Yes They Can! Program Boosts Number of Women Construction Workers

By Anne Kadet, The Wall Street Journal

If you spot a female construction worker on a union site in New York City, you can assume three things. Yes, she’s probably a tough cookie. And she’s likely earning far more than her blue-collar sisters in occupations traditionally held by women. Third? She likely got her start at a little-known workforce training program housed in a former firehouse on a quiet Manhattan street.

Last week, in the basement shop of Nontraditional Employment for Women, commonly referred to as NEW, 20 women of all ages cheered each other on as they took turns lugging buckets of concrete up and down a flight of stairs.

“I don’t have to ask the guy, ‘Can you help me with this bucket?’ I’m independent. I’m ready to work,” said student Natasha Benn.

NEW recruits and trains about 225 women a year to enter apprentice programs offered by the city’s construction unions. The unions recently increased the portion of apprentice slots reserved for woman from 10% to 15%, and most are filled by NEW graduates.

While union construction jobs offer good pay and benefits, few women consider a career in the building trades, said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. NEW not only creates a trained and prescreened pool of women for unions to tap, “it does an outstanding job of advocating these careers for women,” he said.

Nationally and citywide, women fill just 3% of construction jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. NEW and union officials say that as a result of their unusual efforts, women represent more than 6% of the New York area’s roughly 100,000 union construction workers.

Those figures are still low of course. The construction industry isn’t and shouldn’t be satisfied with such a small percentage of women on work crews, said Jennifer Wilkerson, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), a consortium of contractors, academics and construction associations focused on developing a productive construction workforce. The situation is especially problematic, she says, considering the looming shortage in trades workers.

Research indicates that women still aren’t aware of opportunities in construction, “and it’s perceived rightfully as a male-dominated industry,” Ms. Wilkerson said.

Ms. Benn has been earning little more than minimum wage working with special-needs children. “It’s not a career, it’s a job,” she said.

After completing NEW’s tuition-free, seven-week Blue Collar Prep program, which includes classes in carpentry, electrical work, trades math, health and safety, she aims to land a spot in the laborer’s union, eventually earning about $40 an hour.

“They are the first people on the site and the last people to leave. So that’s a lot of overtime,” she said of the laborers.

NEW’s incoming students usually earn low wages in traditionally female occupations, said Erik Antokal, the group’s assistant vice president for programming. Union construction jobs, meanwhile, typically pay $40 to $60 an hour, plus full benefits. “These are family-sustaining, middle-class jobs,” he said.

It’s not always about the money. Indhira Marichal, a recent NEW grad who rises at 5 a.m. to install switches and fixtures at a Hudson Yards high rise on Manhattan’s west side, said that as an apprentice electrician, she earns a third of what she made as a school director—but she’s much happier.

Her old job involved a lot of bureaucracy and red tape, Ms. Marichal said. She finds her new position straightforward and rewarding, while the daily challenge of mastering new skills satisfies her inner nerd.

“I found it to be a perfect blend of brain and brawn. I have both, so why not?” she said.

Local contractors say NEW grads are in demand. Jacobson & Company, one of the area’s largest union carpentry contractors, has increased the proportion of woman among its 280 carpenters to 9%, said Jacobson Executive Vice President Patrick Oates.

“When women come onto the scene, they change things for the positive—they encourage collaboration,” he said. “The safety culture in the business has also improved, and women are a part of that.”

Some still have a hard time accepting women in hard hats. But NEW grad Erika Glenn-Byam said the culture has improved since she started working as a laborer in 2006.

On one of her first jobs, a co-worker confessed that the men on her crew shared a secret motto: “Get rid of the women!”

“You guys need to grow up,” she told him.

Some of her female co-workers quit, but she was determined to support her mother and her brother, who has Down syndrome. “I wanted to make the money a male makes, and the great benefits,” she said. “I wanted to buy my mother a house.”

It’s still a challenge. When she arrives at a new site, fellow laborers typically refer to her as “the girl,” said Ms. Glenn-Byam, who is 38 years old. At her current site, she’s the only woman on her crew.

But she loves her team, and they appreciate her contributions, she said.

Ms. Glenn-Byam serves as mediator when tensions rise. She’s smaller than the guys and can reach tight spaces they can’t access. And she’s always available to clear out the ladies room when it needs repair. “The guys are so scared someone might be in there,” she said. “They say, ‘Erika, can you go in first?’ ”

And after 13 years, she said, she’s finally achieving her goal: “I’m buying a two-family house for myself and my mother.”