YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – After seven years teaching students, Mariah Watson wanted a different career and decided to pursue construction.
She is a first-year apprentice with Operating Engineers Local 66, which operates in three Ohio counties as well as 33 in western Pennsylvania, following in the footsteps of her grandfather and uncle, who were members of the local.
“It was always kind of a dream of mine, so when the timing finally worked out, my husband told me to go for it,” she said. “I just enjoy being outdoors.”
Watson is one of a growing number of women who are entering the construction trades. More than 39,800 women work in the construction industry in Ohio, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported during Women in Construction Week, which took place March 2-8. That includes nearly 9,000 who have gotten jobs in construction in the past four years, a nearly 30% increase.
“The number of Ohio women working in construction has been rising steadily as they find rewarding careers,” ODJFS Director Matt Damschroder said in a news release commemorating Women in Construction Week. “With the many new and exciting development projects happening across the state, Ohio needs skilled construction professionals now more than ever. Women in the trades are making these economic development projects possible.”
Family Business
Being an operating engineer “ran in the family,” Watson said.
“I’ve always heard stories about it growing up,” she continued. Her husband also is in the building trades as a sheet metal worker, but at 5 feet, 1 inch tall, she knew that could be challenging for her. Her size didn’t present as much of a challenge operating heavy equipment such as loaders.
“The machines are kind of cool because they’re an extension of your arms, so my size doesn’t necessarily hold me back when I’m running heavy equipment,” she said.
Some area locals have launched active efforts to encourage women to join the trades, including Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396 in Boardman, which launched its women’s committee in February, according to Martin Loney, business agent.
“We started talking about it last fall,” Loney said. The objective is to recruit more women into the trades and to raise money to send female members to the annual Tradeswomen Build Nations conference.
Female Membership
About 8% of Local 396’s members are women, including retirees, Loney said. Other local building trades with active programs targeting women include the Bricklayers and Sheet Metal Workers.
The leadership of Local 396’s women’s committee includes Kaitlin Hause, chairwoman, and Brittany Marsh, recording secretary.
Hause, of Fowler, is a skilled worker with Local 396 who will have worked in construction for eight years this summer. Leaving what she considered a “dead end career,” she saw the trades as a way “to make a decent living” without attending college.
“I’m not someone that would be able to sit at a desk,” Hause said. “Some people are made for that. I’m not made for that. It’s nice to be physically active at work.”
Marsh, of Enon Valley, Pa., is a fourth-year apprentice with Local 396. She entered the building trades nine years ago. After attending community college for a time, she decided she wanted to go to trade school and studied welding technology at All State Career School in West Mifflin, Pa., eventually becoming an apprentice in western Pennsylvania.
She acknowledged that her experiences as an apprentice weren’t positive. She had a “really bad experience” being verbally demeaned by an individual because of her gender – he would refer to whomever she was working with on a given day as her “boyfriend” and didn’t respect her personal space on the worksite.
“Any work that I would do, it wouldn’t be good enough,” she said. “It’s like he needed to come up and touch my hand,” she added. She also said she was “not nearly as supported” as she is today.
“It’s not that I didn’t have people reach out to me,” she said. But she had been raised to respect her elders and felt it would be disrespectful to say anything.
Encouraged by her brother to just switch jobs, Marsh instead decided to leave entirely when she met with the local’s coordinator because she was concerned the situation might happen again by staying in the same local, and she was scared to answer questions about why she wanted to leave.
A later experience as a welder on “one of the largest job sites” that North America has ever had exposed her to a more positive environment, and she met “incredible people” from all over the country, she said.
“This is what I was looking forward to in my younger years, and I should have stuck it out,” she said. “I shouldn’t have let one individual deter me and make me feel like everyone was going to treat me like that going forward.”
Her colleagues eventually encouraged her to join Local 396, which she described as “the best decision” she ever made. There is the occasional “grouchy individual,” but the local’s business managers and coordinator are supportive.
“It’s just really helpful to find a place and feel comfortable speaking with someone, which is, you know, half the job,” she said. “You’d be surprised that a lot more are willing to help you than aren’t,” she said.
Helpful Colleagues
Watson, who has been doing work for Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co., Youngstown, said she has found the men she has worked with to be helpful.
“They’re always teaching me new things. They’re welcoming. I don’t feel any different being on the job site being a woman,” she said.
Jim Murray, Marucci & Gaffney treasurer, said women have been on jobs sites for at least as long as the 20-some years he’s been with the company. Talent and skill aren’t restricted by gender, he said, and the company employs about as many women in its office as it does men.
“We’re committed to having a work environment where anybody can thrive,” he said. The company also encourages more women to pursue careers in construction.
To encourage women to enter the trades, Local 396 has sent Hause and Marsh to various recruitment events. These include the Skilled Trades Expo at the Mahoning County Fairgrounds in Canfield and a camp for girls at Mahoning County Career & Technical Center.
“Word of mouth” from the current female members is what really helps encourage young women to consider careers in the trades, Loney said.
Watson said she believes the trades offer good careers for women.
“I always encourage women to join the union and join the trades,” she said. “Any of the trades are a great opportunity. … It’s just awesome that you get to learn on the job site while making money.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the fact that Brittany Marsh did not train as an apprentice with the local Sheet Metal Workers, nor did she train with any other local building trades apprenticeship program.
Pictured at top: Mariah Watson, a first-year apprentice with Operating Engineers Local 66.