Repost: Women finding new job opportunities in field of construction

Another article that agrees that tradeswomen are the answer to the projected labor shortages in construction.

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(CBS News) BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Just three percent of women work in construction, but now there's an unprecedented opportunity to get more of them into the trades. The average construction worker is in his 40s and 50s and getting closer to retirement.

Amy Judd / CBS News

"Seventy-five percent of owners say they face labor shortages," says Tiffany Bluemle, who runs Vermont Works for Women, which trains girls and women in nontraditional trades. "So why would you not deliberately recruit 50 percent of the population for the jobs that you have?"

Amy Judd, a college graduate, picked up a hammer 15 years ago when she could not find a job teaching.

"It had never occurred to me that I would want to be a carpenter," Judd says. "It took me 80 swings to finally actually hit the nail, but when I did, that was my light bulb moment."

The economy is expected to add nearly 200,000 carpenters by 2020.

"I don’t think it's made clear for women in high school to say, 'Hey, this is an option for you,'" says Sylas Demello, an electrician apprentice. "You can go into the trades. You don't have to go to college. You can be an electrician, you can be a carpenter, you can be a mason. You can do all this kind of stuff."

Last year, the Labor Department allocated close to $2 million in grants for women in "nontraditional" occupations like construction.

"It's not always necessarily wearing a tool belt, carrying heavy things," Judd says. "If you like just being creative, or designing things, or problem solving, you can make a really good livable wage."

The average wage for someone working in construction is $26 an hour. Amy Judd now has her own business. Half of her eight employees are women.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

View the original article at http://www.cbsnews.com/.

Repost: Vermont Works for Women Report, "Enough Said"

"Women now provide almost 50% of the nation’s labor – and 36% of an average family’s income. Addressing women’s poverty isn't just a women’s issue – it’s an economic one (Vermont Works for Women)." This need – in our community and among individual women and their families – fuels the Policy Group on Tradeswomen Issues' mission to increase access for women to good-paying careers in the construction trades. The report below explores concerns young women have about their access to education, work, and careers that enable economic self-sufficiency.

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Young Women Talk About School, Work, and Becoming Adults:
Why We Should Listen and What We Can Do

Many young women in Vermont describe themselves as ill-equipped and under-prepared for the challenges of school, work, career, economic independence, and adulthood—absolutes that await them in the not-too-distant future. Reflecting upon their educational experiences and job histories in nine listening sessions and in written surveys, two hundred young women, ages 15-25 from Brattleboro to St. Johnsbury, the majority from families of limited financial means, articulated a host of concerns:

• minimal exposure to a broad range of careers and professional female role models
• few personal allies to provide support
• lack of practical skills related to personal finance
• fears around how to live independently
• relational aggression among their peers
• limited expectations for work that taps into talent and passion

While Vermont should be proud of its high school graduation rate – at 91.4% the highest in the country – a number of signs indicate that we have more to do to ensure that the next generation is ready for college and/or work.

Download the summary or the full report, which examines how well we’re preparing young women, who are twice as likely to live in poverty as their male counterparts, to make informed, deliberate choices about education and work and to shoulder the financial responsibilities of adulthood.

For more information, visit vtworksforwomen.org.