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A Push For More Women In Construction In Massachusetts

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From left: Students Naomi Apatano, Sylvia Glezelis and Alyssa Mills work on their miter boxes during a training session conducted by Nontraditional Employment for Women, to train women for employment in the construction trades, in New York, on Aug. 18, 2014. (Richard Drew/AP)
From left: Students Naomi Apatano, Sylvia Glezelis and Alyssa Mills work on their miter boxes during a training session conducted by Nontraditional Employment for Women, to train women for employment in the construction trades, in New York, on Aug. 18, 2014. (Richard Drew/AP)

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter issued an amended executive order that was supposed to increase the work hours for women on construction projects that received federal money. He set a goal that women would hold 6.9 percent of work hours within the next four years. But now, 38 years later, the national average is still between 2 and 3 percent.

In Massachusetts, the percentage is a little higher, at around 5 percent. That's part of a change that the Policy Group on Tradeswomen's Issues has been pushing for for years.

Guests

Shira Springer, investigative reporter for The Boston Globe. She tweets @ShiraSpringer.

Elizabeth Skidmore, carpenter and co-founder of the Policy Group on Tradeswomen's Issues, which tweets @PGTIBoston.

This article was originally published on October 27, 2016.

This segment aired on October 27, 2016.

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