Equal Rights Advocates Announces Infrastructure Pathways Project to Expand Women’s Access to High-Paying Construction Careers

August 1. 2025

Washington, D.C. — Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) announced the launch of a new project today that will focus on expanding women’s access to jobs in the construction industry by ensuring equal access to trades apprenticeship programs.

Known as the Infrastructure Pathways Project, the initiative will develop and implement strategies that align communities’ needs for high-paying, reliable jobs with a national increased demand for skilled workers created by over $20 billion in federally funded construction projects.

ERA partnered with TradesFutures to launch the project with support from a $1.5 million grant TradesFutures recently received from The Families and Workers Fund. The project will work with state and local governments, building trades councils, and apprenticeship readiness programs, to leverage expertise of tradeswomen-led organizations, including members of the National Taskforce of Tradeswomen’s Issues and NABTU’s Tradeswomen’s Committee, expanding opportunities for thousands of people living on low incomes to access family-sustaining construction careers through high-quality apprenticeship pathways. The project will focus on supporting people of color, women, and others historically excluded from construction careers.

Currently, women make up only 4.2% of construction trades workers nationally, and 4.5% of people in federally registered construction apprenticeship programs. On average, a woman working in construction trades will make $1 million more over the course of her career than a woman working in a traditionally woman-dominated field such as retail, childcare, and service industries. Providing women with equal opportunities to high-paying, union protected trades jobs could help millions of families escape poverty.

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About Equal Rights Advocates: Equal Rights Advocates fights for gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country. Since 1974, they have been fighting on the front lines of social justice to protect and advance rights and opportunities for women, girls, and people of all gender identities through groundbreaking legal cases and bold legislation that sets the stage for the rest of the nation.

About TradesFutures: TradesFutures is a non-profit corporation organized to develop, promote, and improve Apprenticeship Readiness Programs (“ARPs”). ARPs are educational programs that provide students with the fundamental skills and knowledge necessary to choose, obtain, and succeed in a formal, registered apprenticeship in the construction industry. TradesFutures is also dedicated to assisting women, veterans, and people of color in establishing and maintaining careers in the construction industry. Learn more about TradesFutures and its work to develop a more diverse and accessible quality construction workforce at tradesfutures.org.

About the Families and Workers Fund: The Families and Workers Fund is a platform for collective action and a pooled $130 million collaborative fund chaired by the Ford Foundation and supported by 25 diverse funders working together to build a more equitable economy that uplifts all. The Fund deploys catalytic partnerships and collaboration across philanthropy, government, and the private sector to develop a more inclusive, effective public benefits system and to advance jobs that sustain and uplift people. To date, the Fund has committed more than $77 million in grants and strategic partnerships, directly impacted millions of people, and leveraged more than $15 billion in additional public and private investments. Key funders include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ballmer Group, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Ford Foundation, Freedom Together Foundation, Gates Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, and JPMorgan Chase, among others. The Families and Workers Fund is housed at the Amalgamated Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) charity.