The Skilled Trades are Stagnant, and the Answer is Right in Front of Us

This week is Women in Construction Week, and I have been sitting with what I actually want to say about that. Not a press release. Not a list of statistics. Just something honest.

As a middle aged white guy, I recognize upfront that I have blind spots, “male allergies,” and that even good intent can be patronizing.  I’m trying everyday to be a better partner and ally to the women in this field.

The construction industry has not always been kind to women. That is putting it mildly. Most of the women who have built careers in this field did it by walking into rooms where they were not expected, where they were sometimes not wanted, and where they had to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. They dealt with comments that were never made to their male counterparts. They were talked over in meetings. They were handed the wrong PPE because nobody ordered their size. They were steered toward the "soft" roles and away from the table where decisions got made.

And they stayed anyway. They built anyway. That matters.

I want to start by recognizing the women in administration, because they have been, and continue to be, the backbone of this industry for decades. The project coordinators, the office managers, the accounts payable teams, the schedulers. Construction companies would have collapsed without them long before most people noticed. They keep the chaos organized, the invoices moving, and the job sites running from behind the scenes. Their contributions are not a consolation prize. They are foundational.

But here is where I want to be direct: this is a fraction of the value that women bring to the field, and the entire industry suffers in their absence.

Women belong in the C-suite. Women belong in project management and executive leadership. Women belong in engineering and estimating and design. And women belong on the job site, in the trades, wearing a hard hat and doing the work with their hands. Not as a novelty. Not as a diversity initiative. As colleagues, as supervisors, as superintendents, as business owners. The idea that construction is inherently a man's world is not tradition. It is just a habit we got comfortable with, and used toxic behavior to force conformity. That change does not happen by accident. It happens because of people doing deliberate, unglamorous, important work to build a pipeline.

I want to close by shining a light on two organizations doing exactly that.

She Built This City is a workforce development nonprofit based in Charlotte, NC that provides women with hands-on trade training, industry certifications, and real job placement in the skilled trades. Led by LaToya Faustin, they work with women who are often facing serious barriers to employment and give them a path into a career that pays well and lasts a lifetime. What they have built in a relatively short amount of time is remarkable.

Hope Renovations is based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and operates with a similar mission and the same kind of heart. Led by Nora Spencer, MSW, they train women in skilled trades like carpentry and electrical work, and they do it while simultaneously tackling affordable housing needs in their community. The work is practical, it is community-rooted, and it creates a ripple effect that goes far beyond any single graduate.

Both organizations are proof that when you invest in women, the return is not just personal. It is structural. It changes industries. If you are in this industry and you have the ability to hire, to mentor, to sponsor, or to donate, I hope you will think about how you are contributing to the version of construction we are all capable of building together.

To every woman who has shown up and stayed, thank you. You earned your place here. You always did.

Carl Coffey

Executive Director

Skilled Hands Alliance