Northwest Carpenters Rock the Boxes
Lisa Marx, who is Outreach & Retention Specialist for NW Carpenters Institute (NWCI) got her start in heavy-duty work on a troll tender transport that was heading to Alaska for the summer fishing season. Once she realized what she was capable of, both mentally and physically, she applied for the Carpenters Apprenticeship and was accepted into the scaffold program. She began building scaffolding in the refineries at the age of 43. Now she’s all about spreading the word to schoolgirls, young women, and middle aged women alike about the quality career opportunities available to them in the building trades.
Ann Avary, Director of the NW Center of Excellence for Marine Manufacturing & Technology was brainstorming recently about creative table centerpieces for the upcoming Empower Women’s Leadership Conference in Ridgefield, and reached out to Lisa. Together they agreed to leverage ‘the toolbox project’ in which kids build little wooden toolboxes that could be used for centerpieces and taken home by attendees after the conference.
Kids Build Toolboxes
Lisa had already hosted “kids build” events both at schools and at NWCI’s training facility where kids from the community build toolboxes to get experience working with their hands. They learn about crafts and trades from ‘trade sisters’ who are passionate about passing their skills and knowledge to the next generation. She says, “The kids get all excited. They get to actually use hammers and nails.” They also get to personalize the boxes with stickers and sign their name on the bottom. And the parents love it too, because it’s a positive, fun activity that doesn’t cost them anything.
What’s more, high school girls can learn about apprenticeship programs in the trades, which include: laborers, ironworkers, sheet metal, electricians, as well as carpenters.
The Marysville Pilchuck School has a program called Regional Apprenticeship Pathways (RAP) and it hosted one of the toolbox building events on January 30th. Kids from other high schools in the area were bused to Marysville to participate.
The second ‘kids build’ event for making toolbox centerpieces will be hosted by the carpenters’ training center in Kent on February 8th in partnership with the Girl Scouts. It’s expected to be a big popular event featuring trade sisters from all different trades.
Back in the Day
Lisa recalls that back when she was in school, “these types of careers were not even talked about… everything was predetermined. So boys went and did the shop classes and girls went to home economics and child development. Girls would learn about cosmetology, beauty school, modeling, medical assisting… what I call the ‘pink collar jobs.’” So Lisa ending up in retail, often working multiple jobs, plus donating blood plasma, to be able to support her sons. That is, until she became a well-paid carpenter.
Reaching Out to Girls in Schools about Careers in the Trades
Now that schools are starting or investing more in Career & Technical Training (CTE) programs, women with great careers in the trades are able to get into the schools to let students know about the amazing opportunities available to them, regardless of gender. Lisa, says, “they can do all of these same jobs that used to be thought of for boys only.”
The Empower conference in March will gather sisters from high schools and pre-apprenticeship programs to learn more and get comfortable about hands-on skills in the trades. NWCI recently held an open house for those interested in its own pre-apprenticeship program. The NWCI program gives girls the chance to learn skills and gain some confidence so that they can go out there, knowing how to do the math and the measuring, and equipped with some knowledge of tools.
Knowing how to do a few basic things like working with a concrete form builds the “confidence that can make all the difference in the world” according to Lisa. She loves doing outreach and retention efforts involving younger sisters and those from underrepresented communities. She mentioned that Washington Women in Trades has a career fair scheduled for the second weekend in May that will showcase well-paying jobs in the industry with good benefits.
Putting Safety First with the Right Clothing, Equipment & Facilities
“We want to come home in one piece, and in good health” just like our male co-workers, says Lisa. The special challenge for women has to do with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that was made for men and just doesn’t fit right. So women in the trades are always in search of ergonomically correct equipment and clothing in the right sizes for them. These items include: safety harnesses, gloves and quality steel toed boots in ladies’ sizes. Gloves that are too big, for example, compromise natural dexterity, creating a safety hazard.
Then there’s the other issue of adequate women-only sanitary facilities on job sites, including places for nursing mothers to pump.
A public outcry occurred last year when two U.S. astronauts couldn’t go on the same space mission for lack of a second women’s spacesuit. So women in the trades must be proactive about removing that same sort of barrier to their full participation in the industry.
