Women in construction find solidarity as ‘sisters in the brotherhood’

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Last year, Lisa Lujano, a longtime member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 54, found herself in very unfamiliar company.

She had been tasked to build stairs in one section of the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side. When she showed up for work, she discovered she would be part of a crew of five, all women.

“I don’t know how it came about,” Ms. Lujano says. “I don’t know if it was good intentions or bad intentions – keep all the women together. But all of a sudden, it was all girls.”

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As more women enter skilled construction trades, they are laying a foundation to succeed in a rough-and-tumble world of labor union brotherhoods.

Most of the time, when she shows up for work, she’s the only woman on the crew. And she and her fellow tradeswomen know as well as anyone an inescapable truth: The American construction site is still a man’s world. Until that moment, at least, when suddenly it wasn’t.

“It was a good experience,” Ms. Lujano says, looking back on the 11 months working alongside other women carpenters. “We were able to relate, be more comfortable with each other.” Then she adds, almost exultingly, “We’re sisters in the brotherhood!”

“Sisters in the brotherhood.” It’s a phrase that resonates powerfully among American tradeswomen. It expresses not only their hard-won and deeply felt camaraderie, but also both their aspirations and their struggles as women increasingly don hard hats and tool belts and shoulder their way into the domain of American construction workers.

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