For the past thirteen years, tradeswomen have gathered at the Tradeswomen Build Nations conference. The event is put on by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) — an organization dedicated to supporting tradespeople in the construction industry.
At the event, tradeswomen from around the world came together in Washington, D.C. to build camaraderie, learn about new programs and opportunities and engage with industry leaders.
The three-day conference, which set an attendance record, featured two plenary sessions, a banner parade in the heart of the nation’s capital and a dozen workshops featuring critical topics for tradeswomen, including leadership, recruitment, retention, conflict resolution, childcare, occupational safety and more.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Solidarity. Strength. Sisterhood.” Delivering the keynote speech to an audience of over 3,900 tradeswomen, Maria Ford — President, Commercial, Industrial and Farm & Hardware — shared a powerful message: if women are supported through resources and access to opportunities, the possibilities are endless.
Making an Impact Beyond Statistics
Maria emphasized that the importance of supporting women in their careers extends far beyond statistics. “I once had somebody tell me, ‘It matters because we need to raise the statistics.’ I don’t care about the statistics. What matters is that companies that support women — organizations that support women — grow.”
She illustrated this using the example of the National Football League (NFL). “Think about the NFL, an industry much like ours, long dominated by men in coaching positions and viewers,” she said. “What did the NFL do?” she continued. “They said, ‘What do we need to grow? We need to put women in positions of power.’”
“Today, there are over 222 coaching and leader operations positions held by women,” she shared. “In addition, when they did that, their fan base has, for the first time ever, eclipsed the 50% mark. Over 50% of women now view the NFL.”
Supporting Women in the Trades
Maria also discussed the need to recruit women into the construction industry. “We need to grow. We have a lack of trade skills workers and need to continue to bring women into the industry,” she said.
She detailed how Stanley Black & Decker supports these efforts and tradeswomen in their careers through initiatives like the DEWALT® Scholarship and our Grow the Trades Grants. “We’ve committed 30 million dollars to the trades in the next five years,” she shared. “Our focus is specifically growing women in the trades.”
““I once had somebody tell me, ‘It matters because we need to raise the statistics.’ I don’t care about the statistics. What matters is that companies that support women — organizations that support women — grow”
Maria Ford President, Commercial, Industrial and Farm & Hardware
