A big yellow crane is powered up at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Seventh grader Khadija Talib from Lesher Middle School in Fort Collins steps up into the seat to learn how to use the machine. She takes the controls and swings the crane鈥檚 arm to hit a soccer ball.
鈥淗ang on鈥oal!鈥� yells one of the operators.
鈥淧erfect! You鈥檙e a natural,鈥� says the other operator.
Talib is one of 1,700 girls from across the Front Range who attended the annual The event is organized by women, for women, to encourage them to consider careers in the transportation and construction industries.
Talib said it's unlike any field trip she鈥檚 been on before.
鈥淚t's like, interactive, like, it's not like a classroom or something where they just teach us,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e like, actually get to try some of the things out.鈥�
Leaders in hot pink hard hats direct the students to nearly 70 interactive exhibits. Girls could operate a crane, drill a piece of plywood to a wall, and weld two pieces of metal together.
Angie Diaz is a sales representative for Arvada Rent-Alls, which demoed a 1.2-ton excavator at the event. She liked seeing the girls get out of their comfort zone.
鈥淎t first, some girls were like, 鈥極h, I don't know if I want to try that,鈥� you know, it can be a little intimidating seeing the size of the machine,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen they see others, and then they're like, 鈥極h, yeah, I want to get on there and try it.鈥欌��
The event led some of the girls to think about what classes they should take in high school, or even a career to pursue in college.
Talib is still unsure about working in the construction industry. She doesn鈥檛 like all the loud noises, but she feels like the profession is more open to her.
鈥淚t's just that men do a lot,鈥� she said. 鈥�(I) feel like it's a men's kind of job, like lots of people think that, but I feel like a lot of women would like to do it too.鈥�
Last year, there were around 4,000 women working a hands-on construction or extraction job in Colorado, according to . That鈥檚 0.3 percent of the entire craft industry in the state. It鈥檚 lower than the national average of 0.5 percent, as well as the Mountain West average of 0.7 percent.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment told 萝莉少女 News that, according to data from the Census Bureau, around 37,000 women worked in the construction industry last year. However, those numbers account for the number of jobs worked, not the number of people. They also include other jobs that are not hands-on craft jobs, such as accountants and secretaries.
鈥淚t's critical that we reach young girls early. Otherwise they're just not going to look at this industry,鈥� said Keller Hayes, the founder of .
Hayes has some theories about the low numbers. She said that when construction industries would visit schools in previous years, there was little female representation.
鈥淲e would send someone who was ready to retire, who would also be male,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he girls would sort of sit back in the back of the room and go, 鈥榃ell, okay, that doesn't have anything to do with me.鈥欌��
Even when young women attended trade-related classes in college, old stereotypes were present.
Christina Zavislan, who works for Mortenson in Denver, said she was the only woman in a 400-student construction design class when she was a student at Colorado State University.
鈥淚 was picked on by the teacher, just like, 鈥榃hy are you here?鈥� And 鈥楾his isn't the right place for you,鈥� Or he called me 鈥榞irly,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚t was discouraging. I hope that no one ever sees that again.鈥�
Women who got a degree and made it into the working world still faced gender discrimination. Maja Rosenquist, now the , remembers how she was treated when she started out in the industry around 30 years ago.
鈥淭he questions were largely centered around, 鈥楢re you going to cut it in this industry?鈥� Like, 鈥楬ow are you going to handle yourself?鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淰ersus, you know, 鈥榃ho are you? What are your skills?鈥欌��
But Zavislan said it鈥檚 important to have women on a construction site, as they offer a valuable perspective on how to be more creative in building.
鈥淭he guys usually are like, 鈥榃ell, we're going to build it. We're going to start here, we're going to end here, it's going to cost this, and then turn the keys over,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he women in the group are like, 鈥榃ell, how is this used? How are the people that are coming here going to be accessing the building?鈥欌��
Rosenquist and other female leaders have . The latest numbers show . But Rosenquist wants to get that number higher, considering .
An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Associated General Contractors of America shows Colorado鈥檚 construction jobs decreased by 2 percent over the last year 鈥� one of the sharpest declines in the nation. In Fort Collins, that drop is around 5 percent.
Many construction groups are looking at financial incentives to draw more women into the industry. Mortenson offers for anyone 18 years of age where they can work on a job site and get full salary and benefits. They also pay for their schooling at night.
鈥�(They) get hands-on experience while working,鈥� Zavislan said. 鈥淎s long as they complete the program and are obviously a good performer, it's like a career path that has them to $100,000 salary in less than 10 years.鈥�
But even within the craft industry, there are more positions to choose from than crane operator. Transportation and Construction GIRL noticed that and created a full of testimonials of women who worked in positions like environmental manager or hydraulic engineer.
Rosenquist said she thinks that more women would join skilled trades if they were more informed about job variety.
鈥淲e still have that vision of, 鈥極h, it's going to be a job that doesn't pay very well,鈥� or 鈥業'm going to be dirty every day,鈥� or 鈥業'm going to have to, you know, hold a stop sign,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎nd that's actually not the case at all.鈥�
That was the case for Sela Martinez. She said she became a major rock hound when she was only five years old after finding a rock she liked on the playground. She thought collecting rocks was just a fun hobby 鈥� until she participated in a career week with a construction company.
鈥淚 had realized, oh my goodness, there's so much more that goes into this,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here's the design phase, there's the groundwork, there's the engineering and the ingenuity that goes into these projects.鈥�
Martinez is now a senior at the Colorado School of Mines, and she鈥檚 on track to become a geotechnical engineer. She wants to do soil analysis on construction sites, and she鈥檚 happy to show her friends that even if you love rocks, drawing, or design, you still have a place in the construction industry.
鈥淥ther people's perceptions are only based off of lack of knowledge,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o as long as we can educate them and kind of tell them, 鈥楬ey, this is actually what it is,鈥� then they start to realize, 鈥極h, my God, that's actually super cool.鈥欌��
Back at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, the Transportation and Construction GIRL Day is coming to a close, but the dreams are not. The girls from Lesher Middle School are already brainstorming the array of jobs they can choose from. One classmate mentions doing tiling and architecture. Another classmate, Avery W., said she wants to build tiny homes.
鈥淚'd probably like doing drywall, because like, my dad builds tiny houses, so I would like to do that too, that sounds fun,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 already sent him a photo of me on the excavator and he鈥檚 like, really proud.鈥�
No matter the direction, that鈥檚 the spark that women construction leaders want to keep lighting for the generation to come.
