Women in Leadership a local production of PBS, Michiana WNIT it is presented in partnership with Mr. Jerry Hammes Mr Hammes is proud to present this program in memory of his late wife, Dorene Dwyer Hammes and all the women who continue to impact our community for the better.

Additional funding provided by NIPSCO.

The South Bend Clinic and First Source Bank, Thnak You!

In the 1970s, less than 1% of jobs in the building, trades were filled by women.

Barriers such as gender stereotypes, harassment on the job and lack of encouragement from society kept women from entering those careers for years.

Three Michiana women share their stories of breaking down those barriers to enter this nontraditional field.

Sally Barber, a pioneer union electrician in the building trades.

Joel Figueroa, a first year Union Carpenter apprentice and Liz Repetsky, a leader in the Women Build program for Habitat for Humanity.

Sally Barber is living her dream as a musician in her retirement years, but it was a totally different career path as a union electrician that allowed her to get there.

I entered in 1974.

I don't know if there was even another woman in Indiana who was in the Building Trades Union building trades at that time.

It was very primitive.

when I started, for a women to be on a job site running fire alarm cable in a pit with bird skeletons and dirt.

I've been through the ugliest tunnels you can imagine because no one would fit but me.

I've been in the bowels of a nuclear reactor.

The knowledge I have gained about the world cannot be replaced by anything other, any other field I would ever work in as an athletic young girl who grew up in central Indiana.

Sally Wood moved to South Bend when she was ten years old.

We didn't have a sand pile.

We had a dirt pile to play in, dug in the dirt.

I was kind of a tomboy.

I wanted to go to college.

I worked really hard.

I was an honor roll student.

In 1970, however not all working class families could afford college, and less than 10% of women completed a four year college degree.

Rather than college, Sally became a mother at an early age and found that her options to support her child were limited.

I worked in a clothing store at Concord Mall.

This is when the whole thing started with the trade.

But one day construction workers were in the building and they were walking around doing things, and one came in the store and I didn't know what he was, and I said, What do you do?

He says, I'm an electrician.

I said, Well, how do you how do you become an electrician?

He said, you go through an apprenticeship and then you become a journeyman.

And I said, Well, how much does it cost?

He said, nothing.

Just your books and your tools.

So I decided I'm going to go to that apprenticeship hall and find out about it.

So I went in ask for an application, and they just looked at me like, what?

Well, the one thing the man told was, Well, we've never taken any women in.

I had to take tests, dexterity testing, how you work with nuts and bolts, with your hands,.

Took those, I did very well.

Then I had to go for an interview before the apprenticeship board And it's all these burly looking men in suits and some not.

For this interview, and they asked me, how does the gear work?

But the biggest question was what is the hardest work you've ever done?

And I sat there, I looked at them and I said I gave birth That was the hardest thing I have ever done physically in my life.

And they didn't know what to say.

And, you know, a lot of people, I think actually in the building, trades were probably mad because I was taking a man's job who was going through, a lot of , who had lost their job or they came back from defending the country in Vietnam.

And I shouldn't be there because I was just this little girl who was trying to be a women's libber, which I wasn't.

I wasn't trying to be one.

When I applied for the job, I wasn't thinking in those terms.

I was thinking, I need a good paying job because I have a child and he's going to have a backyard.

While she may not have been part of the women's liberation movement, Sally was still put to the test and her endurance with each stride would advance the role of women in the trades I was tested all the time to see what she'll put up with, so I got on the job and they said, You must go out to the General Foreman's office trailer and fill out forms for taxes.

So I go in the trailer and it's plastered with naked women But I filled out my forms and I left and never said a word about it.

Just moved on.

You know, you couldn't do anything like that.

Oh my gosh.

I tried to keep a.

Sense of humor or survival, for instance, when I was told to dig a huge hole in the hot summer sun and I got done with it and I went and told my foreman I'm finished, she said, Now go cover it up.

So I looked at and I said, thank you for telling me that because I really needed a good workout this morning.

You really help me today.

I did go, I'm in tears sometimes, but I didn't want them to know.

I just dealt with it.

I understood it and I had to roll with the punches that I just knew that because I wanted to finish, I wanted to be a union electrician and do my job.

There's so many different things that have come into play that women, the pioneers of women in the workforce, have dealt with in the job situation.

And that's what women were trying to change.

I think I changed some minds about women in the trade because I always did my job.

I worked hard and kept my mouth shut for the most part.

While she may have been tested in the beginning, Sally would ultimately create lasting bonds of respect with her male coworkers.

I had my tool buds, you know, they were great.

My favorite one is passed away because he really gave me a hard time at first, and then he just looked at me one day and said, I'm so sorry, you work so hard and I will never say anything to you again.

We ended up being tool buds and worked the whole job together, and he was a great get, very good friends.

I got to know many of our members, and they knew me.

They knew who I was, what I was about.

I worked hard and because of that, I was elected by the predominantly male population of the electrical workers union because they were very few females at the time, and other females have followed my path and have been officers.

I don't feel I had to work twice as hard, but I felt I had to create a presence for women that I was serious.

And I was going to do my job because I knew if I didn't or if I cried or if I did this, it would make it harder for the next female who came along in any of the trades.

So I had to be a role model.

Sally was also a role model to her two children who saw her working in her trade and also paying her own way through college, ultimately earning her master's degree.

Both of my children have a huge work ethic, and they're they do very well, very proud of my children.

And for women following in her footsteps, Sally has some advice.

It's still a very challenging field.

I think it's easier for them to be accepted into the program that are out there, but you still have to go in and do your job.

You have to be strong and do the best you can and not shrink to say, Oh, I just can't do that.

I want to try it.

Let me try it.

Let me do it.

Let me do this.

I want to run those power tools, big power tools, those pipe threaders and saws.

hydraulic benders for bending large conduit.

I want to try it.

I want to do it.

Let me do it.

I want to learn, go on the job and say, I want to learn.

I want to learn this trade inside and out.

Whatever it takes.

one young woman taking Sally's advice is Joally Figueroa.

She graduated high school at the top of her class as the Salutatorian when she decided to become an apprentice with the Carpenters Union Local 413.

We moved from Illinois a few , like six years ago now, and I started high school here.

I used to go to work with my dad for just to get out of the house, you know?

It was remodeling homes.

I liked it and I knew it was like I used to want to be a vet Back then, when I was younger, but getting my hands into like lumber and paint and just messing around the house, it was really fun and I just pursued that.

And in high school, I found out that there was programs for that and I decided to take take my leap and go for it.

And here I am now, my dad He's always been very supportive and he he was excited for me.

My mom was a little bit, She was a little bit more of like cautious about it, and she's always been like, OK, just be careful.

You're a woman.

Your body is more fragile.

Don't overdo things but, Like at the end of the day, she was proud of me and has always been.

Today, 38% of women in the U.S. have completed a four year college degree, and Joally, with a 3.9 grade point average, could have easily walked that path.

But she opted for trade school instead and saw the benefits of that career.

For me, I like working with my hands, being out there and not just in one spot, reading books, trying to pass the test, you know?

College isn't always the answer.

College isn't always for everybody, and you just got to pursue what you want and not what it's expected of you.

So for me, the best option was trade school.

Trade School will allow Joally to earn an average hourly wage of $29 per hour once she becomes a journeyman, while the average college graduate earns around $21 per hour.

In addition, the average cost of a public in state college is approximately $10,000 per year, while the average cost of most trade apprenticeships is free except for your books and tools With the trade is a four year program, so with each year you do one class per year for Ivy Tech and after four years you get associates.

In addition to the classroom training at Ivy Tech, she also attends hands-on training once every three month at the Carpenters Union Training Facility in Warsaw, Indiana, where she'll learn a variety of skills needed to perform her job.

Earlier this year, I took aerial lift classes.

Eventually, though, we went out into the parking spots and took out the scissors lifts and the boom lifts and drove them around.

And that was really cool because I've never driven those out and now I have my permit for those.

If I'm afraid of something might be the falling part of it, I mean, I like climbing, I like going up things, you know, I don't like coming down.

It's always more of a struggle coming down than going up.

In addition to her apprenticeship training, she works for Woodcox building contractor at the Navarre Building of Memorial Hospital, tearing down and rebuilding office space as an apprentice.

The first day at my job, it was chaotic, to say the least.

I came into the building and there was demo going on.

So this included drywall, metal studs, sharp objects and we work a lot with the hospitals.

So there was a lot of oxygen tanks and just a lot of what you would find in the hospital.

I was nervous, I'm, a very nervous person, but once I was in and got to know the guys that first they went pretty smooth.

I mean, in most cases for me, I get more nervous like than it's actually worth.

With each passing day, she found more confidence in her abilities and acceptance from her male peers.

Premiere.

I like the company I work for.

It's they're very accepting.

They're very they always want to teach, and they're always like looking for ways to work together and effectively do so.

I like the process of how from demo, we bring back this other like different room with, putting cabinets in and finishing it off, you know?

While Joally is busy restoring office buildings with her craft she is not thinking so much about gender stereotypes.

To be honest, I don't know.

When I think of something, it's not like, Oh, what a woman would do.

You know, it's just me thinking.

So I offer my, my opinion and we look at it and they're like, OK, well, now they'll work, or that's easier.

You know, it's so it's I never see it as oh what would a woman do, you know, it's just me thinking So far, Joally has not had to experience harassment on the job or a sometimes hostile work environment like her predecessors.

But one thing that hasn't changed much is the number of women in the building trades.

While it has risen to 4%, Jolie is still the only woman on her job site.

I mean, I would really like to see in the future more women involved.

You know, it's like basically what you see out in Walmart.

A lot of men and women working in the union would be very cool to see one place.

You will see a lot of women building is at the Habitat for Humanity.

Women build site where Liz Repetsky is empowering women to learn to build.

Liz entered into a career in building through volunteer work where she learned hands on how to build a home.

But her love for building started very early with the influence of her dad.

I grew up in a household with three girls.

Maybe if I'd had a brother.

My dad wouldn't have spent as much time with me doing certain things.

He taught me how to build tents, and they're really cool with like clotheslines and clothes, pins and blankets and pillows to the extent that, like sometimes the room would just be a pillow fort that you could stand in.

And it was amazing.

When I was little, I had like a little plastic set of like tools like a little drill and like things like that.

And I don't know, I love that stuff.

So if I hadn't grown up like that without sort of like a a gender roled aspect to what things I'm allowed to do and what things I'm not allowed to do.

Sure, I grew up.

I know how to cook, I know how to clean, but I think everyone should know how to do that.

When I was ten, I started teaching myself how to blueprint, so I would go online and I'd print plans that they had online.

A lot of them are mansions, so the house that I've been planning since I was ten started off as a mansion.

I plan to have like a bigger family, and so ever since I was little, I was excited about that.

I was excited about the house and apparently at one point my mom went to my grandmother and said, Should I be worried that she's not like planning her wedding?

She's planning a house.

And my grandmother was like, No, that's OK. That's how she's going to do it.

And her grandmother was right.

That's exactly how Liz is doing it.

When I got older, I used to move around a lot, so I got to see a lot of different houses.

And I think that's probably how I got my love of like building and houses in general.

Sometimes I'd walk into like a grocery store or a library or something and like, imagine what it would look like as a house.

Then when I was in high school, it took drafting classes.

So I know how to use AutoCAD programs and things like that.

And from there I went and I traveled with a non for profit program called American Triple C. And when I was doing that, I came out here for three months to help build.

And when I was out here, I think all of the little skills that I picked up throughout my life culminated into me being able to do this well enough that they said we would like to hire you.

So that's how I got here.

It's trusting yourself.

I think that's one of the biggest things in this trade or honestly, probably in trades in general.

You're on the roof, you have to trust that you're not going to fall off of the roof.

A lot of people are scared to stand up when they're up there where you really you have to trust that you know how to stand on your own two feet and you're going to be able to survive and everything will be OK.

Challenges in the trade for women in particular.

It's just got to be the amount of credibility you're given right off the bat.

I think with a male coming in, I think the person the guy coming in probably assumes he knows more than the average like female who might go in.

So I think they give themselves more credibility than even we give ourselves.

But the second half swing a hammer, the second I use it t quickly and effectively.

There's no question in there anymore that, yeah, you're capable of doing it.

And the most gratifying thing that I've had is definitely seeing the people in their homes, for sure.

While working police would observe through the windo a child running to his new home at one point, the bus comes out in the street and the kid gets off and he runs to this house and I don't know at that moment I did start to cry.

I just because, yeah, I'm seeing the impacts of, you know, I'm building a house and this is what I had to do.

I get to see the people who are living in them or knowing the people who works for these houses.

And they will tell you themselves the fact that they worked on their house or the fact that they worked on their neighbor's house is one of the most amazing things that they'll experience every year.

Habitat for Humanity sponsors, a women build program where people like Liz teach volunteers and new homeowners like Erika Fowler to build.

The women come out here and they're just eager to l They realize they probably don't know everything, and that's one of the the coolest things, I think, because especially, you know, they have the modesty to say, I don't know this.

And then they learn.

And then once they know it, they take off.

And there's there's a capability and not everyone's always good at everything.

But once they find their niche, a lot of times they'll stay there.

You know, some a woman knows how to use.

It's OK. She's like, I will cut everything for the rest of the day.

And that's it.

Yeah, it's mind blowing to see the way that they get there.

They get excited about things that they normally don't do, and then they're doing it right next to a lot of times, the homeowner, who's going to have the house.

Homeowners like Erika Fowler.

Well, my favorite part was using the power tools.

I love using the power saw the power drill.

I love using the power tools.

It has empowered me.

It made you feel like you know what you're doing.

You know, it was just like, you know, it just noisy.

It was loud.

It was just like, you get to feel it, you get to do it kind of like now on my Christmas list.

I want some power tools, but maybe the best gift Erika will receive this Christmas is the keys to her new house, the house that Erika built with other women.

And I get those keys in my hand, and I turn the lock to open that door.

It is going to be home sweet home.

My heart is going to be home.

Home sweet home.

It's been a long road for women in the building trades, but maybe they too have finally found a home to be able to be the first female to accept that challenge and to complete the challenge.

I'm very proud of that.

That is my legacy.

So I do believe it is more easier for women to go into the trade in a male dominated field then back then, because now I believe men are a little bit more accepting, more, more open minded, you know, more like they want to see diversity.

And I think it's just going to take a little more confidence in ourselves as women to step up and say, OK, I'm going to do this because I want to, if you don't want to, don't do it.

But but if you want to just do it, yeah, it's as simple as that.

Women in leadership, a local production of PBS Michiana, WNIT has been presented in partnership with Mr. Jerry Hammes Mr. Hammes is proud to support this program in memory of his late wife, Dorene Dwyer, Hammes and all the women who continue to impact our community for the better.

Additional funding provided by.

Thank you.

This WNIT, local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

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