MOMS’ WORK                                                                                                         May, 2017

Happy Mother’s Day! Today I received a box of my favorite oatmeal cookies. They were made by my friend Liz in Texas. This was her amazing way of wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. These delicious cookies caused me to pause and reflect on women (more so Moms) who work. You see, I sell tools to construction companies and manufacturers – typical non-traditional workplaces for women.

Recently, an engineer for a construction company, Tara and I talked about how we are seeing an increase of women on the job site. Hold onto your hat man, less than 10% of workers in trades, safety and engineer professionals are women on site. Something that is improving but we still need to work on. I still walk onto a site occasionally devoid of women. I see a growing acceptance of women in non-traditional roles. Why? Wage equality, job equality, work force availability it could be one of or all of these reasons.

Following are some interesting statistics I found while researching this topic. Also I am including some resources if you or your daughters are looking for a non-traditional career. Now is the time! We are building, repairing and growing at a pace not seen in decades in places like Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland OH.  I salute all working Moms – thank you for paving the way, setting the example and encouraging a new generation in a new exciting field. To all the men that see the potential in women and help forge a path to equality – thank you for supporting us and being a trail blazer! 

Here is a link to Mom inspired buildings. https://buildingradar.com/construction-blog/mothers-day/

Resources:

Visit the trades to learn more about career options:

http://www.buildersguild.org/careers.html Free apprenticeship programs in 17 different trades.

http://www.nawic.org/nawic/default.asp National Association of Women in Construction

http://www.ubcsisters.org/ United Sisterhood of the Brotherhood of Carpenters

http://pittsburgh.swe.org/  Society of Women Engineers

Statistics:

http://www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/blogs/womens-work-construction.htm

https://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/Nontraditional%20Occupations.pdf  I selected some of the stats to view.

Occupations	# of workers (thousands)	Women as a % of total employed
Architects	178	25.3%
Industrial Engineers	194	16%
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	51	9.9%
First -line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers	696	2.4%
Electricians	796	2.4%

Author:

Linda Richardson, Director of Business Development

Working for a trail blazing woman owned business

PowerTool and Supply www.powertoolandsupply.com

Want to share your experience in non-traditional roles?

Contact me at linda@powertoolandsupply.