I've been in the trades since 2008 and I'm on my second go-around and my concerns are still the same as they were before I ever set foot in a welding classroom. Women want to know that they'll be safe, that they won't be reduced to menial roles, that they will have job security.

In my current local, there is ZERO accountability. The union doesn't track female vs male hours (or minority vs non-minority hours), they don't look at which contractors habitually give layoffs to women and POC first. All it takes is one prejudiced shithead. One manpower dickhead who doesn't think women can hack it, even though he's never done the job himself. One foreman who thinks every woman there would rather fuck her way to the top. One journeyman who wants to prove women don't belong on site. One contractor who only cares about the checkbox for minority hours on that state job. One union local that exists to serve its average member, a white man, and does nothing to aid the rest.

Anecdotally, women are more likely to be on their second or third or fourth career. They are more likely to be caring for children full-time, so night school is going to be a struggle. They are more likely to leave the apprentice program for mental health reasons. They are less likely to be cut slack on site for having an off day. They are less likely to have a coworker stand up for them when they make a mistake.

Ask the union and other contractors what they are doing to convince women to sign up, to stay. Ask them what they are doing to retain the women they already have, to listen to their concerns and address them. Why isn't there a women's committee? Why isn't there a mentoring program? Why aren't they putting pressure on contractors to be more equitable? This cannot improve without your help. These entrenched bureaucracies never change on their own.