After many years feeling lost and even depressed in various jobs after high school in Canada, Jamie McMillan ran into an old friend who talked about becoming an ironworker apprentice, and getting paid to learn while training. That story was fascinating to Jamie, so she applied to and got hired for an apprenticeship in the trades. She had some familiarity with construction because her father was a miner and her parents had renovated houses. She picked up some basic knowledge of mechanics along the way, but had never thought about a related career for herself.

One of the issues that will be talked about at the Empower Women’s Leadership Conference in March is identifying and addressing implicit bias in the hiring process, and limiting opportunities for new assignments and promotions.  Implicit bias is a personal predisposition for or against another person based on their gender, the way they look, their education, or any other single factor. Cultural stereotypes drive most of these unconscious assumptions about someone’s abilities, and they often turn out to be flat wrong.

Three women who are all members of the Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) recently sat down with an interviewer to talk about the union’s commitment to supporting girls and women entering the construction trades or looking for advancement into leadership positions.  They are anticipating active engagement at the Empower Women’s Leadership Conference in early March in Ridgefield, WA — where strong women will “lean in” to careers in the construction and marine trades. They will celebrate the success they’ve experienced and inspire others by showcasing training and employment opportunities.