Accepting Women Electricians
Women represent about 4% of the workforce when it comes to construction, and it’s not all the hard to see why. Women have a lot more barrier to entry when it comes to construction and the trades, mostly from straight up sexism. Women in our workforce face taunts, harassment, and even threats on a regular basis- and for no reason. Joann Greely is a female electrician who followed in the footsteps of her father before her. She didn’t think there would be any problem, but despite being a skilled electrician, when she first started, she couldn’t get a call back. When her male friends with less experience tried for the same jobs they were called back the same day. When she finally got on the job site she was harassed incessantly. But she toughed it out. Now, ten years later, or profession has changed.
There are more female electricians than females in most trades and reports of harassment are going down. This is in large part do to the effectiveness of our unions. In other words, of all the trades, electricians are starting to prove that we are the most accepting, and though things are perfect, they are getting better. Read more about Joann’s story here-
http://www.ibew.org/articles/14daily/1409/140930_women.htm
