I’m feeling nostalgic for the ’08 campaign season: the grand promises of 180-degree shifts and maverick bi-partisan politics; the history made through stump speeches, wardrobe malfunctions, and straight talkin’, down-to-earth folk like Joe the Plumber. Those were simple times, when ideologues could audition their ideas for the national audience without calculating the practical application of hope and change.
One meme that took hold was the concept of “green jobs” — the genius combination of the two buzzwords that every politician needs to garner votes in this age of economic crisis and environmental doom. This is a campaign promise that, in the billions, President Obama appears to be genuine about; 4.2 billion dollars of the economic stimulus package have been set aside for green job creation.
But last year, when progressives were still misty-eyed for the new era of American politics, feminist Linda Hirshman asked for some specifics in a New York Times op-ed: “Where are the new jobs for women?”
Though women now make up 46 percent of the total labor force, says Hirshman, most of that “green job” stimulus money will go almost exclusively to male-dominated industries: manufacturing, engineering, HVAC installation (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning), construction, and energy. In many construction- and installation-related industries, women make up less than 3 percent of the workforce.
Hirshman argues that a “just” allocation of stimulus dollars would also support professions dominated by women, like education, social work and health care. For example, 98 percent of kindergarten teachers are women.
These industries are obviously of great importance to the welfare of our nation, but throwing money their way won’t change the fact that women are still excluded from higher-paying professions. A kindergarten teacher and an engineer both need college degrees, but the former will likely need a lot more time to pay off those student loans.
Another way to address the lack of jobs for women in a green economy is to address the underlying inequality and cultural biases that make skilled, “green” professions inaccessible to women.
Last month, $55 million of the stimulus package was dispersed in grants for green job training programs, and many of those grants will go to organizations like Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., a non-profit that places Portland women in apprenticeships at non-traditional job sites.
PowerShift West brought Lela Brown, a Portland plumber who was in one of Oregon Tradeswomen’s first apprenticeship programs. Brown calls herself a “green collar” professional.
“I’m steering my trade to help the human race keep going,” she said during a keynote speech for the conference, “and that’s the roots of plumbing, all the way back to ancient Egypt.” Brown recently worked with a group of plumbers to install a 70,000-gallon rainwater cistern for a Portland State University gym.
Environmentalism is not inherent to Oregon Tradeswomen. Four tradeswomen in carpentry, construction, and engineering started the organization in 1989 simply to create opportunities for women in skilled, “blue collar” professions. Yet, with stimulus money, Oregon Tradeswomen plans to train more than 140 women in weatherizing and installing green technologies —”Some of them coming out of prison, some of them coming out of poverty, some of them college kids,” said Brown.
I’m still not convinced that women will find substantial inclusion in the green labor force, or that the green building and renewable energy will, in the long term, adequately address unemployment and wage disparities in any of the downtrodden sectors of the population. To some extent, “green jobs” is just a comforting, political phrase that helps Americans think about the sustained survival of humanity in terms of immediate benefits to their society.
But what I take from Lela the Plumber is a way to view “green jobs” as a tool, rather than an enemy, for women’s equality in the workforce. The exclusion of women from the higher-paying sectors in skilled labor has always been a problem, but now we have a big, green platform to stand on and demand entrance.
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