Few women in construction; recruiting efforts rise

 
At the highest level, the management side of the construction industry insists it would welcome more women.
“Most of our members are desperate to hire people,” said Brian Turmail, public affairs director for the Associated General Contractors of America. “They’re looking for any candidate who’s qualified to come and join the team — women, minorities, veterans.”
Turmail suggested that most women aren’t tempted by construction careers, while those who are interested might be hampered by a nationwide cutback in school-based vocational programs.
“It’s not a question of folks not wanting women — it’s women not wanting to work in construction,” he said. “We would love to see the numbers change. It’s the right thing to do and we really need the people.”
Turmail’s association, and many of its chapters across the country, are undertaking educational campaigns and recruiting programs aimed at diversifying the construction workforce. Similar initiatives are being pushed by the National Center for Construction Education and Research, which assists employers with workforce development programs.
Jennifer Wilkerson, the center’s marketing director, said the best recruiters of women are other women who’ve already succeeded in the field. They can speak in detail about the many construction specialties — such as welding and crane-operating — that women can master.
“A lot of times, we think of heavy lifting — the labor side of it — but that doesn’t represent the full spectrum of jobs,” said Wilkerson. “Once women know there’s a place for them, and something they really can do well, they love it.”
The Department of Labor is stepping up its involvement with plans to award $100 million in grants this year for apprenticeship programs that expand opportunities for women and minorities. Some of the grants targeting women call for providing child-care assistance when needed.
“The reality is that the face of apprenticeship in the construction industry has been white male,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview. “We’re working to ensure the future reflects the face of America.”
A crucial step, Perez said, is to raise awareness about the dearth of women in construction, and to highlight the successes of the relatively small number of women who’ve thrived in the sector.
“Women are good at this,” he said. “They’ve punched a ticket to the middle class and speak with great pride of the barriers they’ve overcome. They are the pioneers, and they want the cavalry to come.”
___
Among those impatient with the slow pace of change is Susan Eisenberg, a resident artist/scholar at Brandeis University who worked as a construction industry electrician for 15 years, starting in 1978. She published an acclaimed book in 1998, titled “We’ll Call You If We Need You,” based on her interviews with other women in construction.
Eisenberg has argued that women’s share of the construction workforce should be far higher than it is — perhaps 25 percent instead of 2.6 percent.
“It’s out of step with so much of what’s going on,” she said. “Women are now much more physically fit than my generation. They’re 15 percent of the military.”
Eisenberg suggests that both management and unions should be trying harder to recruit women. And she says government agencies could improve the situation with tougher enforcement of anti-discrimination policies.
“People who think they will be held accountable will change,” she said.
Under current conditions, she says, women may be accepted as apprentices, but then cut short their careers because of discrimination.
“We’ve moved from a closed door to a revolving door,” Eisenberg said.
In the recent National Women’s Law Center report, New Yorker Patricia Valoy, who studied construction management and engineering at Columbia University, described sustained harassment that she encountered during a construction apprenticeship.
“Men would stop their work to stare and wolf whistle,” Valoy recounted. “On a few occasions I got called a ‘bitch’ for refusing to reply to inappropriate remarks… I worked on the site for a year until the stress of constantly being harassed, belittled and intimidated was not worth the effort.”
The Labor Department is well aware of the harassment problem, and its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has pledged to crack down on federal contractors who fail to prevent serious abuses.
“Ending blatant discrimination that excludes women from working in construction and increasing their representation in the industry is long overdue,” wrote Donna Lenhoff, the compliance office’s senior civil rights adviser, in a blog post.
In one case this year, the office determined that three female carpenters with a Puerto Rico construction company were sexually harassed, subjected to retaliation, and denied work hours comparable to those of their male counterparts. At times, the company failed to provide the women with a restroom, and they had to relieve themselves outdoors, the office said.
Under a conciliation agreement, the company agreed to pay $40,000 to the three workers and develop anti-harassment policies.
In another recent case, involving L&M Construction of Capitol Heights, Maryland, federal investigators found pervasive sexual harassment, including lewd acts, sexual gestures, and propositions directed at female employees. The federal office said the company unlawfully fired nine employees, including several men, for opposing the hostile work environment at sites in the Washington, D.C., area. The company agreed to pay back wages to the fired workers and pay for an assessment of its employment and anti-harassment policies.
Statistically, it appears that progress is being made. Construction consistently rates among the top 10 employment sectors with the most sexual-harassment allegations filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but the numbers have declined in recent years — from 416 in 1999 to 132 in 2012.
“I love my trade very much. I love watching nothing become something,” union leader Mary Battle told the National Women’s Law Center. “They’ll harass and belittle you… But we must stick with it, or else things won’t ever get better for women on the job.”
___
Follow David Crary on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CraryAP
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.