Women succeeding in construction continue to face an uphill battle while trying to advance their careers in the construction industry, but they are making strides. Women are working together to overcome the gender barrier and are supporting one another. A recent article in Biz Women, one of the Business Journals, explained that the demand for construction workers, as well as executives and professionals to lead the construction industry, is growing at a much faster pace. Culture in the construction workplace had been keeping many women from stepping up into those roles in the past. Between 2016 and 2026, the need for construction workers is expected to increase by 12%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those positions could be filled by women.

Looking at the Numbers

According to the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), as of 2016 more than 10 million people were employed in the construction industry. Of that number, slightly less than 10% were women. Of the 939,000 women working in the construction industry, about 45% were employed in sales and office support positions. When the numbers are broken down more, about 31% worked in management and professional roles with 21% of them in construction, natural resources, and maintenance positions. Another 1.5% worked in service occupations while another 1.4% worked in production, material moving, and transportation.

Looking at the Salary

On a positive note, women’s wages in the construction industry are almost equal to those wages earned by men. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women earn about 97 cents on the dollar compared to men’s wages. With the growing demand for construction workers, women are now finding it much easier to get employed in the construction industry. Classrooms are seeing more women training for different roles in construction. Many of these women are undertaking specialized training to learn how to operate various equipment used for construction projects. The NAWIC reports that some classrooms for construction training now have as many women as men enrolled to complete the programs.

Qualified Applicants Needed

The Associated General Contractors of America released a survey that revealed 75% of construction firms had planned to increase their payrolls in 2018 because they felt comfortable about the strong economic outlook, regulatory burdens, and decreasing tax rates. But many of those construction firms who participated in the surveys reported that felt it is going to be more challenging to recruit and hire qualified construction workers this year while 78% already have been suffering challenges trying to find qualified and well-trained workers. To prepare yourself for a role in the construction industry, sign up for training. Call Associated Training Services today at (800) 383-7364 to learn more about our construction programs.

Women have been in heavy equipment for a long time, particularly when it comes to working on the land, in landscaping, and in family earth moving businesses. They have also been involved in careers such as truck driving, careers that have long been considered male bastions. Modern bulldozers, although large heavy machines, are no different to driving a car once you gain the required skills. Funnily enough, it is the general public that consider these careers to be male bastions. Employers and coworkers think nothing of working alongside a woman in most of these areas.

The only thing holding a woman back from working as a heavy equipment operator is the woman herself. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools have been training women in these skills for many years, and they have moved on to very successful careers. Bulldozers have been a popular choice for women, probably more so than most other forms of heavy equipment.

Training to become a bulldozer operator can be completed in as little as three weeks. In fact, one of the benefits of a career as a heavy equipment operator is that it is age, gender and background neutral. Being skills based, the training focus is on learning how to operate the equipment. That is not to say there is no classroom-based training; safety, for example, is an important part of any heavy equipment training and some of this training needs to be theoretical.

Careers in the heavy equipment environment have become open in recent years with emphasis more on one’s ability to do the job rather than gender (or age for that matter). If you’re interested in become a bulldozer operator, or an operator of any form of heavy equipment, whether your male of female, young or old, or from any background, contact ATS for details on our heavy equipment training programs. There could be a whole new career just waiting for you.

Road graders have long been a bastion of male dominance. While women have found their way into truck driving and bulldozer operations, they haven’t shown much interest in graders. That, however, seems to be changing quite quickly. In fact, women are looking at all forms of heavy equipment now and the technical challenge of graders is becoming appealing.

Are employers ready to take on female grader operators? It appears so. Of course, equal opportunity is playing a big role, but skills are still the determining factor. These days it doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is, if you can demonstrate the skills required then you have an equal chance of landing that job. Modern machinery is one of the biggest factors in helping nontraditional workers enter the heavy equipment field.

Today’s heavy equipment relies less on the strength of the operator and more on their ability to coordinate their feet and hands. Power steering, for example, has made the operation of this equipment fingertip easy. Controls on many units of heavy equipment are similar to joysticks found with computer gaming machines – just a little heavier and more intuitive.

A sure sign that industry is more accepting of women in their ranks is to look at some of the heavy equipment training schools. In the past, you may have found one or two women attending these schools each year. Now you can often find one or two attending each time a course is conducted. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools doesn’t discriminate in any fashion. If you have what it takes to become a grader operator, or any other unit of heavy equipment, then we are there ready to train you and to help you gain a start in your new career.

While operating a grader is not quite child’s play, it’s certainly achievable for most adults no matter what gender or background. If you want to find out more about heavy equipment careers, contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss your training options.