Ivanka, build better jobs for women
Dear Ivanka, Your father said he broke the glass ceiling for women in construction by hiring me to oversee the building of Trump Tower, and I am sure I even heard you mention me in an interview as well. I am reaching out to you because you seem to be our only lingering hope for advancing the agenda of working women in your father’s administration.
I believe you are sincere in your spoken interest in helping working women. While calling you on this, I ask that you put a special emphasis on women working in construction, because that is my field, and because President-elect Trump has spoken much about having women as managers on his projects.
Did you know that on construction sites, only 6% of managers are female? As far as engineers go, it’s about 10%. These figures are pretty pathetic, but the number of women in the construction trades is really dismal, coming in at about 3% — virtually the same as it was when Jimmy Carter was President 40 years ago.
In fact, Carter signed an executive order calling for 6.9% women in the trades, with a goal for 24% by 2000. Any hope of promoting women’s participation died with Ronald Reagan’s presidency. You must not let this happen with a Trump administration.
Trade unions get away with saying women don’t want these jobs. In fact, women are actively discouraged from seeking positions as tradespeople and construction professionals. Certainly, you must know that in the science, technology and engineering professions, there is a silent war against women’s participation. Only 20% of engineers are female — a result of prejudice, discrimination and harassment that could be reversed with proper legislation and oversight.
Your father may not like the idea of “quotas,” but establishing minimum goals is very effective. A goal could be 10% women in the trades, 20% of engineers and 30% in project management. These are extremely realistic and achievable. If enacted, a world of training and educational opportunities would open for women. Federal hiring goals would increase state goals and influence businesses to participate as well.
You can make this all happen, and construction is the place to start.
Your brother said no one would ever harass you. Your father said he would like to think you would leave a job if you were sexually harassed. But did you know that women working in construction are the most harassed employees except for women miners? You know as well as I that that leaving is not a viable solution for most women and is patently unfair. Women should not have to quit their jobs, or suck it up as I did, especially on your dad’s Grand Hyatt job. Harassment is a drain on our economy.
Another way you can help women is in influencing decisions about the minimum wage. Did you know that women comprise nearly two-thirds of the minimum-wage work force? I know you are interested in caring for families. No idea for child care is as good as increasing the salary of the parents who must provide it, especially when so many of the minimum-wage earners are also single mothers.
Another area is equal pay for equal work. I know you know that having babies should not be an excuse for making women inferior earners. And this ties well into your family leave and child-care agenda. We need to abolish the idea of a “mommy track.” Laws mandating that a worker cannot be fired for discussing salaries are a good place to start and will limit to factors like education and experience the rationales for failing to pay equal wages to men and women.
I knew your mother well. Ivana wielded a tremendous amount of influence with your father. She was even instrumental in me getting hired. She was on Trump job sites all the time, and she was victimized by harassment as well. She knows how hard women have to work to get anywhere. You will be honoring her contribution to the projects we worked on together, such as the Hyatt and Trump Tower, as well as her tireless devotion to her work as a top executive, if you remain steadfast in your efforts to ensure female workers are treated equally.
I wish you the very best of luck with this. I know you can do it.
Signed, a top Donald Trump construction manager