Women in Traditionally Male High Risk Industries

     Despite years of advancement for equal opportunities and rights for women, many high risk industries in the US and other developed countries remain predominantly male. Logging, fishing, construction, mining, and other occupations have yet to see the influx of female workers that other sectors of industry and manufacturing have. It is part of the psychology of exclusion of women from high risk situations that has resulted from thousands of years of men doing the majority of high risk work. Many of these occupations are also plagued with the issues similar to police and fire departments, and have a reputation of being boys clubs, with most of the female employees experiencing some kind of harassment and discrimination.
    These standards are slowly changing, however. In the construction industry more and more women are being employed, brought on in part by the recession and reduction in availability of more white-collar jobs. One major project in the mid-west, a bridge spanning the Mississippi River, recently reached the one-million man hours mark. Of those million, only five percent were logged by female employees (http://www.stlamerican.com/business/business_briefs/article_ef608672-3372-11e2-b66d-0019bb2963f4.html). While a small number, that five percent is much more than it would have been even five years ago. In a local example, many female construction workers have been working on projects around campus.
-Conor Cappe