Women Get Skills to Break Into Traditional Men’s Trades

[xmas74]

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.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/01/women-get-skills-to-break-into-traditional-mens-trades/

[jody]

1. Women will never be able to complete with men because they can't grow bald, grow a beer-belly that

laps over their belt, and walk down the street thinking they're handsome.

[xmas74]

2. I have to admit

after watching that piece I definitely wish they had a similar boot camp in my town. The pay is higher compared to most jobs in my area.

[Warpy]

3. An online woman acquaintance works in a steel mill

and says the hardest part of the job is saying the names of specialized equipment without giggling.

Would you believe "peckerhead" is one of them?

[xmas74]

4. I'm not surprised at all by the names.

Personally, if I were in better shape I'd do the work in a heartbeat. This makes me want to go to the local community center and start lifting weights.

[Fumesucker]

5. Meh, the first bucket of cement up the stairs isn't that big a deal...

It's the fiftieth that really sends you home ready to do nothing beyond falling into bed after a few beers, you go backwards up the stairs at home because after an hour ride you're so stiff you can't go up forward, your quadriceps feel like someone beat them into a black and blue mush.

Then you get up way before daylight and do it all again tomorrow after some other trade screws up the job you did today.

Good times and the pay has actually fallen over the years.

[xmas74]

6. Carrying the buckets isn't all that much different

then lifting, dressing (and sometimes fighting) with patients as a CNA in a nursing home. The difference is the pay.

CNA pay is usually around minimum wage.

[Fumesucker]

7. Not to worry,everyone not part of the 1% will be at minimum wage eventually..

Or at least the lucky 99%ers who have an actual job will be at minimum wage.

As I said, the wages for construction work have been dropping for quite some time now, I don't see the trend reversing itself any time soon.

[xmas74]

8. Wages have been dropping

but it's still a field where a single mother could actually support herself and a child, compared to what they've shoved at them in the past.

We need a living wage.

[Fumesucker]

9. Is a single mother going to be able to find reliable and affordable child care at six AM?

A lot of construction companies start at 7 am, particularly in the summer when the days are long and the afternoons hot.

Construction work also requires a reliable vehicle, you're not going to the same place every day, sometimes not even for the entire day, public transportation just doesn't cut it, even the undocumented immigrants drive to work.

My daughter is a single mom of three now so I'm sympathetic and not as much the sexist buffoon I'm probably coming across as but an influx of even more people into construction is going to further drive down wages in that field, a field that is dirty, dangerous and uncomfortable at the best of times. There's a reason construction workers wear hardhats and it's not because they are so stylish and comfortable.

At one time the negatives of construction kept the number of competent people willing to do it down, there are fewer other options for work now and a flood of people thinking if construction workers do something it can't be too hard.

Construction is as hard or harder mentally than many office jobs, if someone has to get out a calculator to add seven and three quarters to nine and seven eighths and then subtract two and five sixteenths they're going to find it mentally challenging.

And finally, yes we do urgently need a living wage for everyone.

[xmas74]

10. Most of the CNA positions I've worked have started between 5-6 am.

There's usually an overlap on shifts in a nursing home-long enough to do a shift change but they start quite early. And, at least in my town, day care opens at 5 am. (Vets home shift is staggered-some start at 5, some at 6, and a select few get the 7 am shift.)

Office workers might not be open to that kind of work. Low wage CNA? They'd take it in a heart beat if they thought they could get the job. It's better than getting punched in the face while attempting to dress a struggling adult who, according to the schedule, has to be in the dining hall no later than 6 am. (Imagine doing it alone-nursing homes are notoriously understaffed.)

Those who live in smaller towns are already used to the lack of public transportation. Most own some kind of vehicle, knowing that's the only method of getting to work and buying groceries. Buses in my town are a very new advent and only run during bank hours during the week-no weekends.

I know of women who have applied over the years for construction jobs, road work, etc, and have always been turned down over the applications of young guys right out of high school with no experience. What happens next is that they go back to their very low wage jobs that offer nothing but more bills and a bad back. Some of those same women would gladly take a back spasm with decent wages over the spasms they are already having for minimum wage and no benefits.

I use nursing homes as an example because it's very physically demanding work, mentally demanding at times (it can include lots of charting, depending on where you work, and keeping track of everything that a hall full of patients do-what they eat and how much, bodily fluids, etc.), and it's always emotionally demanding. Personally, I'd love to see more women in better blue collar jobs. If programs like this are out there eventually they might spread across the country. When women start working in higher paying jobs the traditionally lower paying jobs will find themselves struggling for employees and might finally have to raise their wages a bit.

We need a working wage. We need to respect blue collar work and make all aspects of it honorable. And women deserve that chance.