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Best Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Women in Construction
Apprenticeship: A Case Study
Susan Moir, ScDPGTI Research Director
Massachusetts USA
CANADIAN APPRENTICESHIP FORUM/FORUM CANADIEN SUR L’APPRENTISSAGE June 17-18, 2019
Vancouver, Canada
350% increase in 6 years8.49%
Integrated statewide supply AND demand strategy
4 initiativesOne movement for change
Our shared goals
•Crushing the barriers to women’s entry into the construction trades
•Spreading best practices for gender diversity to our regional construction industry
•20% tradeswomen by 2020#20percentby2020
U.S. Historical context
• 1978: Women were -3% of the construction trades
• Federal Executive Order 11246 mandates 6.9% women’s hours on construction sites
• Feminists organize
• A few women break through into the trades and form tradeswomen’s organizations
1988: 3%• Tradeswomen’s organizations lobby for pre-
apprenticeship funding• Millions spent on training tens of thousands of
women in preparation for apprenticeship
1998: 3%
2008: 2.6%
•Maybe we should try something else….
PGTI: The Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues
•2008: 15 women who cared about this policy failure
•Now: “A multi-stakeholder collaboration” of over 75 industry partners• tradeswomen, building trades unions, contractors,
developers and owners, government and community reps
•We have met every other month for 11 years
2008: We needed a study
•Why are women not entering and staying in the construction trades?
•Why were women not entering and staying in the construction trades??
Page 2
Stop asking WHY.
Ask HOW can women enter and stay in the trades?”?
Pre-Apprenticeship, Recruitment & Training =Supply
♀♀♀
♀
No jobs = No retention
Demand = JobsJobs drive Retention
We need DemandWe need jobs that ask for women.
Supply
Demand
Best practice: Site-Based monitoring committees on targeted public construction projects• Agreement by all parties on workforce participation
targets (gender and race)• Continuous (monthly) reporting and monitoring of status
of workforce demographics by contractor and trade• Aggressive “corrective action process”
Partners include UMass Building Authority, Mass Gaming Commission, other state agencies, municipalities and private developers.
Targeted Projects: results to dateTARGETED PROJECT Percent of women’s
trade hoursUMass Boston 7.85%MGM Casino 7.36%Encore Casino 7.16%Winthrop Square 15.53%Harvard Allston 7.94%
All monitored projects in Massachusetts in the past 8 years: Tradeswomen’s share of hours is 7.03% on $6.5 billion of work.
How are we doing?
8.49%
3.62%
26.5% increase in women union apprentices in 2018
The PGTI Model: Integrating supply and demand for getting women into the trades and keeping them
•SUPPLY: Opening the pipeline to get more tradeswomen into union apprenticeship
•DEMAND: Getting and keeping women working in the trades
We have a supply problem
TRADESWOMENTUESDAYS
Women learn what the men know–where to go, what you need and who to talk to.
“Working to encourage and support more Massachusetts girls to start high-skill, high-pay careers in union construction!”
Annual conferences attended by 400-500 female Voc Tech students in construction programs
Mass Girls in Trades (MAGIT)
33% increase in girls in manual programs. Over 3000 girls across the state.
Data driven progress
Targeted Projects: resultsTARGETED PROJECT Percent of women’s
trade hoursUMass Boston 7.85%MGM Casino 7.36%Encore Casino 7.16%Winthrop Square 15.53%Harvard Allston 7.94%
All monitored projects in Massachusetts in the past 8 years: Tradeswomen’s share of hours is 7.03% on $6.5 billion of work.
How are we doing?
8.49%
3.62%
26.5% increase in women union apprentices in 2018
33% increase in girls in manual programs. Over 3000 girls across the state.
Gender equity in the construction workforce: 5 game changers
1. Develop and communicate the business case. 2. Collaborate across stakeholder groups.3. Make tradeswomen visible. 4. Set high targets. Count and report. 5. Lead from where you are.
Adapted from the “5 Tips” included in Getting it done: Utilising women’s skills in the workforce: Lessons from the Canterbury rebuild (August 2015). Canterbury had 17% tradeswomen on their post-earthquake rebuild.
Develop and communicate the business case.
Women want and need these jobs.
The myth of the labour shortage in construction
Gender equity in the construction workforce: 5 game changers
Customized technical assistance workshops
•“WHY AND HOW: Gender diversity in the Massachusetts construction workforce”
• For contractors, unions, government agencies, unions, apprentice programs…
• Any and all construction industry stakeholders.
Collaborate across stakeholder groups.
You are doing that today!
Gender equity in the construction workforce: 5 game changers
Multi-stakeholder collaboration at every level
• Convene stakeholder representatives who support the goal of greater diversity in the construction workforce.
• WHO? Owners and developer, community groups, unions and training programs, large and small contractors plus government and public officials
• WHEN? Meet regularly to share knowledge and experience • WHAT? Build strategic learning communities to implement
policy
Make tradeswomen visible.
NOT limited to gender specific activities and materials!
Gender equity in the construction workforce: 5 game changers
Make tradeswomen visible: site scrims
Who are these tradeswomen and tradeswomen wannabes?
Gender diversity drives racial diversityThe majority of tradeswomen working in Boston are women of color
Make tradeswomen visible: Women Build Nations
• Oct. 4-6, Minneapolis, MN• Over 2000 tradeswomen and
allies• The LARGEST conference of
rank and file union membersanywhere ever
Set high targets. Count and report.
20% by 2020Count, track and report transparent and accessible data.
Gender equity in the construction workforce: 5 game changers
Break it down: targeted initiativesThere is way too much to count.• WORKFORCE: apprenticeship, employment,
retention…• EMPLOYERS: contractors, owners and developers,
provinces and municipalities…• DATA, DATA, DATA: Hours, trades, dollars, OT…
What are you counting for impact? •Target, identify baselines and trends, track and report
The problem of soft outcomes
Lead from where you are.
Every area of this industry needs help. Let’s all stay in our lane.
Gender equity in the construction workforce: 5 game changers
PGTI’s mantra
•We are in this together. •There is no silver bullet. •We will never never never give up.