Danforth Celebrates Women in Construction for 2023!
Women in Construction Week is recognized during the first full week of March each year. For 2023, Danforth celebrated their “Women in Construction” by having a “Snacks & Chats” event for all their offices, where women in the field, office and shops had the opportunity to chat with one another.
“We wanted to give the women of Danforth to take some time and get to know one another and also learn about some of their counterparts in different regions. Building that sense of team and bringing us all together is important,” said Jennifer Wrobel, HR Manager.
Here’s some statistics on women in construction – across the nation there are 11% of women in the construction industry and 2.5% in the trades. Danforth alone has 25% of women who make up their office personnel and 3.23% in the field/shops.
“Our numbers have grown from last year, which is a great to see. It is also wonderful to see the growth in women at Danforth,” said Michelle Gerace, WNY Service Operations Manager. To kick off “Women in Construction” Week, Gerace presented these trending statistics during Danforth’s companywide weekly meeting.
Each year Danforth partners with multiple organizations to continue their efforts to grow “Women in Construction” including, NAWIC, MCAA/WiMi and ACE Mentorship just to name a few.
This year, the Buffalo office partnered with Erie 1 BOCES and the Buffalo Niagara chapter of NAWIC to host the first ever “Girls Day in the Trades” event. The event started with a fabrication shop tour right at Danforth and then lead to a panel discussion with young women who had just started their career in construction. To complete the morning there was a round table rotation for one-on-one discussions with women who are seasoned in the construction field. The female students learned about the fields they want to be in through networking and seeing the job sites firsthand. Later in the afternoon, the students went on a jobsite tour. There were 23 students in total from HVAC, Welding and Building Trades who participated in this event.
“It was wonderful to see this event come together. We spent many months planning and configuring the best options that we could present to provide the best experiences to these students. We are all passionate about the trades and helping build the foundation for the next generation to get involved,” said Christina Kramarz, Marketing Manager.
A special thank you to everyone who participated or supported the “Women in Construction” events for 2023!
