As Liz Nichols and several other masons spent Tuesday morning smoothing over a concrete demonstration slab outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, her 4-month-old daughter Rowan slept peacefully in her stroller behind the line of working women.

It wasn’t a unique experience for Nichols’ baby. In fact, she has been around job sites since she was in utero. Nichols worked until she was eight months pregnant. She said she stopped only because of the heat wave in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, last summer — a testament to the commitment many female cement masons have for their trade.

“I feel like there’s a grit and perseverance to women that really translates to how hard pouring concrete is,” said Nichols, a former contestant on the CBS reality competition show “Tough as Nails.” “You have to be flexible — you’re not the boss; the concrete is the boss.”

Nichols was one of several female cement masons in Las Vegas last week to display their career talents during the World of Concrete trade show.

At a trade show booth for the Steel Edge Women of the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association, Nichols and several other masons encouraged others to join their profession.

“One of our goals would definitely be to try and make the job sites and construction crews look a little bit more like the communities that they’re building and working in,” said Kilah Engelke, who chairs the Steel Edge Women of the OPCMIA. “It’s one of the more physical of the trades as far as construction is concerned. We definitely have a lot of pride in that we can hang and be useful, be integral parts of the crews that we work on.”

Only 3.9 percent of the construction workforce is female, according to 2021 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The union wants to encourage it as an option for people seeking a collaborative and challenging job with family-supporting wages and benefits.

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