It's awesome being a woman in the union. You're definitely getting the same pay as everyone. You don't have to worry about getting less pay, less work, or less hours. You're getting equal treatment. I definitely like to jump in and learn as much as I can so I won't be treated like less of a worker. I put the work in and the guys look at me as an equal. I don't walk around thinking because I'm a woman that I'm supposed to get less work. I definitely put in a little bit more than a hundred percent because I'm a woman. We always have that worry that they're going to look at us like we're weaker. So that's why I try to use my mind to come up with great ideas to make the job a little easier.
I really like using my hands and my brain. The guys I work with are tough and sometimes they just want to use their muscle, but a lot of the times you have to use your brain too.
It's a lot of critical thinking work. Things don't always happen the way it’s written on the blueprint, so you always have to think of ways to be creative and put things together that you wouldn't normally think of.
People that aren’t in construction don't really understand how stuff comes together. You see the building start and you see it going up, but you never really see it completed from beginning to end. It's nice to see things from a broader perspective.
I would love to see more women, especially women of color come into the trades.
If there were more of us there, we wouldn't feel like outcasts. It's also a path to financial stability for people like myself coming from housing projects or not the best situation. I'm a single mother who had my daughter young and didn't go to school. I found a career where I can still have a great future. Something great to show my daughter instead of working a menial job or busting my butt in school and having student loans after. I still have school two nights a week for four years until I graduate the apprenticeship program. They train you to do everything, so you don't really have to know anything to join. As long as you are a high school graduate and you're drug free, you can always start a great career in the building trades. I was 30 when I got into the union. A lot of my coworkers were in their 20s. Then you have some guys in the apprenticeship program that are in their 40s.
No matter your age, gender or what you've been through, you can always get in a union, find your thing, and live good.
I definitely think that women, especially young women, don't know how much money they can make in the trades. They don't really know that this could be a great start, especially right out of high school. If you start young, you can retire young. You don't want to be 70 years old still breaking your back. You don't have to go to college. College is not always the only choice if it's not for you. If you do choose college, you can become a project manager, engineer, or pursue a lot of different fields.
There are a lot of different things you can do in construction. You don't have to be hands-on, you don't have to be on the job sites. You can be in the office, you can go from site to site, you can work for a good company and do bookkeeping. There are just so many options.
There's so much money in construction. I would like to see more women go for it all, especially now that our vice president is a black woman. It just shows how much we can do, how much we can accomplish. We can take over male dominated industries.
My advice to someone deciding on their career is to figure out what you're interested in, go for it, and work as hard as you can. Don't ever let anyone tell you that because you're a woman or have any type of roadblock that you can’t be whoever you want to be. You can do anything you want to do. The sky’s the limit.
It's a great feeling to be on my own and be able to take care of myself and my child. It’s something I’ve been trying to reach for a long time. My daughter is 12 going on 13 in February. I’m trying to be a role model for her. I want to let her know that even though she doesn’t have to go into the trades, she can accomplish anything, no matter how long it takes.
– Jasmine Jackson, Second Year Apprentice, Ironworkers Local 580
#unionstrong #laborunions #workingwomen
Follow YOUnion_NY on Instagram!
A photography project of Workforce Development Institute - Shining a spotlight on women emerging in the union workforce.