United Tradeswomen (New York, N.Y.)

In 1979 a group of smart, strong-willed women, fiercely independent but recognizing the need for collective action, forged a new organization in New York City—United Tradeswomen (UT). Its members were white and black, Hispanic and Asian; they also were occupationally diverse.
Initially, UT’s purpose was to lobby the electricians’ and carpenters’ unions to recruit women into their apprenticeship programs. Mary Garvin, a carpenter who was determined to get women into the trades, developed the Women in Apprenticeship Program (WAP) and secured public funding for its operation. WAP recruited women and enrolled them in training programs to give them the skills necessary to find employment in the building trades.

When WAP began to set up shop in 1978, the first person Garvin hired was Lois Ross, a new graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in economics. Ross recognized the need for a strong political and organizational support system for women working in nontraditional. Ross, Garvin, carpenter Irene Soloway, and several other women organized UT to meet this need.

The group saw its mission (PDF) as providing support and advocacy for women who had begun to enter the construction trades in New York City. Other early members included carpenter and political activist Consuelo Reyes, electrician Evan Ruderman, plumber Kay Webster, electrician Cynthia Long, and ironworker Janine Blackwelder.
As a grassroots voluntary organization with democratic ideals, UT depended on the women who poured their creative energies into it. The majority of UT participants were experiencing significant hardships at work and meeting resistance within their unions. The organization provided a network of support and conducted educational forums on such issues as sexual harassment, race discrimination, safety and health, affirmative action, and trade union issues.

It also brought pressure to bear on regulatory agencies, employers, contractors, unions and apprentice programs. UT organized successful protest campaigns in 1981 and 1982. UT also monitored union recruitment drives and publicized them among its members.

UT actively opposed initiatives designed to weaken affirmative action. Immediately after the Reagan administration took office, the pace of the attack against affirmative action accelerated. The goal of UT and its partners in this common struggle was to preserve the spirit and intent of Title VII—equal employment opportunity. Women and minority organizations had to make their case for jobs, to be included in groups considered for hiring and training, and to maintain the government’s enforcement obligation. Over time this process became increasingly contentious, and it contributed to UT's demise.

In a joint oral history interview, Lois Ross, Evan Ruderman, and Irene Soloway discuss UT's origins, activism, and struggles.

United Tradeswomen was founded by women working in the construction industry in New York City to promote the training and employment of women, and to combat discrimination in employment and in the workplace.

United Tradeswomen was founded in 1979 as an outgrowth of activity surrounding the entrance of women into the construction trades in New York City. Overt resistance to the entrance of women, persistent discrimination in hiring, and the on-going need for support for those women in the trades, prompted several women to organize the group. The initial function of UT was to lobby the electricians and carpenters unions to recruit women into their apprenticeship programs. The initiative for this action was taken by Mary Garvin, a carpenter who came to New York City from California with the express purpose of getting women into the trades. Garvin was instrumental in developing the Women in Apprenticeship Agency Project (WAP) and in securing public funding for its operation. WAP recruited women and then enrolled them in training programs to provide them with the skills necessary to secure employment in the building trades.

However, beyond training and recruitment, the need remained for attention to a broader and more diverse goal. Mary Garvin, Lois Ross, and Irene Soloway, as well as several other women, organized United Tradeswomen to fulfill this broader mission. Between 1979 and 1984, UT brought pressure to bear on regulatory agencies, employers, contractors, unions and apprentice programs. It worked with coalitions in the City to pursue equal employment for women and minorities, engaging in concerted activity with groups such as Harlem Fight Back and ALL-Craft. It provided a network of support for women, and conducted educational forums on issues such as sexual harassment, race discrimination, and trade union issues.

UT carried on correspondence and lobbying, mounted picket lines and held public "Speak Outs" in its campaign to achieve the maximum equality guaranteed by the law.

The structure of the organization was democratic and participatory, with a commitment to consensus decision-making. Division of labor was allocated to committees with responsibility for tasks such as outreach, publicity, fund raising and programming. Responsibility for setting priorities and maintaining momentum rested with the core group of leaders. Despite its commitment to broad-based decision making and shared leadership, personality clashes and diverging political opinions generated divisions within the organization. In addition, the stress and "burn out" attendant upon the lives of women in the trades, ultimately led to the demise of the organization. In spite of its disintegration, the trades women who pioneered the entrance of females into the construction industry in New York City almost unanimously acknowledge the contribution made to their efforts by United Tradeswomen. The confluence between the Women's Movement and the movement into new areas of employment for that generation of women produced a vitality and purposefulness that resulted in real economic gains for that small percentage of women who penetrated the male bastion of the construction trades.

Immediately after the Reagan administration took office, the pace of attack against affirmative action accelerated. Women and minority organizations repeatedly had to make their case for jobs, to be included in groups considered for hiring and training, and to maintain the government’s enforcement obligation. Over time this process became increasingly contentious.

Various forces were pushing UT women apart: burnout among the activist core; disagreements over issues of leadership; personality clashes; and difficulties caused by union corruption.

Racism was a constant concern. Women of color bore a double burden as they entered the skilled trades—the tremendous resistance to hiring women and minorities. As time went on, what had been perceived as an external issue began to affect the internal dynamics with UT. Yvone Maitin experienced these tensions:

The women of color felt that they didn’t have a real voice in it, that they were not able to be a part of the leadership, that the leadership was primarily white females. …United Tradeswomen, New York Tradeswomen, any of the groups I’ve been a part of, they are all microcosms of a larger society. …These are old, long-held views. They’re a part of this society. So we need to be more patient and more creative in how we’re going to confront these things. …I think that the internal contradictions within UT were not only on the side of the white women. It was multi-dimensional, and it was something that everybody needs to take responsibility for their part in it. It really is deep. …I think that was the thing that made it fall apart because the women of color were not coming. Little by little, they were not coming. And in the trades, quite frankly, a great majority of the women are women of color.
Although President Reagan’s early and unrelenting attempts to whittle away the legal foundations of affirmative action met with mixed results, subsequent efforts successfully landed key blows. At the time of UT’s demise, the organization’s radical vision “for the guaranteed right of every woman to work in the job of her choice” remained a work in progress.

Nevertheless, UT made a difference in the lives of its members. The group created a political voice and organized collective solutions to political problems, rather than leaving individuals to act in isolation. In 1983, UT established the first national conference of tradeswomen, and it produced pioneering work on sexual harassment in blue-collar jobs. Many former UT members kept the organization’s spirit alive in their subsequent ventures. For example, Maitin was active in founding another group, New York Tradeswomen. Other Sisters who changed careers retained a commitment to advocacy, justice, and collective organizing—in short, to making the world a better place, step by step.

In a joint oral history interview, Lois Ross, Evan Ruderman, and Irene Soloway discuss UT's origins, activism, and struggles.