Sinade Caroll was on her way home from nursing school one evening six years ago when she saw an ad on the New York City subway for Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW), an organization that trains women for careers in construction, utility and maintenance trades.

“I didn’t know that women were construction workers, or that women were actually in these fields where there are mostly men,” the 26-year-old says. “I didn’t experience that growing up and something told me to call the program.”

Caroll had earned her GED in 2011 and was hoping to find work as a medical assistant after nursing school. But she called NEW to learn more, and says she realized immediately that she had found the right career path for her. She quit nursing school and enrolled in the organization’s eight-week apprenticeship program, where she learned everything from how to accurately read a measuring tape to how to lift heavy materials without getting hurt.

When her apprenticeship was done, Caroll joined the New York City District Council Carpenters Union and found a full-time, paid job as a construction worker within two weeks. At her current job, she says, her role is “putting up the sheetrock and framing hardware ceilings.”

The construction industry is expected to see 12 percent employment growth between 2016 and 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and as the industry continues to face a worker shortage, many state legislators and professional organizations are doing all they can to bring more women like Caroll into an industry packed with diverse opportunities and the potential to earn strong wages.

Currently, women make up 9.1 percent of the U.S. construction workforce, and earn an average 95.7 percent of what their male counterparts make, according to The National Association of Women in Construction (compared with the average 82 percent women earn of what their male counterparts make across industries.)

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