"My 17-year-old daughter thinks she can do anything she wants - and, she can," said the long-time industry consultant and speaker. "She'll never have to face the tough discrimination that we faced getting into these fields."
Though exact statistics are hard to come by regarding how many women are in all areas of this industry, Women in the Labor Force: A Databook, published last May by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, reported that only 1.5 percent of the approximate 351,000 listed heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers are women. The numbers are also small in construction and extraction occupations (2.5 percent of the 8.5 million-plus in the field), sheet metal workers (4 percent of the 152,000 total), and "maintenance and repair workers, general" (4.1 percent of 300,000 total).