Earlier this year, the Canadian Association of Women in Construction (CAWIC) announced its plans to "conduct research and develop an action plan to improve women's advancement into leadership roles within the construction industry" with support from a sizable government grant (CAWIC, 21 February 2014). CAWIC is recruiting employers in Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland/Labrador to collaborate with as part of its Women's Advancement Project (CNW, 26 August 2014).
Visit http://www.newswire.ca to read CAWIC's most recent press release and www.cawic.ca to learn more about CAWIC.
Showing posts with label gender equality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender equality. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Repost: What’s Next for Women in the Trades?
Great article written by Michael Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, about the need to recruit and support more women in the building trades:
Visit http://www.sfbuildingtradescouncil.org/ to read the full article.
"While the old Building Trades pattern of white male exclusion of minorities, then, has been largely – even if not absolutely – superseded by a new, more complex reality, we still appear to exclude women.
We and the City can take many practical steps yet toward enrolling and supporting women in the Trades. We can target pre-apprenticeship programs primarily at women, as does a recent Iron Workers multi-trades welding program. We can insist that existing pre-apprenticeship programs target specific numbers of female apprenticeship candidates, as the Carpenters have done at John O’Connell High School. I have advocated for years for childcare programs with construction hours, which would benefit many men as well. We can ask successful Tradeswomen to serve as recruiters and mentors" (Theriault, 30 May 2014).
Visit http://www.sfbuildingtradescouncil.org/ to read the full article.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Repost: Hundreds of girls try out nontraditional jobs at career fair
Congratulations to our colleagues at Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. for bringing over 2,000 women and girls to their recent Women in Trades Career Fair!
Here's a short recap from nwlaborpress.org:
Here's a short recap from nwlaborpress.org:
"More than 2,000 women and teenagers were introduced to careers in 'non-traditional' trades such as construction worker, lineman, and firefighter at the 22nd annual Women in Trades Career Fair held May 8-10 in Northeast Portland" (Northwest Labor Press, 14 May 2014).
Visit http://www.katu.com/news, http://nwlaborpress.org/, and http://www.tradeswomen.net/Fair/ to learn more.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Repost: Real-Life Rosie The Riveters Finally Get White House Visit
Great video showing real "Rosie the Riveters" getting recognition from Vice President Biden and President Obama at the White House!
ABC US News | ABC Entertainment News
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Repost: A few strong women - Buildings Trades Union wants more female workers
More great press for Building Pathways New Hampshire! Here's a preview of the article in the April 17th issue of The Hippo:
"Nationally, women only make up about 2 percent of building industries workers, but if you ask the organizers of the New Hampshire Building Pathways program, a new initiative aimed at recruiting and training women for careers in construction, women do just as well as men.
'The truth is, women have been doing heavy physical labor since the dawn of time. There’s nothing inherent about us that says we can’t do this,' said Liz Skidmore, Building Pathways organizer and veteran construction worker. 'As girls, we don’t get told this is an option, or this is possible.'
The New Hampshire Building Trades Unions is piloting Building Pathways, which will give 13 unemployed and underemployed women the opportunity to participate in a pre-apprenticeship program." (Fishow, 17 April 2014)
Visit http://www.hippopress.com/ to read the full article.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Repost: Women Finding a Second Chance in Energy Efficiency
Congratulations to Oregon Tradeswomen for the recent coverage of their continued great work. Here's a quote from the op-ed on Next City's website, describing their successful apprenticeship program:
"Dobhran moved to Portland, Oregon, where she and her son shared a small bedroom in a friend’s apartment. She relied on public assistance while she scoured the city for work.
...
Then she heard about an apprenticeship program offered by Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. The organization uses grants to provide 6-8 week training courses for women who want to work in industries like green building and energy efficiency." (Johnson Avery, 24 April 2014)
Visit http://nextcity.org/ to read the full article.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Repost: Sister Carpenters Build Your Future (video)
Great stories from women carpenters in UBC!
Sister Carpenters Build Your Future from UBC Sisters in the Brotherhoo on Vimeo.
Sister Carpenters Build Your Future from UBC Sisters in the Brotherhoo on Vimeo.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Repost: Settlement Requires New Jersey Contractor, Plumbers’ Union to Recruit More Women
By Lorraine McCarthy
March 3 — A New Jersey mechanical contracting company agreed Feb. 24 to pay a total of $400,000 to settle allegations that it violated state law and regulations barring gender discrimination in employment by failing to employ female plumbers on jobs it handled, including many taxpayer-funded projects (In re Falasca Mech. Inc. and Plumbers & Pipefitters Local No. 332, N.J. Att'y Gen., No. EF14SB-61686, administrative consent order filed 2/24/14).
Under terms of the administrative consent order announced by the New Jersey Attorney General's office, Falasca Mechanical Inc. of Vineland, N.J., will make payments of $250,000 to the state and $150,000 to journeyman plumber Bette Feldeisen, a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No. 322.
Under its ongoing labor agreement with Local 322, Falasca staffs its projects by requesting workers from the union.
The state alleged that Falasca repeatedly hired less experienced, less qualified male plumbers over Feldeisen and in general failed to make a good-faith effort to employ female plumbers while handling millions of dollars in public works jobs.
Local 322, which is a non-paying party to the same settlement, agreed to join with Falasca in a cooperative effort to increase female recruitment into the union and to increase training and employment opportunities for female plumbers during the next three apprenticeship cycles.
Preferential Hiring of Men Alleged
Feldeisen worked for Falasca on occasional jobs beginning in 2000 and continuously from December 2006 through January 2009, when she was laid off for economic reasons, according to the state's summary of the case.
When the company was hired for a 2009 hospital construction project that required work on medical gas systems, Feldeisen, who holds a certification in medical gas installation, was passed over by Falasca and the union in favor of male plumbers who had fewer years of experience and who weren't certified in medical gas installation, according to the state.
In administrative complaints filed against Falasca and the union in September 2010, Feldeisen alleged that she was passed over repeatedly when Falasca sought plumbers through Local 322 for private and public projects, despite her experience and prior employment relationship with the contractor.
Her complaints alleged gender discrimination in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the state's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules for public contractors.
The state's investigation showed that “for a period of at least four years, encompassing over 150 public contracts, Falasca has not been in compliance with the EEO rules when accepting and carrying out public contracts,’’ according to the consent order.
Hiring Goals, Recruitment Efforts Mandated
Under terms of its agreement with the state, Falasca makes no admission of wrongdoing or liability.
In addition to the monetary terms of the settlement, Falasca agreed to work with Local 322 to comply with state hiring goals for female workers.
The company also agreed to keep records for at least three years of its efforts to reach hiring goals for women for every public contract it is awarded, including records of all individuals requested or referred from a union and all those interviewed or hired.
Falasca also will develop its own anti-discrimination and EEO rules compliance policy, distribute it to all unions with which the company has a labor agreement, and provide mandatory training on the policy to all project managers, foremen, hiring personnel and the Local 322 business manager.
The settlement includes reporting and monitoring provisions to ensure compliance.
The Local 322 Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) has committed to its own outreach and recruitment efforts to attract more women to the apprenticeship program.
The union agreed to undertake outreach to students in at least three vocational-technical high schools during the next five academic years to provide information about the plumbing industry as a career and to encourage first- and second-year female students to pursue careers in the trade.
Representatives of Falasca and Local 322 could not be reached for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine McCarthy in Philadelphia at lmccarthy@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan J. McGolrick at smcgolrick@bna.com
March 3 — A New Jersey mechanical contracting company agreed Feb. 24 to pay a total of $400,000 to settle allegations that it violated state law and regulations barring gender discrimination in employment by failing to employ female plumbers on jobs it handled, including many taxpayer-funded projects (In re Falasca Mech. Inc. and Plumbers & Pipefitters Local No. 332, N.J. Att'y Gen., No. EF14SB-61686, administrative consent order filed 2/24/14).
Under terms of the administrative consent order announced by the New Jersey Attorney General's office, Falasca Mechanical Inc. of Vineland, N.J., will make payments of $250,000 to the state and $150,000 to journeyman plumber Bette Feldeisen, a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No. 322.
Under its ongoing labor agreement with Local 322, Falasca staffs its projects by requesting workers from the union.
The state alleged that Falasca repeatedly hired less experienced, less qualified male plumbers over Feldeisen and in general failed to make a good-faith effort to employ female plumbers while handling millions of dollars in public works jobs.
Local 322, which is a non-paying party to the same settlement, agreed to join with Falasca in a cooperative effort to increase female recruitment into the union and to increase training and employment opportunities for female plumbers during the next three apprenticeship cycles.
Preferential Hiring of Men Alleged
Feldeisen worked for Falasca on occasional jobs beginning in 2000 and continuously from December 2006 through January 2009, when she was laid off for economic reasons, according to the state's summary of the case.
When the company was hired for a 2009 hospital construction project that required work on medical gas systems, Feldeisen, who holds a certification in medical gas installation, was passed over by Falasca and the union in favor of male plumbers who had fewer years of experience and who weren't certified in medical gas installation, according to the state.
In administrative complaints filed against Falasca and the union in September 2010, Feldeisen alleged that she was passed over repeatedly when Falasca sought plumbers through Local 322 for private and public projects, despite her experience and prior employment relationship with the contractor.
Her complaints alleged gender discrimination in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the state's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules for public contractors.
The state's investigation showed that “for a period of at least four years, encompassing over 150 public contracts, Falasca has not been in compliance with the EEO rules when accepting and carrying out public contracts,’’ according to the consent order.
Hiring Goals, Recruitment Efforts Mandated
Under terms of its agreement with the state, Falasca makes no admission of wrongdoing or liability.
In addition to the monetary terms of the settlement, Falasca agreed to work with Local 322 to comply with state hiring goals for female workers.
The company also agreed to keep records for at least three years of its efforts to reach hiring goals for women for every public contract it is awarded, including records of all individuals requested or referred from a union and all those interviewed or hired.
Falasca also will develop its own anti-discrimination and EEO rules compliance policy, distribute it to all unions with which the company has a labor agreement, and provide mandatory training on the policy to all project managers, foremen, hiring personnel and the Local 322 business manager.
The settlement includes reporting and monitoring provisions to ensure compliance.
The Local 322 Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) has committed to its own outreach and recruitment efforts to attract more women to the apprenticeship program.
The union agreed to undertake outreach to students in at least three vocational-technical high schools during the next five academic years to provide information about the plumbing industry as a career and to encourage first- and second-year female students to pursue careers in the trade.
Representatives of Falasca and Local 322 could not be reached for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine McCarthy in Philadelphia at lmccarthy@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan J. McGolrick at smcgolrick@bna.com
Friday, February 21, 2014
Repost: Would the construction crew on "The Block" benefit from quotas?
Informative analysis of a construction TV show and the pay gap for women in Australia:
---------------------------------------------
By Marina Go / Feb 21, 2014 6:52AM
A female chippie joined The Block last night. Of the hundreds of tradesmen swarming the building site, the producers did everything short of shining a stage light on her to highlight her presence.
And then it began. A segment devoted to the fact that there was a female carpenter in the group and ... she was a LEADER. Surely not. Apparently this clearly rare breed of tradesman could not only use a drill, she could also tell the blokes what to do. Footage was shown of her drilling and also directing the workflow.
A couple of male contestants then proceeded to discuss how great it was to have a female chippie on The Block leading the troupes. But did the producers have to include the comment that the very idea of it was "a bit hot"?
The only male contestant who actually is a tradesman exclaimed that he hadn't really met a female chippie before. And host Scott Cam, another chippie by trade, wanted to know if she was good at being the leader. He actually asked her.
It was the most patronising three minutes of television that I have witnessed in a while. The female chippie looked as capable as the next guy and anyone who hasn't just woken from a fifty-year coma knows that female leadership is increasingly not a miracle to behold.
I almost feel bad about calling out The Block for this because I actually believe that the producers were naively thinking they were doing a positive thing for women to highlight the woman. But true equality can only be achieved when women can get on with the business of working in jobs that were once the domain of men without it being made to feel token. Flooding The Block's construction crew with women would have been a better step forward for gender equality. It would have looked a lot less awkward.
The Block wasn't the worst thing about being a woman in the construction industry yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released it's latest gender pay gap figures and although on average the overall gap has slightly declined to 17.1% compared with a 17.5% gap a year earlier, the gender pay gap in the construction industry has blown out in the space of 12 months from 18.2% to 20.1%.
Construction isn't even the industry with the greatest gap. That honour falls to Financial and Insurance Services with a gap of 31.9%. My own industry, Information Media and Communications, has a gender pay gap of 18.6%, also worse than the national average. The best industry for female pay equality is Wholesale Trade with a 7.2% difference, down drastically from 17.2% a year earlier.
The thing is there doesn't have to be a gap at all. There are highly skilled female leaders in most industries waiting for an opportunity to show you what they can do. I have five women in my leadership team of eight. I will readily admit that I would rather have a 50:50 mix because I am aware of the benefits of diverse thinking at the leadership level. But I also have a broad spread of age groups, ensuring that there is a healthy mix of experience and fresh ideas.
There isn't a pay gap based on gender in our small slice of the media industry, so there must be organisations where the actual pay gap is much greater than the industry average. Those companies are undoubtedly feeling little real pressure to do anything about the gap because the industry figure lets them off the hook: everyone else in the industry must be in the same boat so how can they be expected to feel responsible for an industry issue?
I won't apologise for being a supporter of quotas. It's called good planning. Has anyone else managed to get their company to equality using a different strategy?
By Marina Go / Feb 21, 2014 6:52AM
A female chippie joined The Block last night. Of the hundreds of tradesmen swarming the building site, the producers did everything short of shining a stage light on her to highlight her presence.
And then it began. A segment devoted to the fact that there was a female carpenter in the group and ... she was a LEADER. Surely not. Apparently this clearly rare breed of tradesman could not only use a drill, she could also tell the blokes what to do. Footage was shown of her drilling and also directing the workflow.
A couple of male contestants then proceeded to discuss how great it was to have a female chippie on The Block leading the troupes. But did the producers have to include the comment that the very idea of it was "a bit hot"?
The only male contestant who actually is a tradesman exclaimed that he hadn't really met a female chippie before. And host Scott Cam, another chippie by trade, wanted to know if she was good at being the leader. He actually asked her.
It was the most patronising three minutes of television that I have witnessed in a while. The female chippie looked as capable as the next guy and anyone who hasn't just woken from a fifty-year coma knows that female leadership is increasingly not a miracle to behold.
I almost feel bad about calling out The Block for this because I actually believe that the producers were naively thinking they were doing a positive thing for women to highlight the woman. But true equality can only be achieved when women can get on with the business of working in jobs that were once the domain of men without it being made to feel token. Flooding The Block's construction crew with women would have been a better step forward for gender equality. It would have looked a lot less awkward.
The Block wasn't the worst thing about being a woman in the construction industry yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released it's latest gender pay gap figures and although on average the overall gap has slightly declined to 17.1% compared with a 17.5% gap a year earlier, the gender pay gap in the construction industry has blown out in the space of 12 months from 18.2% to 20.1%.
Construction isn't even the industry with the greatest gap. That honour falls to Financial and Insurance Services with a gap of 31.9%. My own industry, Information Media and Communications, has a gender pay gap of 18.6%, also worse than the national average. The best industry for female pay equality is Wholesale Trade with a 7.2% difference, down drastically from 17.2% a year earlier.
The thing is there doesn't have to be a gap at all. There are highly skilled female leaders in most industries waiting for an opportunity to show you what they can do. I have five women in my leadership team of eight. I will readily admit that I would rather have a 50:50 mix because I am aware of the benefits of diverse thinking at the leadership level. But I also have a broad spread of age groups, ensuring that there is a healthy mix of experience and fresh ideas.
There isn't a pay gap based on gender in our small slice of the media industry, so there must be organisations where the actual pay gap is much greater than the industry average. Those companies are undoubtedly feeling little real pressure to do anything about the gap because the industry figure lets them off the hook: everyone else in the industry must be in the same boat so how can they be expected to feel responsible for an industry issue?
I won't apologise for being a supporter of quotas. It's called good planning. Has anyone else managed to get their company to equality using a different strategy?
View the original article at http://www.womensagenda.com.au/.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Repost: An iron worker from the Dudley Square project shares her thoughts on Roxbury and rebuilding the historic square
An iron worker from the Dudley Square project shares her thoughts on Roxbury and rebuilding the historic square.
Music: Derek Britain "Second Class Citizen" Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial
View I am Not Afraid of Heights from City of Boston on Vimeo.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Repost: Why Toy Startup GoldieBlox's Historic $4 Million Super Bowl Ad Win Matters
Toy startup GoldieBlox, which makes construction and engineering kits for little girls, had the distinction of being the first small business to air an ad during the Super Bowl.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company beat out more than 15,000 rivals in a contest run by Intuit and ultimately decided in a public vote.
The personal finance software firm footed the estimated $4 million bill for the ad, which was seen by a record 111.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
For GoldieBlox, the Super Bowl ad represented the culmination of a dizzying 14 months.
The company’s founder, Stanford-trained engineer Debbie Sterling, now 30, launched a Kickstarter campaign in the fall of 2012 after a particularly horrifying visit to a toy store, where she realized little had changed in the girls’ aisle since she was a child: it was all pink and pretty, with little to engage the brain.
“We are taught from a very young age that we want to become princesses,” explained Sterling in a 2013 TED talk. At present, 14 per cent of the country’s engineers are women, according to a 2012 congressional report. As she told a rapt TED audience: “Just because this is the way things are doesn’t mean this is how they have to be.”
Armed with both her engineering degree and a stint in marketing, Sterling set herself a goal of “disrupting the pink aisle” — with the eventual aim of encouraging more girls to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
Fast forward to 2013. After raising far more than her original $150,000 crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter, Sterling and her small team set about getting her toy prototype manufactured.
Each GoldieBlox kit combines a construction toy and a book that features Goldie, a smart young girl wearing a tool belt who helps solves problems by building machines. Soon enough, Toys ‘R’ Us came calling; more recently, Target agreed to start carrying GoldieBlox.
The startup’s trajectory hasn’t been without controversy. Since November, GoldieBlox has been mired in a back-and-forth battle of lawsuits with hip-hop group The Beastie Boys. The toy company used a parody version of the rappers’ hit song ‘Girls’ in an ad that swiftly went viral.
There has yet to be a decision on whether GoldieBlox had fair use rights to the 1987 hit after changing the lyrics to empower future scientists. For some pundits, Sunday’s Super Bowl ad represents a victory over naysayers.
“It must be sweet, sweet vindication for them after all that backlash,” said Rachel Sklar, an attorney and media critic who has written about the case and believes GoldieBlox was within their rights.
Sklar sees the huge success of GoldieBlox this past year as representative of a greater movement away from gendered toys — that is, blue building blocks for boys and pretty princesses for girls. She hopes this unprecedented exposure during the Super Bowl will help speed the demise of the pink aisle.
“It’s such a refreshing change to see empowered, active, fierce little girls — a departure from the representation of women in general during the Super Bowl,” she said. “It offsets GoDaddy and the like. And relaxing the strict framework in which the media depicts women feels like a vacation.”
Read the remainder of this article at http://www.forbes.com/.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Repost: The women behind the construction project
Women take a key roll in building a 497,652-square-foot nine-story library built by Turner Construction in San Diego, CA.
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By Marion Moss Hubbard, San Diego Public Library
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The new 497,652-square-foot nine-story Central Library is one of the largest municipal projects in the city’s history. To successfully construct it within three years took an immense amount of coordination, teamwork and leadership.
While the construction field is still primarily led by men -- and there were many men who played prominent and vital roles on this project -- several women in key positions were instrumental in moving the Central Library project to completion.
Carmen Vann, project executive with Turner Construction, provided the oversight of intricate workflows and detailed schedules to keep the project moving as quickly and efficiently as possible. As the person in charge of the construction project, she had to coordinate among the various trade professions onsite, including carpenters, ironworkers, concrete workers, electricians and infrastructure experts. Vann grew up in Washington, D.C., and has always had a fascination with buildings. “I do what I do out of passion for people, and it is way beyond bricks and mortar,” she said.
Kristine Wunder was Turner Construction’s safety manager on this project. She instilled in the entire team the importance of maintaining a clean and safe worksite throughout construction. Her commitment to safety was key to Turner’s impressive safety record on this project of more than 1,000 days without any injuries. A former Army aviation officer and UH60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Wunder has a long history of commitment to leadership and passing on her expertise to others. She is a mentor with the ACE Mentor Program, which mentors professionals from leading design and construction firms.
Cynthia Meinhardt is the city of San Diego’s project officer with public works, engineering and capital projects, and helped oversee this $185 million Capital Improvement project. Through her oversight, she assured that the architectural and engineering services -- including technical and operational support, design and construction -- were performed with the highest degree of quality, while remaining on schedule and within budget. Throughout her career, Meinhardt has been committed to making sure that building projects are designed to enhance our overall quality of life and communities.
Deborah Barrow, library director for the San Diego Public Library, worked closely with all of these exceptional women. She also worked with the architects, other Turner Construction professionals, other city departments, outside consulting organizations and partnering organizations to assure that what was built actually met the needs of the community and goals of the library.
A native San Diegan with more than 20 years of experience in public library management, Barrow is no stranger to library building projects. She has managed the design and construction of several new libraries, including the South Chula Vista Library.
All of these extraordinary women came together in their careers at just the right time and place to help make this new library a reality. Through this remarkable accomplishment, they will serve as role models for young women who will be inspired to achieve their own great success.
The new 497,652-square-foot nine-story Central Library is one of the largest municipal projects in the city’s history. To successfully construct it within three years took an immense amount of coordination, teamwork and leadership.
While the construction field is still primarily led by men -- and there were many men who played prominent and vital roles on this project -- several women in key positions were instrumental in moving the Central Library project to completion.
Carmen Vann, project executive with Turner Construction, provided the oversight of intricate workflows and detailed schedules to keep the project moving as quickly and efficiently as possible. As the person in charge of the construction project, she had to coordinate among the various trade professions onsite, including carpenters, ironworkers, concrete workers, electricians and infrastructure experts. Vann grew up in Washington, D.C., and has always had a fascination with buildings. “I do what I do out of passion for people, and it is way beyond bricks and mortar,” she said.
Kristine Wunder was Turner Construction’s safety manager on this project. She instilled in the entire team the importance of maintaining a clean and safe worksite throughout construction. Her commitment to safety was key to Turner’s impressive safety record on this project of more than 1,000 days without any injuries. A former Army aviation officer and UH60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Wunder has a long history of commitment to leadership and passing on her expertise to others. She is a mentor with the ACE Mentor Program, which mentors professionals from leading design and construction firms.
Cynthia Meinhardt is the city of San Diego’s project officer with public works, engineering and capital projects, and helped oversee this $185 million Capital Improvement project. Through her oversight, she assured that the architectural and engineering services -- including technical and operational support, design and construction -- were performed with the highest degree of quality, while remaining on schedule and within budget. Throughout her career, Meinhardt has been committed to making sure that building projects are designed to enhance our overall quality of life and communities.
Deborah Barrow, library director for the San Diego Public Library, worked closely with all of these exceptional women. She also worked with the architects, other Turner Construction professionals, other city departments, outside consulting organizations and partnering organizations to assure that what was built actually met the needs of the community and goals of the library.
A native San Diegan with more than 20 years of experience in public library management, Barrow is no stranger to library building projects. She has managed the design and construction of several new libraries, including the South Chula Vista Library.
All of these extraordinary women came together in their careers at just the right time and place to help make this new library a reality. Through this remarkable accomplishment, they will serve as role models for young women who will be inspired to achieve their own great success.
To read the original article, visit http://www.sddt.com/news.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Repost: Why the Person Building Your Next House Might Just Be a Woman
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| Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com |
Despite harassment and bias, women are fighting for jobs in skilled trade.
The world of work for women is changing. A popular new Barbie construction set -- yes, building pink mansions! -- may help girls expand their view of what occupations are open to them, and that's welcome. But tradeswomen are taking action today: President Obama will soon be hearing from women electricians, plumbers, ironworkers, and carpenters about what it takes to succeed in the world of skilled trades work.In April over 650 tradeswomen gathered in Sacramento, California, for the “Annual Women Build California and the Nation Conference.” Iron workers and plumbers met with carpenters, electricians, and laborers. They cheered women leaders like Liz Shuler, Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO; the first woman and the youngest person ever elected to that position. The women listened to Ed Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who called for equal treatment on the job site and in the union hall. Cement mason Alise Martiny, business manager of the Greater Kansas City Building Trades Council, offered her story of women’s leadership. These women are “leaning in" in ways Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg might not imagine. For one weekend tradeswomen from all over the country shared their stories and learned from each other. Most return to worksites where they are the only woman. The isolation of their day-to-day work lives is in stark contrast to the gathering.
Some of these women are brand new apprentices, others are seasoned journey-level workers, the most skilled in their trade. Some have become apprenticeship directors and union officers. These are women who work alongside men to build our houses and hospitals, our bridges and roads, to connect our power lines and solar panels. They work with their hands and their heads. The jobs are demanding, rewarding, and often dangerous.
But why are there still so few tradeswomen? What can be done to make these highly skilled, good paying jobs available to more women?
Thirty-five years ago, President Jimmy Carter expanded Executive Order 11246 to prohibit sex discrimination in employment by government contractors. He established goals and timetables and outlined ways to reach out to recruit and train women for all jobs. An early goal was for women to be 6.9 percent of the workforce on federally funded construction projects.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs was established to oversee the enforcement process within the Department of Labor. There was active outreach, training, and oversight. Women began to enter apprenticeship programs. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 the enforcement effort slowed to a crawl from which it has never recovered. The OFCCP has half the staff today that it had in 1978.
Women have shown that they are interested in this work and fully capable of performing the most difficult and dangerous tasks. Many have overcome hostile supervisors and co-workers, sexual harassment, and isolation. There have been grievances, complaints, law suits, and consent decrees. Many have also found male mentors, good job training programs, and support. Their stories have been documented most recently in books like Jane LaTour’s Sisters in the Brotherhoods.
According to author and tradeswoman Susan Eisenberg, however, for the few women who get into the trades it is still not uncommon to hear stories of inadequate training, biased evaluations, unsafe assignments, and sexual assaults. Thirty-five years after the Executive Order demanded affirmative action and almost 50 years after Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in employment based on sex, women remain pioneers on construction sites.
Today only 2.5 percent of trades jobs are held by women. According to thelatest reports of the U.S. Department of Labor, while women are almost one-third of doctors and lawyers and over 14 percent of our armed forces, they remain barely 1.6 percent of carpenters, 1.8 percent of electricians, and 1.3 percent of operating engineers. The numbers are worse for women of color.
Read the remainder of this article at alternet.org.
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