WORCESTER—Young women from Worcester Tech will be hosted at a special breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. on Friday, March 8, in honor of Women in Construction Week.
“We are hosting girls from Worcester Tech who are interested in the trades,” Charran Fisher, founder and CEO of Fisher Contracting, said. “It’s held at a job site – we’re working on a new educational research building at UMass. It’s opening next month, so being on the site right before it opens is so special.”
The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) began this week-long celebration in 1998, designed to encourage and spotlight women in the construction industry. This year’s national theme is “Keys to the Future.”
This is the third and final year this local event will be held at UMass. Fisher Contracting and Starlite Building Services, who are the project’s sub-contractors, are cohosting the event with Shawmut Designing and Construction, the general contractor of the project.
A hot breakfast will be provided by Worcester’s Creedon and Company.
There are several speakers scheduled, including Mayor Joseph Petty, City Manager Eric Baptista, District Councilor 2 Candy Mero-Carlson, and Timothy Murray from the Worcester Chamber of Commerce. Catherine Pena, the business representative for the Carpenters Local 330 in Rhode Island, will act as the Master of Ceremonies. There also will be time for the students to ask questions, and network with industry professionals.
“This event celebrates ‘Women in Construction Week,’ emphasizing the pivotal role of women in the construction industry,” Pena said. “Each year, I invite young women from Worcester Tech High to visit our ongoing construction site, providing them with real-life experiences from the women who have been part of this project since its start in 2021. … Over 20 women from various trades participated in this project, and every single one of them proved to be rock stars.”
Fisher said the students will have tours of the site, and be able to see themselves represented.
“All these girls are looking at union trades, and they will get to see women on the job site,” Fisher said.
Union workers are usually very skilled, and the union makes sure workers have proper training and education, Fisher said.
“We always think of union work as being in Boston,” she said, noting there are several unions in the Worcester area. “Unions help workers attain an affordable wage … and that can set them apart from a regular construction worker, without benefits or resources.”
Fisher graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and said she “fell into” construction while helping her now-husband in his demo company.
“I was helping him in the office and I saw the opportunities,” she said. “There were (few) women or minorities, so I started my company in 1998.”
Fisher’s company is minority-woman owned, and she is encouraged to see more women in hard hats.
“There are more women in every aspect,” she said. “Now, when you walk into a room to negotiate a contract, or go to a site to work on a project, it’s nice to see women who look like you.”
Fisher said she was happy to be able to celebrate women in the industry.
“It’s not just someone working in the field,” she said. “There are project managers, supervisors – there’s so much to construction.”
Though change tends to come slowly, Fisher said, things are moving in the right direction.
“We have so many young women attending,” she said. “I’ve had requests to teach and to mentor, and that speaks volumes. If you walk around a job site, you’ll see it’s changed. We’ve definitely come a long way. It’s slow progress, but it’s still progress.”
Christine M. Quirk is the former editor of MotherTown and has written for the Telegram & Gazette, Bay State Parent and Times & Courier. She is a novelist and educator and lives with her family in West Boylston. She can be reached at cmqwriter@gmail.com
