusive to us do-it-yourselfers.

"It's really not that hard once someone shows you how to do it," she said.
In their nine-week course, they will learn the basics of plumbing, electrical, carpentry, flooring, drywall and tile work.

And what's surprising is how unexpected this still seems seven decades after Rosie the Riveter's star turn during World War II. We're still not used to seeing the carefully plucked eyebrows behind the safety goggles, the dainty pink blouses fluttering in the blowback of a circular saw.

But it makes sound economic sense for low-income women to begin pushing their way into this world. For the most part, this class of women cleans houses, watches kids and waits tables. Anyone who has spent time doing any of those jobs knows two things: It's hard work, and the pay bites.

And yet this is where most nonprofessional women stay, hovering near poverty, often trying to support their children on their own.

Ninety-nine percent of roofers, who make an average of $16.17 an hour, are men. Meanwhile, 98 percent of preschool teachers are women, and that job gets them $11.48 an hour, according to a report on job training for low-income women released this month by the Women's Economic Security Campaign.
Roofing is intense work, for sure. But have you ever spent a day with 25 preschoolers?

And although women have made huge strides in other traditionally male-dominated jobs, from doctors to lawyers to the physically demanding work of firefighters and police officers, construction work is still, oddly, manville.

"Oh, yeah -- when I get on a job, men give me a hard time," said Janaina Rocha, who has been in construction and management for a decade. She's a 36-year-old mother of four, a Brazilian immigrant whose dark, curly hair is sprouting with carpentry pencils and whose command of a hammer is impressive. I wouldn't mess with her for anything.

"They give me a hard time when I get there, but I just ignore it and let my work speak for itself," she tells me before darting over to stop two of her carpentry students from mangling a door.

"The wood has knots in it. Don't hit the knot. It'll crack the whole thing, and you don't want that," she told them.

She is an instructor at the CASA of Maryland construction training program, and she's constantly having to reassure her female students that they are capable of doing this work. "I tell them it's not about how much you can carry, but how you carry it," she said.

The program, which is sponsored by the Washington Area Women's Foundation, is aggressive about sending women into the higher-paying male-dominated fields. Women who take part in the vocational training are not allowed to turn down lawn care or snow shoveling jobs to wait for housekeeping gigs.

"Once they undertake one of these jobs, they begin to realize that they are capable of handling work they would never have previously considered," said Tona Cravioto, senior manager for vocational training and workforce development at the CASA Prince George's County Workers' Center.

The program demonstrated its effectiveness during the winter's huge snowstorms, when CASA found temporary snowplow jobs for 43 women, who made $15 to $25 an hour.

And thanks to similar programs, more government construction work -- especially for jobs related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- is going to women. I've seen at least two all-female work crews on federal property in the District, one at the Old Executive Office Building and the other at the Library of Congress.

Hanging a door? Installing a toilet? Operating big machinery?

Mercedes Rodriguez, 43, has cleaned houses and watched children but never imagined she would do what she calls "man's work" like this.

But five weeks into her course, she's Paganini on the DeWalt.

"It's not so physical, this work," she tells me. "Now I see it's all up here," she said, pointing to her head.


E-mail me at dvorakp@washpost.com.


Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053102813.html?hpid=artslot

WOMEN NOW LOOKING TO NEW JOBS IN CONSTRUCTION: [THIRD EDITION]

by Snyder, Sarah. Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext) [Boston, Mass] 25 Nov 1986: 17.

Marie Barron, mother of two, makes $450 a week after taxes as a union carpenter. She used to be a telephone operator. It took having five brothers who are carpenters and a special federal program, eight years ago, to convince her to go into construction.

Boston city officials feel too many women miss out on high- paying construction jobs because they are brought up knowing nothing about them.

To correct that, the city is renewing a program killed for lack of funding five years ago called Women in the Building Trades. Women who want to learn about construction can go to a lecture on the different building trades, then take a free six-week course, two evenings a week and Saturdays, as preparation for a union apprenticeship. The first workshop, at the Women's Technical Institute on Boylston street, is Dec. 13.

Women hold an estimated 3 to 4 percent of the 13,000 construction jobs now in Boston. Union membership is about 5 percent; the Plumbers Union Local 12, for example, has eight female journeymen out of about 700 members. Local 103 of the Electrical Workers Union union has 62 women among 2,500 members.

Kristin McCormack, director of the Mayor's Office of Jobs and Community Services, said the new program will give women better access to "some of the best-paying jobs in Boston."

Some 100 women are expected to attend the program, with perhaps 30 going on to union membership.

The city is funding the program, sponsored by the Women's Technical Institute and Network of Women in the Trades, with $120,000 a year in federal community development block grants.

Susan Brophy, who headed the program for three years until its federal CETA funding was yanked in 1981, said it sent about 300 women statewide went into the building trades and was "enormously" successful. Women need an introduction to construction work that men do not, she said, "because of the way people grow up. Young men get used to using tools and doing those kinds of tasks with their fathers. It's not that women aren't capable, but . . .it was an industry that was unfamiliar to women."

Women electricians and carpenters at a press conference yesterday said they believe many women now working for the minimum wage of $3.55 an hour as clerks or cashiers would do well in the far higher- paying building trades.

"I went in knowing nothing," said Barron, the former telephone operator. "There is no certain skill you need first. The worst parts are getting up at 5:30 to start at 7, and the elements. But it's great in the summer; you're out at 3. In January and February, I usually go to the islands."

Construction workers typically lose 10 weeks of work a year because of weather. A journeyman plumber earns $19.75 an hour; Jill Feblowitz, one of the founders of Women in the Building Trades, earns $19.95 an hour as an electrician.

Between 1985 and 1986, the number of minorities working on major construction projects in Boston inceased from 5 to 16 percent, while the number of women rose only from 2 to 3 percent. Feblowitz thinks those relatively low numbers are due to "the traditional sex stereotype all of us grow up with -- I know I never thought I would be an electrician. Then there are information barriers, and no old boys' network. We hope this program fills those voids."

Attending the program does not guarantee a woman a union apprenticeship, but Boston Building Trades president Leo Purcell said, chances look "real good" for a woman who has gone through the program.

Sara Driscoll, an electrician with Local 103 who works from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. running pipe through ditches and installing fire alarm systems, said part of the reason there are few women in the unions is that some who begin an apprenticeship discover they simply don't like the work.

"They realize it is filthy, dangerous and hard," Driscoll said. Harassment by male workers, she said, "can be a problem, but it's not a major one." She praised her union's effort to recruit women in the past few years. For her first four years, until 1982, she never worked with another woman.

Flynn praised Boston's trade unions yesterday for their "progressive and cooperative leadership" in backing the women's program.

Copyright Boston Globe Newspaper Nov 25, 1986

Snyder, Sarah. "Women Now Looking to New Jobs in Construction." Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext): 17. Boston Globe; Massachusetts Newsstand; ProQuest Central. Nov 25 1986. Web. 13 Jan. 2012 .

'Woman On A Man's Job': The Story Of Cleveland Hard Hatted Women

Retrieved from http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/lrc/documents/35_1981_12_21_p5.pdf

by Member of Hard-Hatted  Women,
Cleveland,  Ohio (1981)



For the first time since the temporary
influx of  women into "men's jobs"  d u r -
ing World War  11, the women's move-
ment  of  the 60's and early 70's resulted
in programs  that opened u p  jobs  tradi-
tionally  reserved  for  men.  Cleveland
Hard  Hatted  Women  (HHW)  and
similar groups  around the  country  are
spontaneous outgrowths  of  the dilem-
mas  encountered  by  women  recently
entering these jobs.


Sharing our  experiences in  building
our  group  is  important to  us,  as  we
recognize that working people are all on
the  defensive these  days. We need  the
solidarity  and  comraderie  of  mutual
support  and  information-sharing  to
strengthen our collective position.
 * * *

Imagine working  every  day  a t   a
physically  intense,  possibly  dangerous,
always  demanding  job.  Some  co-
workers  are  hostile  at  first,  your
foreman doesn't  quite know what to do
with  you,  upper  management  wishes
you'd just  dry up and disappear, there's
no place to go to the john.

Maybe you work out in public-on a
construction site,  servicing  phones or
computers, driving  a  truck.  You're
around  different people  all  the time,
most of whom don't hesitate to question
your  competence,  if  not  your  motives:
"Check  out   that   broad - a  man
would've  finished  an hour  agol"  "Look
at  that Women's Libber!"

These are  some  of the little
"pleasures"  of  being  that   modern-day
phenomenon - "woman on a man's
job." No wonder we get to feeling a little
oppressed sometimes. No wonder,  after
hearing of  a group in Pittsburgh, some
of  us  got  together  and  formed  Hard
Hatted Women. No wonder many more
women  in  non-traditional  jobs  have
since joined  us.

Recently we  took  a sampling of some
of  our feelings about HHW:


HHW has lightened the load on  my
job.  Knowing  I'm  not  alone  in  the
special  problems  of  non-traditional
work, and  having emotional and prac-
tical support makes each working day
e a s i e r   for me.-Geri  Braun, 
steelworker. 

I  look forward to monthly meetings
because I  experience such a positive
affirmation of  myself  and  m y   job.  It
counteracts the negativism  I  r u n   into
on the job. The women I  meet w i t h  are
so gutsy and independent that I  love
spending the  time  together  in  such
an  energy-filled atmosphere.-Kathy 
Augustine, computer technician.





I  think  the biggest change has been
increased participation  in  union  af-
fairs and  a more  solid  identification
with the hourly (non-supervisory) peo-
ple  on  m y   job.-Fran  Griffith, salt 
miner. 

We  have a great opportunity to ex-
pose people, especially  women,  to
alternatives-new  kinds  of  jobs
women can do, new ways of  thinking.
Perhaps we can make a small dent in
traditional  stereotypes   limiting
women (and men) to certain roles and
jobs.-Mary  Bugbee,  payphone  in- 
staller. 



Although the "support  group" theme
has been its primary basis, HHW in two
years has grown intb a group capable of
training its members to function better
on their jobs  as well as in other groups.

By  taking  on  various responsibilities
(newsletter  production, planning  and
chairing  meetings,  developing
workshops, speaking to  other  groups),
many of  us acquired skills and the con-
fidence we  needed to become more  ac-
tive in other areas.

In the past year, for example, several
women have gotten much more involved
in their unions. In union locals that are
predominantly  male,  an  extra portion
of  understanding  and  stamina  is  re-
quired  to assume  a  respected place in
union life.

Many of us have become active in the
Coalition  of  Labor  Union Women
(CLUW) where  we  are  working  on a
proposal  for   a  n a t i o n a l   CLUW
Taskforce on hard hatted women.
This fall  we  celebrated  our  heritage
by  organizing  a  "Rosie the Riveter Re-
union" to honor Cleveland area women
who worked in the war industries during
the  40's.  These  women  a r e  our
foremothersl We met  close  to  100
"Rosies"  and hosted  about  30  of  these
women  and their guests at the reunion.

Another  activity  reflecting  o u r
broader  goals was  a high school career
day that focused on alternative jobs for
women. Several  of  us  gave  workshops
demonstrating our job functions and sat
on a "What's My  Line" panel. We were
able to  answer  many questions  and
dispel  an  amazing  number  of  fears
about  how  other women, boyfriends or
family might react  to women in "men's
jobs,"  or  how  doing this type  of  work
might jeopardize one's "femininity."


Recently we  appeared on a TV news
feature series, "The New  Pioneers." As
a  result  of  seeing a  woman  carpenter,
truck  driver,  and  gas  company  con-
struction  worker,  over  20  new  women
came to  the  next  HHW  meeting.  It's
this type  of  outreach  that's responsible
for the growth of  our group.
In  addition  to  reinforcing  our

abilities  to  cope with  our jobs  and in-
fluencing  other  women  along  these
lines, we are entering a new phase of ac-
tivity.  T h e   Reagan administration's

policies pose a direct threat to our jobs.
Our livelihood is a direct outcome of the
openings created by the affirmative ac-
tion  programs   instituted   in   the
mid-70's.  Affirmative  action cutbacks

and the weakening of  the EEOC have a
concentrated impact on our jobs and on
our goals as a group.


We  are  working with  other  groups,
like CLUW  and  Cleveland Women
Working (an office workers' group), and
exploring avenues for  defending  our
right to an equal place in the workforce.

Cleveland  is  currently entering a
period  of  heavy construction. Four new
multi-million dollar office towers will be
built. How can we help to convince the
contractors a n d  the unions that women
deserve  a  share  of  these  jobs,  that
women need these jobs  as much  as any
other sector  of  the working population
and are  equally  capable  of  learning
these jobs?

If  EEOC  and  Affirmative Action
should lose their power as formal incen-
tives  for employers or legal safeguards
for women and minorities, what can we
do in the meantime to preserve and im-
prove our current status?

We hope to work with our unions and
other groups to address these concerns.

We want to make some more "dents" in
community  awareness,  as  well  as  in
changing  the   life-chances for  women
who need  a decent wage and dignity on
the job  as much  as any other American
worker.



[For  more  information  on  Hard  Hatted
Women, write  or  call  Ma  Bugbee ( H H W
Coordinator ) ,   1 1 0 2 2   C r e s c e n t   Rd.,
Cleveland, Ohio 441 11. Phone 216-476-2460.]

Women Win Fight for More Construction Jobs, Less Harassment

By GEORGIA DULLEA. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 23 Aug 1977: 53.

Title

Women Win Fight for More Construction Jobs, Less Harassment

Topic heading

Building > United States > Labor

NYT Index summary

Georgia Dullea article on jobs for women in construction trades; cites harassment of women by male co-workers, and occasional violence; notes recent Labor Dept regulations against bias; reprs of women groups and contractors comment; illus (L)

First page

53

Print location

page 30, column 1

Publication year

1977

Section

Travel - Accent on The Sun

Place of publication

New York, N.Y.

Country of publication

United States

ISSN

03624331

Document type

article

ProQuest document ID

123417197

Document URL

http://0-search.proquest.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/docview/123417197?accountid=12826

Copyright

Copyright New York Times Company Aug 23, 1977

Database

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2007) with Index (1851-1993)

Click here to see the PDF version of the article