Krista Ramsey

kramsey@enquirer.com

According to the Women's National Law Center, females make up 14 percent of architects and engineers, 34 percent of physicians, 61 percent of accountants and auditors but only 3 percent of construction workers.

Peak employment of females in construction was 2005, when 1,079,000 women worked in the field.

By 2011, there were 828,000 females working in the construction field.

Most women in the construction field hold administrative, sales or managerial roles. They make up only 3 percent of those working in the trades.

Ivana Hylton laughs out loud at the idea that four years ago, at age 11, anyone would have described her as "handy."

"Not at all," the 15-year-old from Springdale says. "I was good at messing things up."

Then her mom enrolled her in Rosie's Girls, the YWCA's three-week summer boot camp for construction skills. She hammered, drilled, sawed, poured cement, welded, wired and took apart a toilet.

Back at school that fall, she signed up for electives in carpentry and engineering, where she was one of four girls in classes of 25. "I guess the guys felt they needed to help the girls, but I felt I had the basics down," she says.

In the meantime, she fixed her grandmother's toilet.

Now Ivana is a teen counselor at Rosie's Girls, and plans a career in carpentry or IT engineering. She grins. "I found out I like to fix things."

It's just what the local construction companies that help fund Rosie's Girls want to hear. As their industry rebounds, they project an increase of 2,500 local construction jobs by 2020 and a growing need for skilled workers.

They say the biggest pool of untapped talent is women.

Of 8.4 million American construction workers, only 3 percent are female, a statistic that has not changed in the last 30 years, including in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. During the economic downturn, nationally more than 300,000 women left construction, which has historically paid twice the wages of female-dominated occupations like clerical work and child care.

Rosie's Girls, which is held at Woodward Career Technical School, is one attempt to turn the tide.

It enrolls girls ages 11 to 13, trying to catch them before they hit junior high and opt out of the math and science classes they'd need for careers in construction or engineering. With shop facilities and industrial arts classes long gone from most schools – and fewer families teaching kids how to do even basic home repairs – most girls have no exposure to trades like carpentry, electrical work or welding.

At the start of camp July 7, 12-year-old Mia Ward of Mount Healthy had never seen a level and "sort of" knew how to use a tape measure. Mid-way through it, she's used a jigsaw, hand saw, drill and drill press to make her own lamp – which she'll wire herself – and welded 12-inch steel bars together to make her own jewelry stand.

She is anxiously awaiting the chance to use her new plumbing skills.

"Our toilet has been broken a couple of times, and my mama's been mad and this dude has been coming over to fix it and we've been spending a lot of money," she says. "If I can fix this, my mom's not going to be worried."

It's exactly the sense of confidence and self-sufficiency that lies at the heart of the camp, which was named for Rosie the Riveter, the World War II symbol of emerging female strength.

Camp director Rhonda Lindon-Hammon says while adults often expect a boy to master basic skills, they rush to a girl's aid. "If a bike breaks down and it's a boy, the uncle, father or neighbor will come over and say, 'Let's go fix your bike.' If it's a girl, they'll just go out and fix it, and the girl has no idea how the bike works," she says. "We do a disservice to girls when we don't teach them how things work."

Doubt about their ability to master basic life skills – to unclog a drain, buy a set of snow tires, fix a leaky pipe, clean the gutters – fosters a sense of dependence that experts say can lead some females to poor relationship choices, or even keep them in an abusive situation.

"What you learn here is independence – that you don't have to depend on someone else to fix something for you," says 15-year-old Sandra Ramirez of Downtown, a counselor who, when she finished the camp three years ago, took drill and screws in hand and repaired her own bed. "Girls find out they're capable of doing many things. They find talents in themselves that they didn't know they had."

They also rediscover how empowering it is to take a risk, and how freeing to risk a failure. A hallmark of the camp, which is run entirely by females, is a ban on cliqueishness, criticism and competition. Girls who may have been bullied or excluded at school are taught to work together and support each other at Rosie's Girls. And they're told that just because something is hard or even scary, it's not reason to give up.

"I've seen girls literally shaking in their welder's uniform – seen their knees knocking," says Lindon-Hammon. "But we say, 'If you're really scared, step closer.' "

In parting, they're sent on their way with a toolbox they made themselves and tools that – before Rosie's Girls – some had never touched: a crosscut saw, level, flat and Phillips screwdrivers, hammer, speed square, dusk mask and work boots. They end camp with a ceremony that's symbolic. They bring the lamps they've made to a freestanding set of light switches and plugs – which they've wired themselves – and simultaneously plug them in.

"It's magical – they can't really believe they did it all themselves," says Lindon-Hammon. "You can't really tell if the lamp is shining, or if the girl is shining." ■