PGTI: The Policy Group on Tradeswomen's Issues

The Division of Apprentice Standards’ 2018 year-end numbers for Registered Apprentices demonstrated the increase in women apprentices in joint union programs that the industry has been feeling in the field.

• Over 100 women built the MGM Casino in Springfield.
• Over 300 women are working at Encore in Everett.
• The UMass Building Authority (UMBA) has three Access and Opportunity Committees  (AOCs) monitoring diversity on its campuses and is planning a new one at UMass Dartmouth.
• The City of Boston has raised its target to 12% women’s hours.

The demand for tradeswomen has reached record highs in the state and the data shows that the joint apprenticeship programs have stepped up to address the demand over the past year. The full year-end 2018 report, including data on each JATC, can be downloaded here.

In the spirit of crushing the barriers to our goal of 20% tradeswomen by 2020, we would like to acknowledge the 14 JATCs across the state that increased the number of women apprentices in their program by greater than 20%.

We have been working with our stakeholder partners for the past year to update Finishing the Job: Best Practices for Diverse Workforce in the Construction Industry. We are happy to announce that version 8 is complete and ready for your use. It is always available on the PGTI site under the Best Practices pulldown menu. You can also access it here: Finishing the Job Best Practices v.8 Oct 2018. [Version 9.1 of Finishing the Job was released in December 2021 and is available here.]

We would like to give a special thanks to our reviewers who added their own experience and edits to the document. Thanks to Lori Corsi,  Maggie Drouineaud, Samantha Glatfelter, Jill Lacey Griffin, Jill Houser, Margarita Polanco, Liz Skidmore, Danielle Skilling and Mary Vogel.

Our goal now is to see these Best Practices integrated and operationalized at all stakeholder levels. Critical areas that drive change are JATCs, union apprentice programs, that are increasing the number of women being admitted into apprenticeship and contractors that are hiring more women and placing them on core crews where employment is steady and hands-on training is consistent.

The proof of the impact of these strategies is in the increasing number of women in the trades. Our gold standard for measuring progress is the quarterly reports on women in Registered apprenticeship. As shown in the chart below, the number of women in union apprenticeship has increased by 141 in 2018. The percentage of women is now at 8.37%, almost three times the national average. Way to go, Massachusetts!

This chart was revised on 10.4.18 to reflect a lower —and more accurate—- number of women in non-union programs.

This chart and a list of all union apprentice programs in Massachusetts with their participation by women and people of color is available for download here: Q3 2018 Current demographics of women and people of color: v 2 Current demographics of women and minority participants in Registered Apprenticeship Programs in Massachusetts

Ona quarterly basis, PGTI receives data from the state Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) on the demographics of apprentices in all Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs). In addition to making public the rates of participation by women and people of color, we track progress on women’s participation in apprenticeship in both the union and non-union sectors. The following chart displays the current (Quarter 2) data effective on July 1 of this year.

We also track progress in the 28 joint labor management apprentice training programs, commonly referred to a JATCs. Below is the current data for those programs ranked from highest to lowest in participation by women.

For questions or comments on this data, contact PGTI at tradeswomenissues@gmail.com or, if you follow our blog, you can comment directly on the page.

The Northeast Center for Women’s Equity (NCTE) has been conducting Tradeswomen Tuesday info sessions since last fall. The sessions happen on the first Tuesday of the month at 5 PM at 2201 Washington St in Boston and bi-monthly on the second Tuesday at Springfield Technical Community College. Hundreds of women have attended sessions to find out how to get into a union apprenticeship program. Now NCTE has added an online webinar for women who are not able to make the in-person sessions. PGTI’s Susan Moir was joined by Laborer and Local 223 Executive Board member Jenaya Nelson and carpenter Joan Bennett of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. Check it out below and for more information on the pipeline to good jobs in the construction trades for women go to Build A Life That Works .