Rosie D’Antonio had mostly worked retail when she saw a newspaper ad and applied for a position in Duro Dyne’s assembly department in 1979.

Much of what Alicia Butty knows about welding, she learned as a teenager working in her family’s custom manufacturing business, Butty Manufacturing in Jerseyville, Ontario.

At the Brooklyn, New York-based Gentlemen Sheet Metal, second-year apprentice Tiffany Crawford is a standout on the shop floor. Not only is she a woman in a painfully male dominated industry, her fiery work ethic is quickly positioning her to be a formidable force in ductwork fabrication.   

THE MOST OBVIOUS ANSWER TO A MANPOWER SHORTAGE IN THE SHEET METAL INDUSTRY IS ‘WOMANPOWER.’ BUT IS YOUR SHOP READY TO LEAN IN? 

After Rochelle Sadler became the first African-American woman to become a sheet metal journeyman in Oregon last year, she’s ready to pave a new path forward.

Women make up a very small percentage of the construction industry: around 9 percent, according to government statistics. For African Americans, it’s a little less than 5.8 percent.