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Workshop explores opportunities in construction trades
By DONNA VESTALThe Kansas City Star
Last week I peeked in on a Construction Trades Women’s Workshop at the YWCA of Greater Kansas City.
More than 60 women came to learn about careers (not just jobs) in fields that are generally nontraditional for women — cement mason, glazier, pipe fitter, plumber, sheet metal worker, to name a few. No surprise, these choices are well paid, though demanding and not for everyone. Most involve paid apprenticeships lasting up to five years.
Some workshop highlights:
•“We don’t have women apply,” said Susan Blaser, a lineman with Kansas City Power & Light, who noted that she was the first woman to complete the company’s apprenticeship program in 1992 — and only five women have come after her.
“I climb polls and work lines. I do it every day,” she said. “It is physically demanding. … I have learned to work smart.”
On top of the benefits of a great salary and a payday even when it rains, linemen are in demand as the work force ages.
“I don’t have to look for a job. They are looking for me,” Blaser said.
•“Welding is an ideal job for a woman,” said Fred Jonas, a plumber and pipe fitter. “ It’s a terrible, dirty job … but it pays well.”
He, along with other speakers, noted there is a severe shortage of welders.
•Jay Lind, of Sheet Metal Workers #2, said there are 1,200 sheet metal workers in the Kansas City area. Six are women.
•“Ladies, you have a distinct advantage in the (laborers) industry,” said Bill Marsh, with Construction Craft Laborers #1290. “We’re looking for women. We do so many things that you would fit in somewhere.”
The workshop was part of a new Ywomen Can local program that seeks to connect women with nontraditional occupations. For more information, call 913-371-1105.
Equal pay?
Today is Equal Pay Day. And that is nothing to be proud of.
Women’s wages have caught up to men’s wages from the previous year.
It’s a symbolic day, of course, with the actual “moment” occurring sometime in April, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity, a nonprofit organization that coordinates this annual “day of action.”
But the whole idea behind the fake day is so disheartening. The committee says that women’s earnings in 2006 were 76.9 percent of men’s, based on U.S. census statistics of median wages of full-time, year-round workers: $32,515 for women vs. $42,261 for men.
So, as a group, it takes us until now to reach that median level men attained at the end of the year (and even longer for black and Hispanic women).
Sure, some of us are doing just fine earning decent salaries above the median. But think of how that is balanced against the women — often in female-dominated fields — who are working for subpar wages.
The committee says that in some instances, women and people of color do not receive equal pay for doing the same job as their male or white counterparts. But on a broader level, the U.S. continues to wrestle with stereotypes about what kind of work is appropriate for women and the importance of their jobs.
I couldn’t agree more with the committee’s statement: “When parking lot attendants are paid more than child-care workers, we know the work women do is undervalued.”
Just think — since the wage gap hasn’t improved since the turn of the century — women would have to work almost 2½ years more from today to reach the median salaries men have earned since 2000.