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Construction sites will be required to be more welcoming to women under a new Illinois law
A successful legislative push embraced by Gov. JB Pritzker means the state’s male-dominated construction industry soon will have to make new job-site accommodations to employees who lactate and menstruate. Illinois is the second state with such a mandate.
WBEZ Chicago
By Isabela Nieto
According to a report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women make up just over 4% of the construction labor workforce nationally. In Illinois, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported, nearly 253,000 construction industry jobs last month.
It’s evident that women make up a meaningful presence on construction worksites — and that presence is growing. In 2024, the number of women in construction hit a record high nationally, up by nearly 80% from 2015.
And it’s that part of the construction workforce that figures to benefit most from the new law, which advocates say could bring more women into the trades.
Read more at WBEZ Chicago, NPR Illinois, or the Chicago Sun-Times