November 20 marks Women in Apprenticeship Day, a day chosen by the National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues to highlight the role apprenticeships play in improving women’s access to—and advancement in—good jobs in the construction trades.
Apprenticeships offer an earn-as-you-learn pathway to industry-recognized certifications, combining paid work and on-the-job training with classroom instruction, and typically require a minimum of two years of full-time work. Not all apprenticeships lead to equally highly paid careers. In FY 2025, the median hourly pay for a woman who completed a construction apprenticeship was $36.50 per hour—1.5 times higher than the median hourly pay of all women completers ($23.24 per hour), and 1.7 times higher than the hourly pay of women who completed an apprenticeship in educational services ($20.00 per hour). The lowest hourly wages after completing an apprenticeship are earned by Black women because they are most likely to be in low-paying apprenticeship careers.
The first Women in Apprenticeship Day took place in November 2015, during the newly initiated Department of Labor National Apprenticeship Week, to draw attention to the stark underrepresentation of women in apprenticeships. In 2015, women were only 8.7 percent of all apprentices, and just 3.0 percent of construction apprentices.* The first National Apprenticeship Week was part of the Obama administration’s ApprenticeshipUSA initiative, designed to grow the number of apprenticeships, expand apprenticeship opportunities into new occupations, and ensure better access for women and other underrepresented groups.
Since then, amid a general expansion of apprenticeships, the number of women participating has grown substantially, including in high-paying construction apprenticeships. But while progress has been made, women are still severely underrepresented, comprising only 14.5 percent of all apprentices, and only 5.4 percent of apprentices with gender IDs in the construction trades.
This year, National Apprenticeship Week was shrunk to one day in April. In the lead-up to National Apprenticeship Day 2025, President Trump signed an executive order signaling his continued commitment to growing apprenticeships and, with it, plans to reinstate a full apprenticeship week in the future. However, further progress in ensuring that everyone has a fair chance in apprenticeship—regardless of race or gender—is now under threat because of the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposal to rescind key equal opportunity provisions and protections from the apprenticeship regulations.
This is particularly troubling because apprenticeship is an area where policy clearly can make a difference. The number of active women construction apprentices has almost tripled since 2015—to 10,834—as a result of commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion over the last 10 years. This figure does not account for the more than 5,600 additional women in trade apprenticeships in states not fully included in the Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System (RAPIDS) system, such as California (~1,800), Massachusetts (~750), New York (~1,300), Oregon (~800), and Washington (~1,000). According to IWPR’s analysis of RAPIDS, the number of women construction apprentices grew, both relatively and absolutely, in every state over the last decade.
Some states, however, have made greater progress in creating more equitable apprenticeships than others. At one end of the spectrum are five states where women are at least 9 percent of trade apprentices (Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Oregon). Alas, at the other end of the spectrum are five states where women make up fewer than 3 percent (Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Nebraska, and South Dakota). Long-standing pre-apprenticeship programs, such as Boston Building Pathways, NEW in New York, Oregon Tradeswomen, Washington’s ANEW, as well as initiatives supported by North America’s Building Trades Unions, are playing a major role in helping individual women prepare for trades careers. These groups are also working with industry stakeholders and policymakers to promote supportive policies such as proactive outreach, policies to address hostile worksite cultures and harassment, and goal setting and monitoring of progress.
Extensive research demonstrates the benefits of apprenticeships for both employers and individual apprentices. Research also shows that apprenticeships are beneficial for women, and that more work is still needed to ensure welcoming work environments for everyone. This Women in Apprenticeship Day, in addition to celebrating the many women working in the trades, let’s also highlight that their underrepresentation in high-paying trade jobs is not inevitable, that progress can—and has—been made, and that women and industry stakeholders deserve constructive and supportive apprenticeship policies.
To learn more about IWPR’s federal policy recommendations for supporting women in apprenticeships, read our Increasing Pathways to Good Jobs policy brief at iwpr.org/increasing-pathways-to-good-jobs/.
*Calculated based only on apprentices with gender identification in RAPIDS.
