May 2015
By Manuel Pastor and Jared Sanchez
Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).
Women Can Build: Including Women in the Resurgence of Good U.S. Manufacturing Jobs is part of the #WomenCanBuild project, inspired by the Jobs to Move America coalition, a national project that aims to make our public transit dollars go the distance.
This report addresses the need to include women in the growth of good manufacturing jobs that can sustain the middle class and contribute towards rebuilding our economy.
We focus here specifically on the role of women in transportation equipment manufacturing, an industry expanding because of significant federal investment in mass transit systems, including bus and rail. With the transit manufacturing industries poised to grow, all Americans–by virtue of their tax dollars being spent–should benefit from those investments.
We briefly outline the state of manufacturing and the women in it, barriers to their inclusion, and some promising best practices.