This is too awesome. Rosie the Riveter High School in California has been founded to help young women train for careers in the trades, like plumbing, welding, being electricians and carpenters.
A founder of the school, Lynn Shaw, also heads the board of directors for Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles. Shaw, a former steelworker and longshoreman, told the LA Times that the school is “about trying to change the way society looks at women.”
We just feel that women should have an equal opportunity…For me, it was all about the money. Women in nontraditional jobs earn 20% to 40% more than women in what are considered ‘traditional’ women’s jobs. That’s $1 million over a lifetime.”
If you’re interested in learning more about nontraditional jobs for women, check out Tradeswomen Now and Tomorrow (TNT) and Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW).
Related: Taking the Heat, A Good Job is Hard to Find
Via Broadsheet.
11 Comments
That’s cool!
(You’d think they could name the school after a ‘real-life’ female success story in the field, though.)
Cool stuff! I wonder, though, whether or not the gendered wage gap passes over to these ‘nontraditional’ jobs. And if so, to what degree–is it better or worse than in traditionally female job niches?
fuck yeah! i put this link on my facebook and now i am wishing that i was still high school age so i could attend. next stop Betty the Badass College: For women who want to be total badasses
Just out of curiousity, what is the definition of “traditional” women’s jobs versus “non-traditional”? I’d be interested in seeing the data that proves the “20%-40%” higher fact . . . an ENORMOUS range by the way. I’m not saying I don’t think its true, I would just like to see what constitutes a “traditional” or “non-traditional” job.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
interesting stat
Agree with ScottRock, will electrician work and plumbing be “women’s jobs” in another 20 years, and thus undervalued?
(Anecdotally, from an Aunt of mine) computer programming – not heavy theory, just coding – was one field that went the other way, from women at tiny desks to the 10-15% female CS graduates today.
From http://www.new-nyc.org/pages/programs/faq.html#6
“The U.S. Department of Labor defines nontraditional occupations as those in which women comprise less than 25 percent of the total workers. This category includes a vast range of jobs.”
A second source (http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/index.php/2007/05/29/traditional-jobs-for-men-and-women-the-gender-divide/) lists the following as traditional (% female in the high 90s).
Dental hygienists
Preschool and kindergarten teachers
Secretaries and administrative assistants
Dental assistants
Speech-language pathologists
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses
Child care workers
Hairdressers, hair stylists and cosmetologists
Receptionists and information clerks
Payroll and timekeeping clerks
It’s awesome!!!! Maybe there would be schools named after these women: Susan J. Douglas, Trina Robbins, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tracey Ullman, Jane Fonda, Rachel Maddow, Hillary Clinton, Dolores Huerta, and Aretha Franklin.
That would be so awesome!!! Though high school will always suck.
Well, in the building trades – at least in the unionized segment of the industry – women make the same wages that men do.
But, there is a LOT of sexual harassment in the building trades, and a lot of institutionalized gender discrimination (to give the crudest example, there are many jobsites that do not have bathroom facilities for women)
The harassment and discrimination are so severe and systematic that many women who enter the trades as apprentices leave before the 4 or 5 years it takes to complete their training and become journeywomen.
So there’s still sex discrimination, it just takes a different form.
Um, Rosie *was* a real-life success story in a non-traditional career. Her name was Rose Will Monroe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter