Tradeswomen Building Bridges: the North American Network of Women Working in the Construction Trades

Registration Link 🔗 Zoom Link to Registration 🔗

Join us for TBB’s last International Tradeswomen call of 2026 🗺️ . We will hear from our New Zealand partner Amanda Williams – Principal Advisor Women with Building and Construction Industry Training Organization (BCITO) 🦺 and the good work that is happening there.

Amanda Williams leads national strategy and system-level change at BCITO to improve the experience of under served ākonga, with a strategic focus on women in trades.

She was instrumental in developing Te Rautaki Mana Wāhine, the Women in Trades Strategy, and has led national engagement campaigns, Mana Wāhine Trade events, and dedicated digital hubs serving over 1,200 ākonga and 10,000 employers. Her Action Speaks Louder initiative delivers practical on-site change, including New Zealand’s first injury-prevention programme for women in the trades.

Amanda has presented at the NCVER Education and Training Conference (Australia), the Vocational Education Training Research Conference (New Zealand), ConcreteNZ and the Association of Wall and Ceiling Industries conferences. She was Highly Commended for the NAWIC Helen Tippett Changemaker Award and served as a NAWIC Council Member and Award Judge.

Women quarry workers of Bolivia created an association, ASOMUC, to fight against lower wages, prejudice, harassment, and lack of recognition on construction sites. Do these issues resonate with you?

Read the full article here Bolivian Female Construction Workers and this piece Asociación de Mujeres Constructoras (ASOMUC) – Bolivia from the International Labour Organization out of Switzerland.

Anna Rakennusliitto, a plumber in Finland, shares her thoughts in the 2 minute video. She reflects that women can do this work with no problems, it is the customers that need to trust her training and skills.

Anna Rakennusliitto – plumber from Finland

Our partners AWWCI – Association of Women Workers in the Construction Industry are speaking out about unsafe work sites and demanding accountability.

AWWCI demands accountability

Our 1st international call of 2026 started off with a good presentation on recently published research. The chapter titled Climate change policies and gender equity What are the views of women who work in construction? focuses on the constructions sector and their role in climate change policy, particular from the views of women working with the tools. The researches, Dr. Coralie Guedes and Dr. Vivian Price shared the findings from interviewing 16 North American union tradeswomen and how conversations of climate change show up on the job site. They also shared how these conversations can help organize more women into working out in the field and making pathways for women to enter into the trades.

The open source book Feminist Climate Policy in Industrialised States A Gender-Just Climate Emergency Response explores the importance of having women to be part of the decision-making, policy-making and community organizing process.

The recording of the conversation can be found here: 1st Quarter 2026 International Call and accessed with the passcode: kGzXzN4@

Registration Link: Zoom link to register

Join your International Trades Sisters for our 1^st Quarter meet-up. This quarters international speakers Dr. Coralie Guedes and Dr. Vivan price to discuss there contribution to the recently published book Feminist Climate Policy in Industrialised States. 

Dr. Guedes and Dr. Price will present their research and interviews of women working with the tools on the topic of Climate Change Policies and Gender Equity.

Dr. Coralie Guedes holds a PhD on the relevance of Global Framework Agreements for labor agency in processes of transnational environmental regulation through the University of Westminster, UK.

Dr. Vivian Price is Professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills,

USA and former union electrician, a researcher and filmmaker on labor and

climate justice. Her films include Transnational Tradeswomen, Harvest of

Loneliness and Talking Union, Talking Climate, centering experiences of

gendered and racialized identity and climate.

Dr. Linda Clarke is Emeritus Professor in the Centre for the Study of the

Production of the Built Environment, University of Westminster, UK, where

she has carried out comparative research on vocational education and training, employment, industrial relations, gender, equality, climate change, and

labor in the construction sector.

Jane Vargas, Co-founder and coordinator of the Association of Women Workers in the Construction Industry (AWWCI),  presented the history of AWWCI and its support of women. From education of workers and women’s rights to skills training to advocacy work and learned outcomes. AWWCI is a pro-union, pro-gender equality, pro-growth of fair and sustainable opportunities for all people.

Thank you to our sibling and partner in the Global Tradeswomen network for share with us so that we can share with you.

You can find the slide presentation in our ‘Research & Reports’ tab under The Philippines and the recording of the presentation is here. Passcode: VtsUJ&4G

Some moves are being made in the UK to have national site standard for women in construction – it is currently being discussed at the House of Lords.

“Construction cannot resolve its skills crisis, meet future demand or maintain public confidence without attracting and retaining women,”

Lets hope this 11 point framework makes some traction in the UK.

https://www.constructionforwomen.co.uk/what-we-do/national-site-standard

This article highlights the continued struggles that women of India face in the informal construction sector and offers ways, that will benefit ALL workers, to change that.

https://feminisminindia.com/2026/01/13/invisible-by-design-how-indias-construction-sector-systematically-marginalises-women-workers/

“Women construction workers are not marginal contributors to India’s growth but are central to it. Cities rise on their labour even as policies and practices continue to erase their presence.”