Ah, the end is finally approaching. With the turn of May, students across the nation are in the final leg of the academic year. Finals, essays, and those last-minute nights of cramming await and tension is high.

Then I remember: Oh, right. I don't have finals to take because I'm not taking any classes this semester.

Technically, that is only half true. Because of how the engineering programs work at the University of the Pacific, some of the junior and senior engineering students like myself are out on their CO-OP period for the semester, which counts as a class to earn credits for graduation. To add some context, “CO-OP” (otherwise known as “cooperative education”) is a program in which students have the opportunity to go work in the field with a partner company or agency and gain hands-on experience of how the professional world works.

My particular company that I chose to work with is the San Joaquin branch of Habitat for Humanity—helping build homes for low-income families in the Stockton community.

Since I am still in the ongoing process of completing my CO-OP I won't get into the nitty-gritty about the stuff that I have been doing while with Habitat for Humanity—perhaps at a later time once I actually finish my term there—but being in the construction field for several months now has made me realize something: what it's really like being a woman in a male-dominated field.

Yeah, I know. It's no surprise. The engineering and construction industries have long been seen as almost a “male exclusive” job. Women have slowly been gravitating into the engineering field in recent years and that's something I can understand as a undergraduate in mechanical engineering. But there are times when I wonder if the same can be said for the construction side.

With an engineering degree, most people my age tend to grab jobs like supervising and maintaining factories, designing parts for or experimenting with systems on computers, doing administration work, and so on. But how many them try out jobs in the trade unions?

Finding a career with a trade union is probably not what most engineering students typically imagine themselves doing after graduating, much less female engineers. That's a lot of hard manual labor. You'll need the strength for lifting heavy loads, nimble hands with the tools, and plenty of stamina to keep going. I mean, I'm not going to spend four or more years in an university just to land a job for which I didn't need to have a formal education in the first place.

Of course, I also recognize that my experience at Habitat is probably more unique compared to one with a real trade union. I'm working with great people with an abundance knowledge and learning things that a classroom setting wouldn't have provided for me otherwise. So I have no complaints there. And since Habitat runs with the help of volunteers on the job site, I also have the chance to hear stories from those who have worked in trade unions as a living. But I have yet to hear what the same experience is like from a woman's perspective.

So where are the women?

According to United States Department of Labor, in 2010 only 9% of the construction workforce was composed of women. Those numbers have remained stagnant for a long time, thanks in part to the stereotyping. In careers that deal more with design, like engineering, there's been ongoing progress for women in the math and science fields, but there are still no female role models that someone like me can look up to in construction while I am in my internship.

To be completely honest, just the idea of doing manual labor as a career makes me feel a little more tired on the inside. I remember when I had to cut bricks and pavers with a saw during my first few weeks with Habitat. Carrying brick after brick, back and forth from the saw to the driveway was exhausting. Add on that whole crazy California downpour and that made the weather quite cold, very wet, and somewhat miserable. It was also a blow to my pride that I needed help to carry the whole block of pavers because I couldn't hold one on my own. I felt far more comfortable doing the electrical work around the house since I didn't have wear myself out hefting heavy materials all day.

I've grown to like pavers, but if I had the choice I'd still go for wiring up electrical stuff. Especially with summer fast approaching, staying inside the houses to hook up circuits sounds so much better than working on the driveways with concrete stones.

When it was time for me to buy new work boots, I eventually had to face the severely limited selection of footwear in my size in the stores.

Then there were also the one or two occasions when I got the off-hand “thanks, sweetheart” or “honey” comments from some of the old-fashioned trade union volunteers that came by with their company. I never took it too personally since I knew it didn't hold any ill intent. If I was a guy, then I imagine that things would different. Plus, with my inexperience at handling power tools, it took a while for me to get a hang of things.

And oh, the port-a-potty. How I wish there was a functional restroom area because it made me appreciate how great toilets and modern day plumbing systems are.

Despite this, I think my experience with Habitat and spending time dabbling in construction is a valuable one. My coworkers and the volunteers that I work with treat me as an equal and I never felt uncomfortable speaking with any of them. I've also met with a fair amount of female students through the YouthBuild program that are interested in pursuing a future with trade unions.

Do I feel like I need to work harder to prove that I can do the things that a man can do? Absolutely. But that's also because I personally want to be a competent, reliable person on the job site.

There are plenty of skills that a person can learn by volunteering on construction projects around the community. I hope that there will be more exposure for women to find more interest in male-dominated fields like construction.