Remembering
Vanport
Weekend Mosaic
Festival begins
with proclamation
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Portland Observer
Online
See Local News, page 3
Police Chief
Investigated
Accused of
cover-up in
accidental
shooting
See story, page 2
‘City of Roses’
Volume XLV
Number 21
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • May 25, 2016
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Photos by d awn J ones R edstone
Makeda Hubert, a pre-apprenticeship student doing carpentry work (left) and Lori Baumann, an apprentice laborer working on a bridge. A new effort between the state of
Oregon and the support group Oregon Tradeswomen will attempt to bring more diversity to construction work by increasing apprenticeship retention rates of women and
people of color.
Gender Barriers Hold True
State teams up with tradeswomen to ight job site duress
by C eRvante P oPe
t he P oRtland o bseRveR
Despite how far Oregon and the country
has progressed against outdated and dis-
criminatory traditions impacting gender and
racial minorities, studies show both groups
still experience inequality in the workplace,
especially so in the white and male dominat-
ed construction trades where taunts against
women and minorities still hold true.
“My, they would say a lot of nasty things.
They’re just too nasty to really repeat,” not-
ed Cindy, a participant in a recent Oregon
study on gender and minority discrimina-
tion in trades work.
She said the inappropriate remarks from
male coworkers, and at times superiors, co-
alesce with other stereotypes to keep wom-
en like her away from the same jobs men
hold.
Inequality has long been the norm in the
pay female workers earn in all professions,
according to national studies that show
women earn 79 cents to every dollar men
make for the same work. But in the trades,
it’s often issues of sexual harassment and
bigoted opinions on race and gender that re-
main major obstacles to progress.
A study conducted by Portland State
University and commissioned by the Ore-
gon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI)
and the Oregon Depart of Transportation
(ODOT), revealed that women and people
of color were less likely to inish their high-
way construction apprenticeships, partly
due to discrimination and unfair treatment.
Only 32 percent of men of color, 26
percent of white women and 19 percent of
women of color actually end up complet-
ing job site training programs, called ap-
prenticeships, the 2014 report found. White
males had a completion rate of 41 percent.
Ben, a black male that participated in the
study, described what was typical for him to
see on the job.
“A lot of the times in construction the
C ontinued on P age 4