The Post-Star (Glen Falls, N.Y.), June 18, 2006, Sunday

Copyright 2006 The Post-Star
The Post-Star

Distributed by Knight/Ridder Tribune News Service

June 18, 2006 Sunday

SECTION: BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS

HEADLINE: Rolling up their blouse sleeves

BYLINE: Erin Demuth, The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y.

BODY:
Jun. 18--During World War II, a pretty brunette wearing a red bandanna and a bring-it-on expression rolled up her sleeves on posters across America and began flexing her muscles in support of the men overseas.
This woman, famously known as Rosie the Riveter, represented more than 6 million women who took jobs in defense offices, foundries, hospitals and warehouses to support the country during the conflict, according to www.rosietheriveter.org.
The Rosies, as they were dubbed, helped pave the way for the few women who are still making their livings as carpenters, electricians, welders, brick-layers, plumbers and painters.
Of the 250 students in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 236 Tri-City Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee program in Latham, just six are women. Two local women -- Jan Wilson of Lake George and Chantel Thomas of Queensbury -- are among those six.
Wilson, who graduated as a certified electrician Friday, was the only woman in her class of 55 to complete the five-year program.
"There were three of us that started out, but I was the only one to make it through," Wilson said. "I'm very, very proud. I think you'd have to be a fool not to be."
"When you're a woman, you gotta prove yourself even more," she explained. "You gotta prove that you're not gonna be running to the guy next to you."
This is not to say, however, that Wilson believes she was discriminated against. She said her male peers were always supportive.
"In my class, it's like I have 54 big brothers," she said, laughing.
Thomas, who is just completing her first year in the program, has had a similar experience.
She admits, though, she likes having the chance to prove women can hack it as electricians. "It's an opportunity to show all those men that women can do it too."
Sarah Bates, though not a classmate of Thomas or Wilson, used to work for her father at Bates Construction doing roofing, electrical work and everything in between.
The South Glens Falls resident had an experience that differs slightly from her fellow female journeymen.
"I was definitely a minority and people definitely were taken aback and a little skeptical of me," Bates said. "But, the majority of people were amused and supportive."
Bates left construction only because she wanted to pursue another interest.
"It was tempting to get into the more artistic end," she said of her decision to accept a job working for Trampoline Design in downtown Glens Falls.
Working for the graphic design and advertising agency, Bates said, has given her a chance to use the skills she's gathering as a communication and media art student at Adirondack Community College.
For Wilson and Thomas, who are still very much active in the industry, competition with their male peers hasn't been the biggest challenge.
"The school work -- I'm used to the physical labor -- but school ..." Wilson stopped talking and pointed to a shelf crammed with textbooks in her living room. "Those are my books, and most of them are from this year!"
The intensely technical curriculum, however, didn't seem to bother Wilson, who graduated with a 93.8 grade point average.
In fact, the intellectual and high-level nature of crafts like hers seems to be one of the characteristics of construction work that appeals most to women.
"I'm finding that most women don't want to get involved with plumbing and stuff, they're more into the technical jobs," said Larry Bulman, business manager of the United Association of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 773 in South Glens Falls.
"One of the best welders I worked with was a woman," he said. "They do just a tremendous job in the service industry -- women should be taking a look at it because they're good at it."
Women also seem to be drawn to the construction industry because of job satisfaction.
"I can only tell you what I like about it, and I think it's the same for women," said Rick Cataldo, training director for IBEW Local 236 Tri-City JATC. "You'll see a hole in the ground, and then you see a building -- and you have a part in that."
Wilson expressed the similar sentiments.
"At the end of the day, I can turn around and say, 'I helped build that,'" she said. "I can see the product of my labor." Another benefit of the skilled-trades industry women like is job stability.
"Generally, they want to get into it because they unionize," said Francine Moccio, director of Cornell University's Institute for Women and Work, School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "These brotherhoods have been able to maintain a good standard of living with benefits." "It's a sense of security," she added, "and there's no gender wage gap.
A woman gets paid the same as a man."
Thomas admits a decent salary and health care indeed drew her into her electrician apprenticeship. "In reality, it was pay and benefits," she said.
A man's world
Despite the appealing nature of these things, the number of women involved in construction is low across the country.
According to the National Association of Women in Construction, there are just 839,000 women in the industry, compared to 6,125,000 men.
The data assessed by Cornell University's Institute for Women and Work indicates there are 9,862 female journeymen in the New Jersey, Connecticut and New York area.
This number, as tiny as it may seem, actually represents an increase over the past few decades.
"Women in construction gradually increased from 1.2 percent in 1970 to 2 percent in 2000," Moccio explained. "From 2,600 (women) in 1970 to 9,862 in 2000 -- there you have like a fourfold increase, though it's been very slow."
Most of this sloth-paced growth occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.
"It was then, I think, because there was a lot of focus still with the government on conforming to confirmative action -- and it was still an era of activism," Moccio said.
Growth slowed, but remains ploddingly on the rise, for several reasons.
"Women have made lots of headway into medicine and law, but I think (construction) is still viewed as a man's job," Moccio said. "For the most part, I don't think men have encouragement from contractors to support women."
Wilson agrees but thinks the lack of women in the industry probably also comes from within.
"I don't see many women saying, 'I wanna be an electrician or brick-layer or carpenter,'" Wilson said. "Young women just don't think about it -- nobody thinks about trades anymore." For his part, however, Bulman wishes more women would consider the field.
"Our industry isn't just the luggin' and the tuggin'," he said. "We have a great need for service technicians, and that's more about using your head and your hands."
BY THE NUMBERS: Women make up about 12 percent of the construction industry's workforce nationwide.
2004 NATIONAL STATISTICS:
--Total workers 6,964,000
--Men 6,125,000
--Women 839,000
NUMBERS BY YEAR:
--2004:839,000
--2003: 822,000
--2002: 827,000
--2001: 832,000
Source: National Association of Women in Construction, www.nawic.org
REGIONAL STATISTICS: Tri-state area (N.Y., N.J., Conn.)
--1970: 2,600
--2000: 9,862
*Nearly a fourfold increase in women in construction
Source: Francine Moccio, Cornell University's Institute for Women and Work, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
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