Help Wanted: Women to Fix America’s Infrastructure
WASHINGTON—Ashley Lair was struggling to pay rent when she decided to leave her bartending job last year and pursue a new career in the construction industry. Now, a year into her apprenticeship, Lair drives haul trucks and transports dirt, gravel and rocks for a highway project. She earns $38 an hour, plus overtime—more than double her pay as a bartender.
The Redmond, Ore., resident no longer worries about affording rent. “I have fun telling people who knew me from bartending what I do for a living now," said Lair, 34 years old. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I run heavy equipment,’ and they’re like, ‘What?!’ " The Biden administration and the construction industry are urging other women to embrace Lair’s unorthodox career path.
The $550 billion, bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 has funded nearly 37,000 projects to date and is projected to create millions of jobs. But that boom in investment comes amid a nationwide shortage of infrastructure workers. The federal government is working with tradeswomen organizations and local governments to help women enter and stay in the labor force, developing strategies that include offering child-care services and addressing gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace, officials said.
“It’s an economic necessity to figure out how to attract, train and retain women into these fields if we’re going to get the job done," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview. The construction industry is also finding novel solutions to lure female workers. In Washington state, a union and the local chapter of the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association, or Smacna, are rolling out structures called lactation pods to help mothers return to construction
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