When late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was asked when there will be enough women serving on the Supreme Court, she famously responded, “When there are nine.” It seems the construction industry is beginning to feel that same way when it comes to recruiting young girls and women. It is evident the gender gap in construction is shrinking, but that doesn’t mean efforts to recruit women to the industry must slow—quite the contrary. One woman is taking advantage of the momentum with her program Transportation & Construction GIRL, an organization which hosts multiple career weeks, special programs and an annual exhibition day each year targeted at recruiting—you guessed it—girls to the construction industry.
The program’s director, Keller Hayes, was inspired when she noticed a hole in the small businesses market when it came to female support. “When I went to college,” she says, “one of the things I did was get involved in women’s issues and I’ve been involved ever since.” After college, Hayes moved to Denver and involved herself in the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce, where she noticed “that small businesses owned by women had lots of support for the first few years, but not so much after that.” That spurred her to join a $1.7-billion project with the Colorado Department of Transportation coaching small businesses, and when working with these small businesses she noticed: “One of the things this industry is suffering from is people are retiring. There were two years in a row that 20% of the construction industry was retiring. And so, there was a huge workforce gap. But at the same time, only 8% of the construction workforce was women. It’s like these two things are a great fit together.” As a response to this, Hayes started Transportation & Construction GIRL in 2016 to not only recruit women to the industry, but to inform them about it.
“As we dug deeper into it,” says Hayes, “we found that one of the huge issues was that young women weren’t finding out about these careers early enough.”
For the last nine years, T&C GIRL has been helping females from ages six to 23 discover the opportunities afforded them by the transportation and construction industries. Construction Executive sat down with two young women who say they would not be where they are today without the program.
Thalia Garman received a scholarship from T&C GIRL and Sela Martinez received a four-year scholarship to attend the Colorado School of Mines. Both girls, who currently serve as T&C GIRL ambassadors, were introduced to the program in different ways but are well on their way to building sustainable and financially independent careers in construction. Garman and Martinez are proud to share their stories with future T&C GIRL prospects.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
While attending one of the career weeks for T&C GIRL in 2023, Garman visited an asphalt plant and learned about chemical engineers in construction and learned how the construction industry is focused on leaving the water cleaner than they found it. She came away from that experience with hopes of becoming an engineer that helps the environment and encourages sustainability on a jobsite.
“I don’t really have much of a background with construction other than my father who would typically build stuff around the house,” says Garman, “like a deck, or maybe do some work on the rooms; lots of general home management.” It was her father who received the email about T&C GIRL’s Career Week, and who knew it might be a good fit for Garman, who was a high-school sophomore and undecided on her next step. “As a high schooler,” she says, “you either absolutely know what you want to do and you have a goal and a passion or you’re wandering adrift, not really knowing what you want to do—That’s where I was. So, I decided to participate in the program, and I just remember being so incredibly stunned by everything that goes into the construction industry.”
This invitation opened Garman’s eyes and mind to the opportunities available for girls like her in construction. “There is a stereotype around the idea that construction is mostly a physical job and that you have to be super strong to get involved and really have to know what you’re doing. But it’s not—it’s so much more than that. It’s looking at blueprints or schematics; it’s putting parts together. Yes, there’s heavy lifting in some areas, but absolutely not in all of them.” The exposure to the construction industry in a female-focused group helped quell Garman’s intimidation. From there, she enrolled in STEM classes at her high school and got to experience firsthand the need for women in the construction industry.
“I remember taking an electronics class,” she says “and there were two girls in there—me included—and that can be an overwhelming environment. I think what really stood out to me about this program was just how inclusive it seemed and just how comfortable I felt.”
In 2024, Garman became an electrical engineer intern at one of the host companies for Career Week at T&C GIRL—Encore Electric—and is currently enrolled at Red Rocks Community College in their Mines Academy. Once she finishes up, she plans to attend the Colorado School of Mines to pursue a major in chemical or electrical engineering. Each year in September, Garman returns to help out with the organization’s annual Transportation & Construction GIRL Day.
BREAKING STEREOTYPES
Martinez first attended T&C GIRL Career Week back in 2019, where she met some amazing female mentors and got the chance to drive a skid steer truck through an obstacle course—an unforgettable event. Similar to Garman, it was also Martinez’s father who encouraged her to participate. “My dad brought home the flyer,” says Martinez, “and when I got home and researched it, I noticed it would open up a lot of different doors for me. I was actually really passionate about what they were doing and how they were getting women involved on so many different projects that had a lot of meaning to them. That’s something that I really fell in love with about the construction industry is being able to be part of projects that impact people’s day-to-day lives.”
This interaction spurred Martinez to discover a brand new career path based on her passion for rocks and geography. After receiving a full scholarship—the Florence Caldwell Achievement Award honoring the first female graduate of the Colorado School of Mines—Martinez is studying geological engineering. Like Garman, Martinez is a regular ambassador and contributor for T&C GIRL, and she credits the organization with changing the course of her life and career and hopes it will do the same for generations of girls to come.
“It can definitely be intimidating being in a male-dominant field, especially coming into the program as a 15-year-old girl. I think that’s a notion that’s been passed around for a long time, so actually going through the program and having it so heavily focused on female empowerment and getting women involved in different things, it opened both my eyes and my parents’ eyes to how much the construction industry had to offer.”
Martinez credits T&C GIRL with evolving her life path, which is why she’s returning as an ambassador.
“When going through the program,” she says, “I saw how it was really influential for a lot of young girls. And then seeing how that’s been building for the past couple years since I’ve been part of the program and just getting to see more and more young girls getting involved and getting inspired by other women, I think that it’s just really amazing to see.”
PAST IS PROLOGUE
Hayes emphasizes the importance of not only this program, but the perpetuation of it by its past participants and ambassadors: “It’s very difficult to make a decision about a career if you don’t even know it exists.” And it’s never too early to learn about it. Hayes recalls one girl as young as six years old who attended a past T&C GIRL event with her father. “She said she got to spend the day with him, which was a big deal,” says Hayes. “But what he did not anticipate was that [his daughter] would take so much away from the program and talk about it on the two-hour ride home. She even told her friends about it on their next play date.”
Words have power, and it’s easy to say good things about Transportation & Construction GIRL, which is why the program has had such a powerful effect the last few years and is predicted to keep growing. “I know that whenever I come across someone and they ask me how I got involved or interested in construction,” says Garman, “I will always recommend this program. Ever since I started this program, I come back for a Career Day every single year. And I want to keep doing that for as long as I can. This isn’t a program that I want to stop being involved in.”
As more girls hear, see and become women in construction, the workforce gets better for everybody. On Sept. 25, bring your friends, daughters, sisters—fathers, brothers and others, too—to the Transportation & Construction GIRL Day in Golden, Colorado, for indoor and outdoor interactive exhibits, and hands-on experience with construction equipment. For more information on other events and programs, visit constructiongirl.org.
SEE ALSO: THE CONSTRUCTION WORKFORCE IS MORE FAIR FOR FEMALE WORKERS THAN OTHER INDUSTRIES
