In a Field Dominated by Men, She’s in Charge

But she is not done. Ms. Hicks is assembling the next group of women to work in skilled-trade industries. With support of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, a city-funded incubator for women-owned businesses in Atlanta, her latest venture is a career development agency and training center to help women get jobs in male-dominated industries. It will start this summer in Atlanta, with plans for nine more centers to open in cities across the country, including Detroit and Englewood, Calif.

“I am tired of being the only, the first,” she said. “I’m working to try to change that. I look at construction as the last frontier for women. I don’t think it’s any better than when I started. It takes a long time to change culture. And it’s not where it needs to be for women to feel there is a real opportunity.”

Apprenticeships like the one Ms. Hicks held provide on-the-job training and are vital to the success of women in the skilled-trade sector. In 2017, however, only 7.3 percent of those completing registered apprenticeships were women.

“Growing the number of women in construction or the trades is no small feat,” said C. Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “It takes a tremendous amount of coordination between work-force development programs, labor unions, contractors and the government. These are higher-paying jobs with benefits, and potential for increased earnings over time — all things that are particularly meaningful for working women with families.”

But change has been incremental.

“Although huge strides have been made over the last several decades, there does remain a significant lack of diversity of women and women of color in the skilled trades and construction industry,” said Vicki Anderson, the chief executive of Stevens Engineers and Constructors, based in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/business/women-electricians.html