Women in skilled trades encourage others to join the workforce.

Byline: bwiegand@njbiz.com

Ironworker Lissette Rossi can be on the same job all week, constructing the skeletons of buildings at 50 feet in the air with her union Local 399 in Cam-den. Still, after three days feeling comfortable with the height, she might, as she puts it, "get the heebie-jeebies."

"You can't be scared of heights, but you gotta respect them," she said. "If you're used to it, I say 'get down.' I let it check me every day because I respect it."

Ironworking is a dangerous job. The highest Rossi has ever been suspended was 180 feet on site at the Ben Franklin Bridge, and she's lost a good friend to a fall. Still, it's her passion.

"I know it sounds clich, but it's true," she said. "I do what I love, and I love what I do."

Rossi is one of the few women ironworkers in New Jersey. In total, she said, there might be seven. Women make up 1.6 percent of ironworkers and 3.4 percent of the construction trades workforce, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Those 3.4 percent are laborers, painters, construction and maintenance workers, carpenters, pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters, and electricians, along with their first-line supervisors, construction and building inspectors, and construction managers.

But as a valuable part of the workforce, women can help close the growing gap in skilled labor in the U.S. For every four people who leave the trades, only one replacement is supplied by an apprentice program, according to Go Build America.

One woman, an expert plumber in Staten Island, N.Y., wants to flip the script. Judaline Cassidy runs Tools & Tiaras, a summer camp for girls 6 to 16 to explore trade work and open their minds to opportunities in traditionally male-dominated trade professions.

Cassidy held her summer camp at the American Standard headquarters in Piscataway in August, and 10 girls and teenagers attended.

Sophie the Welder

"We had one girl, Sophie, who was really scared doing the welding, and she was crying. We teach the girls that we're not going to force them to do anything they don't want to do, and when they feel more comfortable, they can do it or not. The other girls spoke to her and she decided to do it, and when she did, Sophie was the best welder," Cassidy said. "It's very hard to make your weld flow in a nice puddle, and she would've never known she could do this if she didn't try. Then she was loving it."

Cassidy grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, and after struggling to find work...