by Tina Hartley

Created on: November 20, 2008   Last Updated: December 21, 2008

Women in construction are not nearly as uncommon today as they were when I got my first construction job 30 years ago. I was part of the first wave of enforced affirmative action in the 1970's. Qualified white men everywhere were being passed over in order for minorities to fill quotas on government funded projects such as highway construction.

At that time no one, white or black, male or female, had a chance of being accepted into the elite International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) without having a union member as a sponsor. As the only child of a long time member of the IUOE, I had no problem breaking that barrier. This put me in the unique position of being despised both for being a woman on a construction job and a woman who was an IUOE member.

As luck would have it, my first foreman on a large highway construction project was a bitter young man who had attempted for years to break into the IUOE to no avail. There was no doubt from day one, Jim hated me being on the job. It was no more than two weeks into the project before he told me so in no uncertain terms. "Why don't you go be a nurse, or secretary or something?" he said. I raised my eyebrows and said, "Why would you deny me a right to a decent paying job just because I'm a woman?"

The whole story came spilling out of his frustration over being unable to do what he really loved. "All a woman in construction does is take away a job from a qualified man!" he stated. "Jim" I said, "If it's not me it would just be another woman. I need this job. I have a son to take care of. Can't we just do our jobs?" He looked at me with fire in his eyes and the little muscle in his jaw twitching but he said no more.

Jim never did stop trying to sabotage me the entire nine months of the project. He repeatedly told the supervisor I wasn't doing my job. He blamed me for every tool out of place or broken. As an apprentice Operator I was an oiler on a giant Caterpillar track hoe under a senior operator. My operator was a kindly old farmer who called me Charlie. It took me months to get it out of him why he called me that.

"My wife don't hold with me working with no women on a construction job" he drawled quietly. "After 45 years of marriage, she's still a jealous woman. I can't be going home after work and tellin' her about my day without mentioning you. So, I jes figgered I'd give ya a nickname that sounded a little more masculine. That way, there just ain't nothin' to fuss about" he said. I laughed out loud but I thought to myself "Even some women are prejudiced about women in construction!"

I was in some form of construction for most of the next 25 years. Sometimes I could really understand why women were despised. Many of them just couldn't do the jobs they were sent out on a construction site to do. They still expected to get paid in full despite the fact one of the men had to literally do their job for them.

Many things changed over the years. Quotas became a thing of the past. More qualified women were on the job. For the most part I was treated fairly but it was a rare occasion to be the only woman on a construction site without having to prove myself. Prove myself I did, time and time again. There isn't a thing wrong with women in construction, as long as she can do her job.

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