Organizations such as the Northern Nevada Apprenticeship Coordinators’ Association offer opportunities for young women to learn skilled trades. Courtesy
Project engineer Angela Ramirez with Gilbane Building Co. goes to work every morning at the University of Nevada, Reno watching the new multi-story Nevada State Public Health Laboratory come to life. She finds the work satisfying as she interacts with the various skilled trades to build something that will last.
“I really like it because I can go out there and see the progress,” she said. “It’s like solving a puzzle and I really appreciate that of construction, that no day is exactly the same.”
Women in Construction Week, celebrated March 3 to 7, is dedicated to fostering an interest in the trades and skills that have become more demanding and diverse in recent years. But despite best efforts to recruit and offer greater opportunities by showing that it’s not always about muscle power, women still lag behind men when it comes to entering most skilled trades.
Melissa Maguire, first female board president of the Nevada Builders Alliance, said approximately 10.4% of Nevada’s construction industry is female. According to Northern Nevada Building Trades, less than 10% of jobs in the United States are filled by women. With this rate, she’d like to consider setting the next annual goal of a 16% female workforce in Nevada .
“I was born into the electrical industry and I decided when I was 14 that that's what I was going to do permanently,” Maguire said. “I apprenticed during that time, got my license as soon as I was legally allowed to after four years in the trade over 18. So I did that and realized that this is a great trade for really anybody, but women are underutilized.”
Women in the field acknowledge working the hard labor that they lack the same physical structure as their male counterparts. Still, there are still plenty of opportunities and workarounds to apply their skills, Maguire said.
“I think we're starting to get more traction with that,” she said. “It has to happen because we have nobody coming into the trades. There's no younger people that want to do it. There's no older people that want to do it, so if women don't step in, like World War II, we're not going to get anything done. So typically, we need to save the world.”
To inspire young women to enter careers in the skilled trades including construction or electrical work, the NBA has partnered with the Nevada Women’s Fund to establish a $10,000 endowed scholarship for full-time students attending local schools. Students who are eligible with a 2.5 grade point average can receive $1,000, or $500 per semester, to use however they need for courses, materials or child care, as long as they are enrolled, according to Stacy Rich, NBA director of operations.
Natalie Molleson, business and commercial insurance agent of the Jim Gray Agency for Country Financial in Carson City, said one avenue the partnership would benefit the next generation is through creating construction academies with schools such as Carson High School’s Career and Technical Education program.
“There are a lots of avenues that women can go in — and obviously, everybody needs to be trained — but if you can literally walk in the job in and have a full-time job, these are great careers, these kids are learning these trades and they can go anywhere with them and have them for the rest of their lives,” Rich said.
The work has changed so that more training essentials are the analytical skills to operate a computer or the machinery that can do the heavy lifting instead of relying on manual labor, Rich said.
The important message is to keep the industry alive with the hope that much of the workforce stays in Nevada, even with workers willing to take on learning skills like painting a house, Maguire said.
“Almost every company that we work with and encounter and work beside, they all would hire and take on an unskilled, untrained person and train them,” she said. “I haven’t run into hardly anyone who wouldn't hire a female or wouldn't hire a kid just because they didn't have any skills. We're all willing to train right now, so just ask.”