North Charlotte Today

With construction companies struggling to find workers, Charlotte-based She Built This City is doing what it can to help women step up to fill the vacancies.

“We all have to work together in some sort of way and really raise the tide of what is the next generation of workers going to look like,” Marion Pulse, resource development manager of She Built This City, said in a WCNC report. 

She Built This City aims to help youth, women, and marginalized people enter the workforce with construction trade skills. Pulse brings 20 years of residential construction experience to the leadership post.

A shortage of materials and a shortage of labor in all trades — carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and heating and air conditioning, for example — are among the biggest challenges builders are facing today.  

Those problems are affecting the speed with which projects are being completed. “It is probably slowing down the pace in which these companies want to keep up with because of the demand,” Pulse said in the report.

Another part of the problem is that older employees are retiring and newer ones don't seem to want to work. That opens the door for women to fill the void, Pulse said.

“When we talk to these companies, they want women in these spaces, they tell us women are more detailed oriented, they’re ready to work, ready to learn, and we want to support that,” she said.

She Built This City was founded about three years ago and it recently launched its full-time two-year apprenticeship. This gives women the opportunity to learn all the different trades. 

The group is currently running a campaign to raise money to support those women. Those who would like to donate can can do it by texting w@wcrew at 44321 or by going online to https://shebuiltthiscity.org/donate/