Contractor Magazine reports “Record 1,500 tradeswomen attend Women Build Nations Conference in Chicago“
ROSEMONT, IL — Over 1,500 skilled tradeswomen from 40 U.S. states, Canada, Nigeria and the Philippines attended the Women Building Nations Conference held at Chicago’s Crowne Plaza O’Hare Hotel from April 29 to May 1. The conference, sponsored by North America’s Building Trades Unions and hosted by Chicago Women in Trades, featured 50 workshops; a speech from Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky; and a panel of Building Trades International Presidents. READ MORE–>
Readers of this blog know that Arc-Zone supports women working in the welding industry–currently only 2% of welders–so we were excited to read about how well attended the Women Building Nations conference was.
The conference was planned in collaboration with a committee of women from Chicago Women in Trades, unions, apprenticeship programs and support organizations throughout North America. it is a Nationwide conference for women who work in construction or are interested in exploring a construction career (including welding).
According to the conference’s Facebook page, the conference offered several tracks of workshops with the goal of supporting women:
- Just coming in —for pre-apprentices and new apprentices;
- Staying strong —including women’s committees, mentoring, safety and health, dealing with sexual harassment and bullying and more;
- Growing leaders—understanding how unions work, public speaking, parliamentary procedure;
- Policy impacting tradeswomen—PLAs, local and federal legislation;
- Career ladders—in the union as a contractor, higher education; and
- Nourishing Extras— union history, writing, social media, fitness….and much more. The goal of the workshops is to stay positive and look for solutions rather than griping about the present.
The goal, to bring women together for education and support, was clearly a success!