Similar Stories to Few Women In Construction; Recruiting Efforts Rise on Bing News

Reasons include a dearth of recruitment efforts aimed at women and hard-to-quash stereotypes that construction work doesn't suit them. Another factor, according to a recent report by the National Women's Law Center, is pervasive denigration and sexual harassment of women at work sites. Efforts to accomplish those goals are more advanced in New York than in many parts of the country, with pledges by unions, employers and city officials to boost women's share of construction jobs. Kathleen Culhane, NEW's interim president, said more than 1,000 graduates of the program have obtained apprenticeships since 2005, and women now comprise 12 to 15 percent of the apprentices with leading laborers' and carpenters' unions in the city. Thanks to support from foundations, employers and government contracts, NEW covers all costs for the women taking its programs, including transit fares to and from the headquarters in Manhattan. [...] 50, Battle has been working in cement masonry for 30 years and in 2012 became the first woman elected as business manager of Plasterers and Cement Masons Local 891 in Washington, D.C.