Roofing is the Next Female Frontier

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Hear Rebecca’s experience as a single mom working in the roofing industry and what it means to move beyond female/male, white collar/blue collar paradigms.

In Season 3, Episode 33 of Roofing Road Trips, Megan Ellsworth, RCS podcast producer, sits down with Rebecca Welsh, a regional business manager for Weatherproofing Technologies, Inc. (WTI) in the south Atlantic region of the country. The two discuss why women make up such a small percentage of the field work force in this industry and what roofing companies can do to change that. Rebecca has a mission to recruit other women into roofing and to dismantle harmful stereotypes along the way. 

Rebecca’s stepfather offered her a job working at his roofing company when Rebecca was just a teenager. It wasn’t long before she fell in love with the work and decided to pursue a fulfilling career in the construction industry. 

"It was fun. It was very unique. We were always on some different kind of job,” said Rebecca. “We got to be outside and I was always learning things and I'm like a sponge. I love to learn new things.” 

After that introduction, Rebecca continued to work very hard at her career, constantly proving herself to her male peers and superiors on the job.  

“The construction industry just brought me so many different opportunities that I never knew were out there,” said Rebecca. “Being a female in the construction industry, you have to earn your way. People don't take you seriously, necessarily." 

Rebecca utilizes her experiences and insight in the industry to help open the doors for other women looking to make a career for themselves. She is also passionate about showing her two kids how much opportunity exists around them and that they can succeed even with the odds against them. 

“As a single mom, raising two children, it provided an absolutely wonderful career,” said Rebecca. “It also showed them that there's so many different opportunities out there that maybe they didn't think of and that women can do this.” 

The constant shortage of a construction labor force has been a problem facing the industry for years, and Rebecca says it formed for two reasons: (1) The white collar/blue collar paradigm that places a higher level of respectability on white collar jobs, leading more people to want white collar careers, and (2) the discouraging of women to pursue a career in the trades.   

“This country was separated into two divisions,” explained Rebecca. “People who went to work in a suit every day and people who went to work in their jeans and boots. Now I think the tables have turned...if you come home and your sink breaks, who are you going to call if you don't know how to fix it? You need those people. You need us.” 

Fighting the labor shortage means fighting stereotypes that deem women unable to perform in the trades. It is in the industry’s best interest to actively recruit women into the workforce by cultivating a culture of respect from one tradesperson to another.  

"Fighting that labor shortage begins with knocking off that stereotype of only men can come in the field,” said Rebecca. “[It’s just] not true.” 

Listen to the entire podcast to hear more from Rebecca and how she is sharing her story to encourage more women to take that first step into the industry.