I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about one of my favorite phrases by Former President Biden:
“The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.”
In my mind, and so far as I can tell from history, this is indisputably true. And, as logically follows, these two diverse constituencies remain two of America’s most powerful voting blocks - oligarchic invaders notwithstanding.
However, within Biden’s seemingly meritocratic, if not egalitarian, equation, there is a missing variable that I believe in large part explains our country’s lack of parity in the body politic. To a large degree, unions, especially those with high paying wages that built the middle class from the 1940s through the 1960s, almost entirely excluded women.
While UNITE HERE and the SEIU have made enormous strides in female membership, those unions comprised of higher paying, skilled labor careers (coincidence?) - namely construction - are still largely inaccessible to women.
While not widely known outside the industry, construction is a broad umbrella comprising carpenters, plumbers, welders, and electricians.
Here’s a list of the national averages for entry levels of jobs in each profession:
Construction: 52k
Plumber: 62K
Welder: 45K
Electrician: 64K
These salaries alone would mean a decent living for many Americans. And, within 5 to 10 years, workers in these fields can expect to take home a six-figure salary.
Once denied access to these jobs under the guise of a so-called-weaker physical frame, women are still shut out despite innovations in construction equipment and heavy equipment that have long since made the presence or absence of masculine muscles obsolete.
In addition to the “boots-on-the-ground” jobs that often come to mind, construction also includes a constellation of roles required to get any building project off the ground, including project managers, administrative assistants, contractors, accountants, lawyers, CEOS, etc.
While these jobs are management and therefore not union, culture, in this case, certainly trickles up. If there are no or few women on the job site, it will be less likely there will be any in management. Once again, this has staggering economic and political consequences for women as many of these jobs do not require a college degree, are accessible to working-class folks, and provide a tangible entry point to real social mobility.
For instance, according to Indeed, “the salary for a construction project manager in the United States ranges from $75,000 to $137,000 per year. The average salary is around $97,768 per year.”
Imagine the implications on a mass scale if 50% of the 10.6 million workers in construction in the United States were women. Imagine the shift for 5.4 million working-class women in quality of life, social mobility, and political power. The reverberation would be nothing short of life and culture-altering.
We are a long way from this imagined goal. Currently, only 10.6% of construction jobs are occupied by women.
Despite these obstacles and historical inertia, women have made considerable strides in the construction industry in recent years, largely thanks to women like my guest this week, Jillian Penkin. Veteran professional, advocate for women in construction, fierce feminist, and keynote speaker, Jillian helps women successfully navigate the labyrinth between them and success in construction and across industries . She is the Founder of Penkin Consulting and the Northwest Region Director of NAWIC, a non-profit dedicated to championing women to impact the direction of the construction industry.
In this episode of The Female Body Politic, Jillian and I talk about the importance of supporting women in the trades - both for their own sake and for companies who benefit from their presence from boardrooms to boots on the ground. We also discuss the current administration’s assault on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity programs that have already had a devastating effect on many women and members of marginalized communities working in construction as well as the ways we can fight back.
This is part of an ongoing series on women in the trades, co-hosted by
and myself. Stay tuned and subscribe for this important discussion about how we can change the political landscape of America by empowering women in non-traditional labor.
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