Bianca Wisniewski. Photo by Siegel

Last week, construction supervisor Bianca Wisniewski filed a $20M sexual harassment lawsuit against JP Morgan and others.  As the NY Daily News reported:

Wisniewski “is a rare exception who broke through the concrete and steel,” lawyer Steve Wittels wrote in court papers.  “But the male-centric brotherood struck back at Ms. Wisniewski and quickly sealed the breach.”  Wisniewski says elevator operator Steve Greco groped and propositioned her while her bosses brushed off her claims…  “Everybody kisses engineer Steve,” the suit quotes Greco as boasting.  “This is a man’s world, not a place for women to work. ”

Carpenter Estelle St. Clair, photo by Joe Woothead

Only 2.7% of construction tradespeople are women, a figure that has barely budged in a decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   However, as more women become the primary breadwinners for their families, high-wage, skilled-labor jobs may become more attractive to them.   Simultaneously, as the boomer generation of men retire, contractors may be looking for a more diverse replacement workforce.

There are signs that barriers to women in the field are falling.  For example, size and  strength no longer are dominant requirements.  Speaking to the Albany Business Review, Brendan Manning, education director for the General Building Contractors of New York said:

It’s not raw strength that allows you to do things.  It’s machines.  Women can do the job as well as men can; it’s just a matter of wanting to come into it.

Another falling barrier is that of safety.  OSHA is pushing for tools and equipment to be available sized to fit women’s hands, and several companies now specialize in safety gear specifically sized for women.  There’s also a proliferation of training courses geared to girls and women, such as the Mentoring a Girl in Construction program run by the National Association of Women in Construction,  as well as local organizations like Nontraditional Employment for Women, and numerous community college based programs.

Of course, the toughest barrier to break is the one that protects the Boy’s Only club.   But there are reports that even the sexism barrier may be falling.  In an interview in Manhattan newspaper DownTown Express, surveyor Arlene Fisher said:

Believe it or not, the guys on construction sites have good manners.

But just in case, according to the the DownTown Express story, carpenter Aisha Johns wears an engagement ring look-alike.

I wear the ring as a decoy, Johns said, laughing as she ate lunch on the edge of the construction site on a recent afternoon.  “They don’t really bother me,” she said of her male co-workers.  “I just use [the ring] to throw them off.”