Depending on whom you ask and where they live, the history of women in the building trades tells a different story. Women — like our Industry Icon Mary Coffey, Duro Dyne’s Wendy Hinden and our Local 28 cover stars — are generational proof of a sheet metal industry in transition. Grow up middle-class in the borough of Little Silver, New Jersey, as I did and you saw women transitioning to whatever career paths they wanted. Yet, for me, I never knew that a career in the trades industry could be one of them.
Most people in our community by the shore worked in New York City. An hour train ride to and from work is what I knew about the typical workday, and I did not know anyone in our neighborhood who worked in the building trades.