New program helps tradeswomen fight frustrations on job

When Holly Jones decided to become a carpenter, she "had thisromanticized vision" of working alongside a kind veteran carpenterwho would teach her the finer points of woodworking.

What she found on the job site was far different.

"They had to label us. It was bitch, whore, dyke. They singledus out."

For pipefitter Ora "Patty" Clark, the toughest part was beingtreated as though she didn't know what she was doing.

If she made a mistake, "they would just take my tools out of myhands. If it had been a man, they would been given him the(instructions). Sometimes I would have to go into the bathroom andpunch the wall because I couldn't hit them."

Those two tradeswomen were among 82 who helped build the27-story federal building at 77 W. Jackson that was dedicatedWednesday. Normally, a building of that size would employ only a fewtradeswomen - if that. At any given time, 20 or more women from asmany as 19 different trades were on the federal building job.

"That was more than on any other project," said StephanieStephens, acting director of the advocacy group Chicago Women inTrades. "But I don't want to give the impression we're satisfied.Women still were only 7 percent of the workers at the project."

Even at that number, there were enough females to overcome twoof the problems facing most tradeswomen: isolation and fear offailure.

Construction supervisors at the federal building "did not haveto evaluate three or four women as standing for all women," saidJulia Stasch, president of Chicago developer Stein & Co. and thearchitect of its business-development program for women andminorities.

Stein's Female Employment Initiative was tested on the federalbuilding and has been transferred to the USG building, now underconstruction at Franklin and Adams.

The two-year-old program creates new opportunities for women inthe building trades by recruiting, training and referring tradeswomento construction contractors. Through an extensive monitoringprocess, contractors, unions and community groups keep tabs on thewomen's progress.

Jones and Clark pronounced the federal building project "thebest" they had experienced.

Pornography - a staple on most job sites - was "real scarce" onthe federal building project, Jones said. When it cropped up, "wehad somebody who would tell them to remove it instead of us having torisk our jobs for it."

The stress of being the only woman up against all of the mentakes its toll, Jones said.

"We have a high attrition rate and people think it's because wecan't handle the physical stuff. But it's the emotional stuff, notthe physical, that's hard," she said.

Concerns over such problems led the U.S. Department of Labor toissue a $75,000 grant to Chicago Women In Trades to gather data anddevelop model solutions.

Already, the group has collected some disturbing anecdotalevidence that construction sites are not friendly places: A construction worker for a public utility faced sexual graffiti onher truck and found condoms filled with cream inside her locker. Ittook three months for the company to investigate. A carpenter's apprentice asked for and received separate toiletfacilities. When she got it, her male colleagues locked her out anddefaced the facility. An asbestos worker informed her employer she was pregnant andrequested a transfer to a safer job during the pregnancy. She waslaid off.

Such outrageous behavior would not be tolerated on a Steinproject. A woman who felt harassed would merely call a coordinatorfrom the community-based organizations that worked with Stasch todevelop the program. The coordinators act as intermediaries betweenthe women and their bosses.

Stephens said the experimental program hasn't engendered muchinterest from other developers, but publicity has brought a slew ofcalls from similar organizations in other cities. They all want toknow how the Chicago groups pulled it off. The answer, she said, isJulia Stasch.

"You have to have the backing of the developer. It has to be atop-down policy," Stephens said. "I don't get the impressioncontractors are bending over backwards (to accommodate women).They're doing it because they know Julia's not going to pay them ifthey don't."

For its study, Chicago Women in Trades is looking for women whocurrently are in the skilled trades or who have left the trades.Write to Chicago Women in Trades at 37 S. Ashland, Chicago 60607, orcall 942-1444.