Women Get Skills to Break Into Traditional Men’s Trades
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Image credit: Scott Shulman/ABC
In the shadow of a Long Beach, Calif., power plant, a dozen women step into tool belts, don hard hats and learn how to carry a bucket of cement up a flight of stairs to get a leg up on trades usually dominated by men.
According to a 2009 Department of Labor report, while gender equality has made headway in the executive ranks — a quarter of CEOs are women — less than 1 percent of 77,000 U.S. ironworkers and steelworkers are female.
Sherron Ballard, 55, used to be a real estate agent — now she wants to work in construction.
Ballard told ABC News that she was making the job switch for the higher income, which would help her raise her daughter.
She is participating in a grueling 10-week program by Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles, or Winter. The Los Angeles group, in its 15th year, trains women to become plumbers, electricians and ironworkers — well-paid, blue-collar occupations previously dominated by men.
At one California construction site, 250 men worked alongside two females.
Winter’s goal is to tip that balance. The women earn safety certificates, learn about timekeeping, what to wear on construction sites and how to handle discrimination.
“When they go out there for their first job, a lot of people are gonna look at them and say: ‘Why aren’t you home? What are you doing here? Are you sure you’re in the right place?’ And they need to learn how to brush it off and continue on with their work,” said Berta Campos, a program instructor. “I think we need more women in order for men to change their mind and we have to prove them wrong.”
“Women have to go out to work,” said Donna Williamson, who recently graduated from the program. “I have a child. I have to support him.”
Williamson, a 41-year-old single mother, used to make minimum wage selling skateboards in a bike shop. Now she’s an apprentice ironworker making $28 an hour, and her wages will are sure to increase as she progresses in her career.
“I used to drive around and I’d look at the guys on the beams, on the high-rises, and it’s one of those intriguing things,” she said. “There are not a whole lot of women in the construction field. At the end of the day, you are dirty, you are sweating, you don’t smell the greatest and that’s fine with me.”
“I love my job,” Williamson said. “If I can do it, they [women] can do it. And I’m only 5’2.”
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Never apologize for what you do or that you’re female or why you do it.If it’s legal & decent, It’s not below you, “ladies”.. I’ve done many things “1st among women” not to be 1st, but because it interested me. The first blacksmiths were female – check your legends (Charis, & Brigid vs Loki & Vulcan, e.g.) I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked if I didn’t worry about losing my femininity. The answer is, “Never. If someone else worries about it, the problem is theirs, & I don’t worry about other people’s problems. I do what I do because it interests me.” Which is pretty much why my SunDance name is “Shoshola”/Mule. Because, my Ateh said, “I remind him of a mare mule from his childhood, who would do nothing until she thought it was the right thing to do & time to do it; nor would she quit until she thought it was the right thing to do & time to do it; & nothing anyone did every changed her in that regard or persuaded her otherwise.” Thank you, Ateh! Ladies, emulate that mule. Just do your job to the best of your ability & never stop trying to improve your ability to do your job.
Posted by: Carel Two-Eagle | January 31, 2012, 2:35 pm 2:35 pm
Women have been in the construction trade for almost 40 years. I have been in for 32 years and was not the first in our local. I “topped out” with a lady that was 5′l”. We have been doing this all along. You have to believe that you can do it, and be somewhat physically fit to lift the heavy loads that you have from time to time. Times are better now for women in the trades than they were, as they cannot say certain things and do certain things unless they want to be brought up on charges. You do need to brush off some things they say, and you can also just joke along as if it doesn’t bother you. The more they see it bothers you, the more they will keep on doing or saying those things. I have raised two children as a single mother, one out of college and one in his third year. It has been very good for me. Yes, you never go home clean. That’s part of it.
Posted by: Cal | January 31, 2012, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
I applaud Nick Watt and Diane Sawyer for covering this story. I also read an article in Bloomberg Businessweek on the rising income levels of women. Some are earning more then their male spouses and their husbands are staying home with the kids.
Posted by: Lisa | January 31, 2012, 7:17 pm 7:17 pm
My dad was an ironworker for many years. He is not with us now, but I do know he would applaud all these women and wish them only the best! Since he is not here to give them his best wishes, I am doing that for him.
Posted by: kate | January 31, 2012, 8:12 pm 8:12 pm
I too, have worked the trades since 1977 in asphalt road construction. I started out driving dump truck and was given the oldest truck, having to change oils, tires, adjust air breaks, etc. all the while putting up with harassing comments. When the company trucks were sold, I became a labor & learned how to shovel asphalt, jack hammer, all the hard jobs before we had machines to do the heavy stuff. There was no training back then. They made me a fore”man” on a patch crew, until I was relieved of that because I yelled at the “boys”, even though it was ok for the bosses, supes, & foremen to do that. By the time I was forty, I tried my hand in their lab for a couple of years, but was constantly harassed by the foreman, while he trained the younger people. When I went back on the street as a laborer, I held my own with all the crews I worked on and lasted longer than many of the men. I retired after 30 years. I’m thankful women are more accepted now than back then and that they’re getting the training skills my girlfriends and I had to learn the hard way.
Posted by: Bonnie Kanneberg-Monahan | January 31, 2012, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
That was an interesting story that was on the “World News” tonight. Women have an opportunity. To bad Nick didn’t interview my Mother. She is in the Kansas City, Mo. area and was an Iron Worker with Local #10 for over 17 years. Then because she is such a good worker she was able to begin work at the Ford Motor Company Plant. She has been there for over 12 years.
Please understand she is a hard worker and a smart worker. She gets the job DONE! She would have been a great story.
Posted by: Joshua | January 31, 2012, 8:33 pm 8:33 pm
I work with at risk students between the ages of 16-24. My goal is to get them ready to wok in apprenticeships and the building and construction trades. I need strong women who have been working in the trades to serve as mentors for my students. They need to see that other women can do it and so can they.
Posted by: Mary | February 1, 2012, 12:13 am 12:13 am
The way this story was presented on abc world news now made me sick. I am a woman who has owned and operated her own construction company for 20 years. To see the reporters flexing thier muscles and joking about hard work is a so disgusting. Women have and are able to a “mans” job since the beginning of time. It takes hard work, determination, and integrity. Why don’t they do a story on how many men are not paying child support or are choosing to live on unemployment? Men we are sick of your lazy ways and yes we will take over! Go cry to mommy or play video games I think you can see we don’t need you.
Posted by: Kailah Gracia | February 1, 2012, 4:36 am 4:36 am
Women In Non Traditional Employment Roles (WINTER) in Los Angeles offers the pre-apprenticeship training Donna graduted from. We are always looking for Southern California women who want to get in to a Blue Collar Career. Good luck to all the women in out nation that want to do a man’s job because that job offers good pay, and great benefits.
Posted by: B. Campos | February 1, 2012, 10:36 am 10:36 am
“Why don’t they do a story on how many men are not paying child support or are choosing to live on unemployment?”
Maybe cuz women keep using the government to take jobs, roles and money away from men. If you’re a man, why bother trying to participate in a society that takes away your ability to compete and awards it to a woman just because she’s female. Or do you really want to pretend the EOE quotas and government “enforcement” don’t exist? Yeah. Let’s talk about men being lazy several thousand years into the civilization that we MEN have built.
Posted by: GT66 | February 19, 2012, 3:20 pm 3:20 pm