Still a Wedge in the Door: Women Training for the Construction Trades in the U.S

Gunseli Berik () and Cihan Bilginsoy ()

Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah from University of Utah, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper uses individual-level data on registered apprenticeship for ten largest construction occupations from 31 states in the U.S. to evaluate the variations in the entry and exit of women apprentices, overall and by race/ethnicity, over the 1995-2003 period. We examine how women’s representation among new apprentices, and their attrition and retention rates varies with individual, training program, and occupational characteristics. We find that women’s representation among new trainees is very low and deteriorating. The results confirm previous findings based on data for the early 1990s that program sponsorship has significant impact on women’s representation and retention. Women have better chances of joining the high-skill construction workforce if they enroll in union-contractor joint programs. Joint programs feature higher shares of women in the incoming classes and higher odds of graduation in comparison with the unilateral contractor programs. The union impact on shares of enrollees is the largest for Black women and the lowest for White women, while White women have higher completion rates than Latinas and Black women. We conclude that union sponsorship enhances women’s integration into the skilled trades, but it is not sufficient. Increasing participation of women in apprenticeship and skilled workforce requires major changes in policies, priorities, and behavior of contactors, unions, and the government to actively recruit women and improve working conditions at the construction site.

Keywords: apprenticeship training; construction; skilled trades; women; unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J16 J24 J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-05
View list of references

Published in International Journal of Manpower, July 2006, Vol.27, No.4, pp.321-341

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uta:papers:2005_05

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah from University of Utah, Department of Economics
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by ().