Women are part of almost every blue-collar workplace. They’re behind the scenes, alongside the men. They’re installing fiber optics for a telecom company, fixing Con Edison equipment in the “manholes,” behind the stage providing sound and lighting for Broadway shows, and on construction sites around the city. Almost five decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with its Title VII provisions for equal employment opportunity, and subsequent struggles through which women won the right to enter any apprentice program for the skilled trades — to become carpenters, electricians, painters and plumbers or join the fire department — they’re on the job. But their numbers are low, and consequently they remain invisible. And that’s a problem.
As long as women make up a statistically insignificant proportion of the blue-collar workforce, they’re all too often viewed as what groundbreaking carpenter Irene Soloway called “the creature with two heads.” As long as they are a tiny minority on any job, harassment and discrimination will continue. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the pioneers challenged stereotypes and broke barriers on the far frontier of feminism. Yet the persistence of discrimination leads directly to problems of recruitment and retention — posing a Catch-22 for women working in skilled blue-collar jobs. For Women’s History Month, I surveyed some of the women working in these jobs and some who paved the way for others. These firsthand reports tell us what improvements have been made and what still needs to change in order to extend the gains of the women’s movement to the working class.
Female firefighters
While the New York City Fire Department has made great strides since the days of litigating, demonstrating and other forms of outright opposition to females in the ranks, there are currently only 28 female firefighters in a force of more than 11,000. The good news is that more than 2,600 women have applied to take the test to become a firefighter, according to Regina Wilson, president of United Women Firefighters.
Firefighter JoAnn Jacobs was among the first group of 40 women to enter the department in 1982, and she has recruited, mentored and trained women in preparation for prior tests. “I think that the presence of women firefighters on TV shows and in commercials makes a difference,” she said. “It’s a visual cue to women. You only need one for a woman to see something that gets her thinking: I can do that, too. They’ve grown up seeing this. Young women are so much more physical and strong. And then their husbands and boyfriends are encouraging them. Men see women doing kick boxing and other things that are outside the conventional female stereotypes. Women have stepped out of the traditional roles and images and these things are all making a difference.”
Then again, stereotypes endure, as Eileen Sullivan, a pioneering tractor-trailer driver, can attest. “This woman cab driver assured me that she was qualified to drive because she was a laid-off tractor-trailer driver. I assured her I would be fine with her driving but was disappointed that she felt the need to point it out — until she mentioned how many women refused to drive with her and would order another cab,” she said.
Tile setter Angela Olszewski offers another perspective — about life inside her former union, Local 7, Bricklayers. “The union’s public relations apparatus regularly exploited my intelligence, aptitude and skills,” Olszewski recalled. “I appeared in union videos, newsletters and performed installation demonstrations. Ironically, at the same time my union appointed me to their Women’s Task Force in 2001, I was also begging my employer, the local, and my apprentice coordinator to be trained in the higher skill sets of my craft. In my former union, women are nothing more than a novelty and are not taken seriously.”
