Redefining ‘woman’s work’ and the fight for equity in non-traditional careers

Graphic credits: Mandy Coriston for Public Square Amplified

Newark, NJ - Labor unions and trade organizations have long fought for workers’ rights, including fair wages and safe, humane working conditions in industries like the building and manufacturing trades — occupations often dominated by men. But women have long existed within these non-traditional careers (defined as occupations with less than 25 percent of a gender making up the workforce) and been a driving force in the Labor Movement, yet even now, they are still pressing for their rights to equitable treatment from employers and colleagues alike.  

Breaking away from tradition

The number of women, including women of color, entering the trades is on the slow but steady rise, especially in career fields like construction, but the data shows that the percentage of women in traditionally ‘male’ roles is still small. According to reports compiled by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), the nationwide percentage of women in the construction trades rose from 3.4 percent in 2018 to 4.3 percent in 2023. The number of women in the auto repair industry, another ‘non-traditional’ role, is also climbing. In 2015, women comprised about 7.3 percent of the repair technician and mechanic workforce; by 2024, women made up 10.9 percent of that workforce. 

Apprenticeships provide an excellent pathway for women to begin a career in a non-traditional occupation. IWPR reports that, nationally, women in trade apprenticeships rose from 33,766 to 108,140 from 2014 to 2023, including a 222 percent increase in Black women and a 349 percent increase in Latinx women entering apprenticeships. 

In New Jersey, programs like NJ BUILD (Builders Utilization Initiative for Labor Diversity) provide funding to businesses to offer training and apprenticeships to underrepresented populations, including women, to increase diversity in the construction trades, where women comprise just 10.7 percent of the statewide construction workforce. 

Data from the ApprenticeshipUSA dashboard shows that there are 524 Black women in registered apprenticeships in New Jersey, up from 79 just ten years ago. The number of Latinx women in registered NJ apprenticeships has risen from 62 to 342 over the same time frame. Asian women make up the smallest group of non-white women apprentices in New Jersey, with 100 currently registered in 2025, but it should be noted that in 2015, there were only 4 Asian women in apprenticeships, which is a 2,425 percent increase. 

As for correlating how many women persist in the trades after training, the IWPR indicates that it’s difficult to pinpoint racial and ethnic backgrounds based on the way that the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks and publishes data. That presents a challenge for labor leaders to determine where best to focus their efforts on increasing workplace diversity, pushing for more inclusive and accessible training and equipment, and providing support programs for union and trade organization members. 

Career training for non-traditional trades is far from the only challenge

Wage gaps, especially in the building trades, are another deterrent for women to enter the non-traditional workforce, as well as a lack of support for pregnancy, maternity leave, and finding affordable childcare. 

Graphic credit: Mandy Coriston for Public Square Amplified

Despite the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, women in the trades often find themselves without reasonable accommodations during pregnancy, and maternity leave policies are severely lacking across most trade industries. Factoring in the cost of childcare, alongside the disparity between average maternity leave for white, Black, Asian, and Hispanic/Latinx women, it’s not difficult to understand why an IWPR survey of tradeswomen reported that 55.1 percent of respondents with children aged 6 and younger were considering leaving their respective industries. 

Setting aside pay gaps, inadequate maternity leave, and costly childcare, lingering stigma and fear of harassment from male co-workers are among the other most-cited factors holding women back from these ‘non-traditional careers.’ 

Munirah El-Bomani of Newark is a fierce proponent of women working in the construction and other non-traditional careers. El-Bomani was a founding member of Laborers Local 55, served on the National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues, and was actively involved in the development of the Women Build Too Education and Trades Foundation and the Freed Women Empowerment Network. She acknowledged that some of the stigma women fear about working in the trades is, unfortunately, accurate.

“We’ve got some guys that appreciate working beside women because we get the job done,” El-Bomani said. “We do the job as well. We are reliable and consistent. But, you know, women have a lot of issues because there's a lot of sexual harassment. There's a lot of intimidation. There are a lot of men who think women shouldn't be working in construction.” 

(Left) Munirah El-Bomani engaged in a construction skills training session. Photo provided by Munirah El-Bomani for Public Square Amplified. (Right) Graphic credit: Mandy Coriston for Public Square Amplified.

Finding inspiration in history 

Evelyn Hershey, the Education Director of the American Labor Museum in Haledon, said that women have been rank-and-file union leaders in New Jersey since the early days of the Paterson Silk Strike and the 1926 Passaic Woolen Mill Strike, and continue to play an important role in labor history. She spotlights Marianna Fidone Costa, a founding member of Dyers' Local 1733 of the United Textile Workers (UTW). 

“She was active in the union's Legislative Committee and lobbied for workmen's compensation and unemployment benefits at the New Jersey Assembly,” Hershey said, “She also ran twice for the state assembly, although she lost.”

Although Costa passed away in 2004, her words and voice live on as part of the Library of Congress’s Women Workers Creating and Experiencing Change: Working in Paterson project, where today’s labor leaders can listen to recordings of past interviews and view photos provided to the project by Costa herself. The American Labor Museum itself also houses a collection of historic and contemporary recordings and photographs of New Jersey’s women labor leaders, including Mae Massie Eberhardt, who became the first Black woman elected as a state labor union officer.

The evolution of the U.S. workforce

During World War II, women came out of the home and began to fill the manufacturing jobs and other blue-collar roles left behind as soldiers left for the war. An estimated 6.6 million previously non-employed women took jobs between 1940 and 1945, but it was in the 1960s that the Labor Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Women’s Liberation Movement began to intersect. The shared challenges of fighting for equitable opportunities, equal pay, and fair treatment led to powerful voices in women’s rights in labor, like Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farm Workers of America). In the 1970s and 1980s, Rutgers University alumnus Jane LaTour channeled her training as an educator and journalist to document the struggles of women in the trades, culminating in the award-winning project, “Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City.”

Pushing for an equitable future for women laborers 

It’s the groundbreaking work of Huerta, LaTour, and all the others that came before that inspires current women labor leaders to keep pushing for greater protections and fairer conditions for women in the industrial trades. New Jersey remains ahead of the national curve in terms of union membership; 16.2 percent of wage workers in New Jersey are unionized compared to 9.9 percent on average. Women are relatively well-represented in New Jersey’s unions, but ethnic disparities still remain. Despite comprising about 10 percent of the state’s total workforce, Asian women only represent 4 percent of union membership. Black men and women are the most unionized demographics in New Jersey, at just over and just under 20 percent, respectively, while still earning 11 percent less than their white counterparts.  

The cover of the 2025 UWUA Women’s Caucus calendar. The calendar highlights a different tradeswoman each month and grants space for them to tell their own stories about experiences in their chosen fields. Image credit: Provided by Valerie King.

Valerie King is the Senior National Representative of the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), AFL-CIO, chairs the UWUA Women’s Caucus Committee, and is in her second term as President of the Greater NJ Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). King said that she’s seen an overall growth in both women in the trades and women taking on leadership roles in labor organizations. 

“We have seen many women run for union offices throughout our regions and join our national and local women’s committees to build back our union stronger,” King said. 

King indicated that both the UWUA Women’s Caucus and the Greater NJ CLUW Chapter are pushing through with initiatives to highlight accomplishments, challenges, and milestones, and to empower and uplift women in the trades. She said these initiatives have an impact on women’s overall comfort, safety, and confidence in the workplace and show quantifiably higher retention and promotion rates. 

“These organizations are doing meaningful work to shift the culture of labor, from providing mentorship and leadership training to advocating for inclusive policies like properly fitted PPE, anti-harassment protections, and equal pay,“ King said, “Both organizations are walking the talk, there support is visible in daily interactions on the job, where women are more empowered to speak up, take the lead, and stay in careers where they’ve historically been pushed out.”