Women in Construction: Megan Walkowiak, Carpenter
By Rocky Hwasta of the Cleveland Building Trades Tradeswomen committee
Megan Walkowiak is not your typical carpenter in many ways. Being a woman places her in the less than thrilling percentage of 3% of all carpenters who are females. Additionally, she received support from her contractor father who is also a member of the carpenters union. This may be surprising only because of societal expectations for young women to enter more traditionally female occupations.
Megan began as a union carpenter apprentice in April, 2011, completing the four year program to become a journeyman in July, 2015. She also graduated from Kent State University in May, 2011, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a minor in Human Resources.
She has been around construction her entire life, beginning with her maternal grandfather who was a 65 year member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 435 before he passed away. Her father is a 35 year member of the same local and part owner of a small general contracting company based in downtown Cleveland. Some of her fondest memories occurred when she accompanied him on jobs for “Take your Daughter to Work Day.” Being as young as eight or nine years old when accompanying him to job sites, she remembers them as “always a lot of fun;” all of the guys called her “the boss.”
In her last year of college she gave serious consideration to her life and career. She accepted an internship in the Human Resources Department of a Fortune 500 company, but after only a few months, she realized working in a corporate office was not the life for her. After some soul searching and discussions with her father, she decided that she really wanted to pursue the business end of construction with a future goal of managing her own company. Being the responsible father, he would not help her until she completed the apprenticeship to learn the carpentry trade and build her skills. Although she realized the importance of the structured training, she did not fully understand its long term benefits until she completed the program.
Megan loves the challenges of carpentry on a day to day basis. She discovered that a large part of being a carpenter involves problem solving because jobs are complex, often with unexpected conditions. She uses her own experiences and knowledge to solve issues daily.
While being a tradeswoman can be difficult, she thinks the younger generation of men is more receptive to accepting women in the trades. Megan enjoys a unique situation by being the boss’ daughter and having known the company’s main foremen almost her entire life; however, she never uses her situation as a crutch. She always makes sure to “pull her weight;” her work ethic and perseverance have led to many opportunities like supervising jobs as a third year apprentice and attending the Carpenters’ International Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, for two important events: an informational seminar about the union called Heavy Hitters and the 2015 Sisters in the Brotherhood Conference.
Working for a general contractor means being fully aware of the performance of all the other trades on the jobsite. Although her biggest challenge was performing in this role of job supervision, she not only learned from the experience but also received a great feeling from keeping everything on schedule and on budget.
Megan describes how becoming a carpenter changed her life in many ways. She claims that learning a trade with an amazing set of skills comes in handy, but more importantly, choosing a career with a great livelihood and benefits provided her with the peace of mind that one can only hope for in life.
Her advice to women is “Be assertive. Nothing is ever accomplished by sitting in the background. Speak up if you don’t agree, contribute ideas, and work hard.”