Blue Collar and Proud of It: The All-In-One Resource for Finding Freedom, Financial Success, and Security Outside the Cubicle (24 page)
Authors: Joe Lamacchia,Bridget Samburg
Tags: #Business
Did You KNOW?
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE
In the United States, 24 percent of architects are women. Twenty-four percent of all computer programmers are women, and 21 percent of chemical engineers are female. But just 15 percent of all taxi drivers and chauffeurs are women. Thirteen percent of all police and patrol officers are women, and of all the cabinetmakers out there, just 6 percent are women. Of water and liquid waste facility operators, 6.2 percent are women and just 3.6 percent of all drywall installers are women. Of carpenters, only 1.9 percent are female, and 0.4 percent of all ironworkers are female.
When Linda Howard was ready to give up on being a nursing assistant, she went into trucking. She said many of her patients weighed more than 250 pounds and she simply couldn’t lift them anymore. At forty-four, she was exhausted and achy every day after her ten-hour shifts.Her partner Cherie Ahlvers had lost her job, and the two women decided to find something they could do together. One of Howard’s friends had long been telling her she should go into trucking. So both Howard and Ahlvers decided to give it a try and went to trucking school. Three years later they drive a dedicated route together, meaning they go from their home in Fernley, Nevada, which is outside Reno, to Orlando, Florida, each week. They spend about five days on the road and are typically home Sundays and Mondays.
“I love it, ” saysHoward. She loves the freedom, the driving, the open road, and seeing parts of America along the way. She enjoys not having a boss looking over her shoulder. “You need to love driving, ” she says. “You’re basically queen of the road.” Howard says she’s never faced any problems for being a female trucker, and she generally finds that other drivers are welcoming toward the duo. On their down time, of which Howard says there really isn’t much, she surfs the web and Ahlvers either watchesmovies or reads. Since they are bothmusicians, they tried to bring their instruments along for the long rides, but when Ahlvers began to teach herself saxophone in the small cab of the truck, Howard decided it was time to ban live music.
Howard says they were each making $40, 000 to $50, 000 their first year driving and have never had so much money. It’s allowed the women to buy a house of their own and have plenty left over. “I know people who have spent $40, 000 on college and don’t make this much when they get out.” But Howard warns that this is definitely not for everyone. To anyone thinking about getting into trucking, Howard suggests getting on a truck first just for a test run. Going along for a ride or two should give you a sense of whether this is something you could do, she says. “This lifestyle is an acquired taste.” You are in small quarters, you don’t have a private shower at your disposal and insteadmust rely on the truck stop facilities, plus the endless driving can get tiring.
Although women entered the workforce, and specifically the blue-collar workforce, in droves duringWorldWar II, many were sent home once the men returned from overseas. They were only welcome when themen weren’t around and the women were desperately needed. These women had been enticed by the posters of Rosie the Riveter, a female riveter who was shown withmuscles and brawn. Along with a “We Can Do It” slogan, women were encouraged to believe in and test their abilities. But once themen were back fromwar and back on the scene, most of the women were expected to take their place back in the home. But these women demonstrated that females can in fact work in factories, they can build equipment and machinery, and they can work blue-collar jobs. And that’s not all. They showed that they are very good at it, too.
A record 68 million women are employed in the United States right now, but not many are in the trades. Thirty-nine percent are in management or professional jobs while 34 percent are in sales or office jobs and 20 percent are in service jobs. Just 6 percent are in production, transportation, and material moving, and 1 percent—or 680, 000— work in construction or maintenance. Okay, that sounds like a lot of people and a lot of positions. And yes, in some ways that’s a ton of jobs for women. But when you think about it compared to the number of men, it’s really appalling.
Success in the Real World
Nancy Schoonover Hanlan, heavy equipment operator, Canton, Ohio
Nancy Schoonover Hanlan grew up the youngest of four girls, walking the line between being a tomboy and someone who was taught to act like a lady and wear frilly lace socks to church on Sundays. Hanlan, who was raised in Ohio, had always wanted to be a veterinarian but knew the money it would take to go through school was too much for her parents. She didn’t know about grants and loans and instead opted for a local technical school where she earned a civil engineering degree.Hanlan joined the International Union of Operating Engineers, which is best known for training heavy equipment operators.Her father was a union member, and she had worked on cranes with him while growing up. It was something she enjoyed, and she knew she couldmake good money doing the work.
That was in the late 1970s, and Hanlan was just one of eight girls in her class. But she loved the work and spent eighteen years in the field, operating backhoes, paving machines, 824 compactors, and more. “It’s something different every day, ” she says, adding that being outside and often working on a different team is what she appreciates most about the job.Nearly fifty at the time of this writing, Hanlan now works in the office of a construction company in Canton, Ohio.
She would highly recommend heavy machine operating to women. Thanks to hydraulics and other advances, the work isn’t as physically demanding as it sounds. “Everything used to have monstrous levers, ” she says, but today’s sophisticated equipment requires less heavy lifting than ever before. And Hanlan strongly recommends unions to women for their no-cost apprenticeship programs. She sees many women who enter the field in their twenties or thirties. “A gal that has children? She is able to provide for them this way.”
In Canada, each province has impressively started funding initiatives to attract more women to the skilled trades, and the measures are working. Women in Skilled Trades is one such program and is offered through local colleges. This initiative works to help more women get into blue-collar careers while also addressing the skills shortages that exist. Slowly but surely, more women are joining blue-collar sectors, and approximately 1 million women work in the skilled trades. The data is different for each province, but in Newfoundland and Labrador, the number of women registering for the trades is up 35 percent since 2004. Keep in mind that Canada’s population is smaller than that of the United States, hovering around 33million. But still, as in the United States, there are huge gaps between the numbers of men and women working in these fields.
Women in Canada have been registering for apprenticeships in increasing numbers, though. According to the Canadian Council on Learning, the number of women enrolling increased threefold between 1991 and 2003. By 2003, women made up 10 percent of all apprentices, up from a mere 4 percent in 1991.
Back in the 1980s, when Lori Johnson walked through the halls of her automotive technology school, a few people continually called her nasty names. Some of the men decided she had come to meet a husband. Others just derided her for being a woman in a man’s world. But after a while, people got over it. Then when she got her first job working on cars at a Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Honda dealership, she would see small lines of people being brought through the shop. They were being led as if on a museum tour and she soon realized that they were there to take a peek at the female under the hood. “It was almost like a circus, ” she says. “I was an exhibit.”
Things have changed, and Johnson laughs aboutmost of it now. She says that despite some of the obstacles, blue-collar careers offer incredible opportunities for women.Not only are these jobs an excellent way to put food on the table and care for your family, but they are also rewarding, challenging, and potentially lucrative. Male-only work just doesn’t exist anymore. There are female heavy equipment operators, construction workers, and welders. We definitely don’t see as many women in these careers as we should. Female loggers make up 1.7 percent of the industry, whereas 2.6 percent of electricians are women and 7.5 percent of painters are female. Approximately 1.2 percent of all pipe layers and plumbers are women. Of airline mechanics, 4.5 percent are women, and 2.8 percent of workers in auto mechanics and body shop repair are women.
Success in the Real World
Robyn Bush, ironworker, Bolingbrook, Illinois
You can be a feminine ironworker. Just ask Robyn Bush, who is pretty, petite, and the first female ironworker in her Local #444 in Joliet, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Her male coworkers will sometimes say, “You throw like a chick, ” when she tosses something their way. “I am a chick, ” she reminds them. Bush, thirty-four, has always been a tomboy, but she has her feminine side, too. She wants more women to know that wearing lipstick or carrying a purse is not forbidden just because you’re in the trades. “I foundmy passion, ” says Bush, of landing with the ironworkers.She’s been at it for about two years, following stints at Home Depot and some time working as a furniture upholsterer.
When she initially went to trade school for carpentry, Bush was told to go work in upholstering instead. But she wanted something more thrilling, more invigorating. That’s exactly what she’s found in iron-working. “It’s man’s best-kept secret, ” says Bush, who lives in Boling-brook, Illinois, with her husband and two children.Bush had to get over her fear of heights pretty quickly, which she did, but not without coaching herself through some stickymoments. She would remind herself of what Simba, the newborn lion, from
The Lion King
says: “I laugh in the face of danger.” That’s exactly what Bush does each day that she is on a scaffolding or several stories off the ground. “My career empowersme, ” she says. “Whatever you believe is what you can do.”
Tracy Warren-Burke has a business degree and co-owns Burke’s Cus-tomMetalWorks, Inc. in Rollo Bay, Prince Edward Island, with her husband, who is a Red Seal welder. Warren-Burke says it has taken her years to get male customers to understand that she can assist them and answer questions regarding their sheet metal products and services. AlthoughWarren-Burke doesn’t have any women working for her company, she says women are often perfectly suited for the trades, especially when it comes to industries such as welding that require a certain amount of precision and patience.
“This is amale-dominated industry, ” saysWarren-Burke.But she also points out that with each passing generation things change dramatically. A female in the skilled trades would have seemed bizarre thirty years ago. Not so anymore, andWarren-Burke says people are changing their expectations and stereotypes. “It will be even easier for the next generation.”
We’ve got a long way to go. The unions are certainly helping in some ways. They are more receptive to women in the trades than in the past, and in some areas they are actively working to recruit females. In 2005, two dozen construction unions in New York City agreed to reserve 10 percent of their apprenticeships or openings for women. The initiative was started under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Commission on Con- struction Opportunity, and the goal is supposed to be reached in 2010. Society in general is becoming more receptive to women in the trades, and many great organizations are working to help women find their way into the blue-collar workforce. We tell youmore about those organizations later in this chapter.
While women should be prepared for the possibility of getting grief froma coworker or boss for being a female, there ismuch support out there.Organizations are tackling tough issues such as harassment and salary inequality. The path is clearer and easier for females than it’s ever been. More important, these are industries that women enjoy, feel passionate about, and want to be in. Just like men, women find out that it’s simply thrilling to build, bust down, create, and shape each and every day.
Women in nontraditional jobs (jobs in which you don’t typically find women) pay better than those jobs that are considered more traditional for women. The sheer fact these jobs are thought of as male positions makes themmore attractive to some women. In other words, for some women, it’s a challenge of sorts to take on a career that would surprise people. Best of all, these careers provide self-esteem.
“A lot of parents don’t realize these are skilled trades and that they’re in very high demand, ” says Terri Burgess Sandu, interim director of Hard Hatted Women, a Cleveland-based organization. “We’re changing the way we think about the skilled trades and getting girls to think about fields that are nontraditional for women.” Burgess Sandu says there is certainly an image problem out there, but by educating women, more teachers, and parents, she hopes some of these perceptions can be changed. “We have to get women to realize these are great careers, ” she adds. “You are not the wrong gender.” Hard Hatted Women offers a ten-week program through which women work on math skills and blueprint reading, and are introduced to using a variety of tools, all in preparation for joining a trade.
“When I saw a man sandblasting, I said, ‘I want to do that.’” Karen Kreig had worked a variety of jobs and as a military brat she was used to bouncing around, so for a while switching jobs didn’t bother her too much. But then she knew she ultimately wanted a pension, and she thought she’d like to stick with one thing. Kreig, who lives in Antelope, California, joined a labor union almost twenty-five years ago and has been learning one skill after the next ever since.Now fifty-six, she runs jackhammers, sandblasts, and lays concrete.
“You have to come out here ready to work, ” she says. And as a woman, “You have to get dirtier than them, ” she says referring tomen. Kreig says she’s never gottenmuch attitude, but partially that’s because she’s tough and isn’t afraid to show it. She has thick skin, and she doesn’t mind working hard or getting calloused hands or dirty jeans. “I knew I was entering aman’s world and I had to provemyself.” Kreig says she feels so much pride knowing that she’s built bridges that take people to work every day or laid foundations for beautiful buildings.