Campers wear hard hats and yellow safety vests at this Philly construction camp for girls

Young girls wearing yellow safety vests and white hard hats gathered on a recent Monday morning around work stations at the Sheet Metal Workers’ Training Center of Local Union 19 in South Philadelphia. One by one, they took turns with large machines bending sheets of metal into distinct shapes until they had each built their own toolbox.

Amid a nationwide need for workers in construction and a lack of gender diversity in the industry, the girls are participating in a camp aimed at exposing them to the trades. This summer, the girls camp, which is in its 15th year and hosts students entering seventh through 12th grades, is expanding from one cohort in South Philly, to include another session based out of Northeast Philadelphia.

“Last year we thought we were missing a lot of girls,” Mary Gaffney, president of NAWIC Philadelphia Foundation which runs the camp, said of the camp’s growth this year. “ A lot of the trades are in Northeast Philadelphia, and we just thought we were missing them — and we were.”

Over 90 girls will learn about the trades of electricians, carpenters, and more this year compared to 38 girls last year.

The growth of the camp comes at a time when some additional 501,000 workers are needed to meet the construction industry’s demand this year, the Associated Builders and Contractors, a national trade industry association, estimated in January. Meanwhile, women continue to represent a small percentage of the workforce, which includes jobs such as carpenters, electricians, and pipe layers, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number has grown over the last 10 years from 2.8% in 2003 to 4.3% in 2023.

“There’s a stigma still attached to working with your hands,” Gaffney said. “I think it’s changing a little bit at this point. There’s more information out there for the parents to come and look at the trades, and I’m hoping that it’s changing a little bit for the females in the area.”

Many girls participating in the camp don’t yet know if they want a career in the industry, but they’re curious to learn more, said Gaffney.

“Most of the schools in the Philadelphia area don’t teach shop, and so boys and girls aren’t being exposed,” she said. “What we’re looking for is girls to get more in the trades because they’re lacking in the trades.”

The expansion of the camp this year to two locations comes as vocational-focused community colleges have seen a 16% increase in the number of students enrolled in 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported in April. The increase is also at a time when GenZers are sharing their experiences of working in construction on TikTok amid the reality that new hires in the field can make more than entry-level positions in accounting, the journal reports.

The median pay of a sheet metal worker in 2023 was $58,780 annually, according to BLS data, and the typical level of education for entry-level positions in the field was a high school diploma.

The camp in Philadelphia, which is free for the girls, runs in two sessions from June 17 to Aug. 8 and provides campers with boots, gloves, a hard hat, and a backpack with tools including a hammer, flashlight, and a level.

“They get tools that they’ll always use in their household,” said Gaffney.

Throughout their time at the camp, the girls visit trade training centers, local unions, and job sites in the Philadelphia area to gain insight and learn skills. Some 75 volunteers from various industries are participating in the camp, Gaffney said, and the goal is for the girls to meet other women in the trades.

Around 9:30 one Monday morning in June, some 40 girls sat around round tables and took notes in an auditorium listening to explanations of what sheet metal work entails, and how they could apply to become apprentices with Local 19.

Natasha Scott Lawson, who has been with Local 19 for 26 years and is a recruiter and trustee for the organization, wants to recruit more women. After the auditorium presentation, she led a group of girls on a tour of the facilities, including a computer room where design work happens and an area where apprentices learn about servicing heaters and air conditioners.

“A lot of women think they can’t do it,” Scott Lawson said. “A lot of women, they don’t want to get dirty; they like to keep their nails done. I keep my nails done. You can still be a girlie girl and do construction.”

Some 57 workers out of 3,982 members at Local 19 are women, including retirees, apprentices, as well as production and residential workers, said Scott Lawson. When she joined some 26 years ago, she remembers seeing about five women at her union meetings.

Getting more women into the construction workforce has recently been a matter of federal attention. In 2022, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced an initiative that aims to double the amount of women in the construction workforce within 10 years. This May, she called on industry leaders to pledge to create more opportunities for women in the field.

Locally, one company investing in the future of women in construction is NEST, a business based in part out of South Jersey, which is sponsoring the Philly girls camp with a $5,000 donation this year. The company manages commercial real estate, contracting providers for labor, including for plumbing and electrical needs. CEO Rob Almond says that while the workforce shortage started to become more evident right before the pandemic, it became a bigger problem for his business in 2021, which he refers to as “the toughest year” of his career.

“Outside of a lot of more people not wanting to work, our providers were saying, ‘I can’t find enough skilled labor to take the jobs that we wanted to give them,’” he said.

While the situation is getting better now compared to 2021, there continues to be a need in the industry, said Almond, who recently helped launch an advisory council, which is spreading awareness about the trades.

He also had a daughter during the pandemic. “I would love to see her in a hard hat if she wants to do it,” he said. “It’s a shame that it hasn’t been that perception for such a long time, but I don’t care who you are, if you want to do it, there’s an opportunity for you.”