NAWIC Celebrates Women in Construction Week!

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NAWIC Celebrates Women in Construction Week!

The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) is gearing up to celebrate Women in Construction Week, March 7th through March 13th, 2021.  The focus of WIC Week is to highlight women as visible and viable components of the construction industry. WIC Week also provides an occasion for NAWIC’s thousands of members across the country to raise awareness of the opportunities available for women in the construction industry and to emphasize the growing role of women in the industry. It is also a time for local chapters to give back to their communities.  Carolinas AGC is proud to partner with the South Atlantic Region of NAWIC to commemorate and honor all the women who work in construction here in the Carolinas.

NAWIC originally began as Women in Construction of Fort Worth, Texas in 1953. It was founded by a group of sixteen women working in the construction industry to help create a support network for other women in the industry.  Women in Construction of Fort Worth was so successful that it gained its national charter in 1955 and became the National Association of Women in Construction.  Since its humble beginnings, NAWIC has now grown to an impressive 140 chapters spanning the globe with over 5,000 members of the organization.

The NAWIC members created Women in Construction Week to give their organization an event functioning as a platform to help bring awareness to the role of women in the construction industry and how important it can be for women to see construction as a new avenue for work and success. The national campaign for WIC Week is held annually during the first full week of March each year.

The construction industry is facing a massive labor shortage. However, there is no shortage of women in the overall American workforce and for only the second time in U.S. history, the number of women in the American workforce now exceeds their male counterparts by almost one percent according to BLS statistics released in a Washington Post article.  The same cannot be said about women working directly in the construction industry because women only comprise 10 percent of the current construction workforce.

That’s why organizations like NAWIC and events such as WIC Week are vital in changing the perception of the construction industry in the eyes of women, and society as a whole, because they provide large-scale construction career awareness to females by promoting opportunities in the industry for women within their communities, thus also generating a conversation around diversity in the trades.  So, with the 2021 Women in Construction Week kicking off in early March, let’s take time to recognize, highlight and acknowledge the role of all our women in the construction industry!

The National Association of Women in Construction has WIC Week resources on their website, and the website also offers the following tips on how employers and their employees can get involved to promote careers in construction to females during WIC week:

  • Promote WIC Week within your firm to engage females in the office and in the field
  • Host a tradeswoman/office personnel lunch, a jobsite tour, or other activity
  • Host an event or plan a STEM activity to engage young girls or college aged women to promote careers in construction
  • Recognize females working for your firm on your social media platforms or website
  • Promote NAWIC's scholarship to local students
  • Host a Women in Construction career day
  • Post about Women in Construction Week on social media
  • Receive a proclamation or official recognition for Women in Construction Week

To discover what your local NAWIC Chapter is doing in your neck of the woods to celebrate WIC Week and to find out how you can get involved, click here!