Getting Past Pioneering

Abstract

As young women set out to enter skilled blue-collar jobs in the early twenty-first century, some of their experiences will echo those of their predecessors. Happily though, some won’t. Changes are taking place, albeit slowly. Margarita Suarez and Angela Olszewski speak for a younger generation of women working in the construction trades. Both project a sense of calm self-possession. One has an effervescent personality; the other is low-keyed. But the two young women have very different backgrounds and motives: blue-collar Angela was attracted by the trade; Margarita, a product of the middle class, was attracted by the challenge.