Transport center stage in “Women Can Build” photo exhibit

In honor of Women’s History Month, Jobs to Move America and the New York City Department of Transportation announced the launch of the Women Can Build photography exhibit revealing the contributions of women building 21st Century transportation, including trams, rail, buses, bridges and roads.

The exhibit runs March 8–15 in New York’s Financial District, at Water Street and Gouveneur Lane and the corner of Water Street and Pearl Street. The exhibit features 16 “Modern Rosies,” taken by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice, in addition to historic photographs of World War II-era “Rosie the Riveter” manufacturing workers from the Library of Congress.

“DOT Art’s Art Display Case and the Jobs to Move America program together provide ideal ‘canvases’ to showcase the critical work that women in transportation do,” said NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “From Emily Roebling’s management of the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge to here at DOT, where three successive women Commissioners have led the agency since 1999, New York’s women have played a significant role in advancing our transportation. I am excited that New Yorkers will learn even more about the invaluable contribution women make to transportation – in a fun, engaging and compelling way.”

The exhibit also calls attention to the long-term commitment needed to advance women’s economic empowerment and broad approach to policies and programs that uplift women and remove barriers to opportunity, the sponsors said. Although women serve as the primary or co-breadwinner in half of American families, they represent the majority of full-time workers earning poverty wages. For instance, one in four Latina women and nearly one in five black women work full-time and earn less than $20,000 per year, below the federal poverty line for a family of four.

The project calls on companies to provide opportunities for women, especially women of color, by expanding their labor pool and opening up access to jobs by working with labor unions and community organizations specialized in workforce development, pre-apprenticeship, and apprenticeship training.

Among the women featured in the exhibit is Elizabeth Perry, an electrical work leader at Alstom Transportation Inc., in Hornell, N.Y. Perry started as a “cleaning lady” in 1986 and rose through the ranks to become an electrical work leader. Workers at the Hornell factory are members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 2471.

Another subject is Anne Latham, a manufacturing specialist at Alstom in Hornell. Following in her mother’s footsteps after graduating high school, she began working at Alstom in 1988. She also started out as a “cleaning lady” at the railcar manufacturing facility where she stripped down old railcars. After a decade, she moved into the electrical field. “I am now in the retention warehouse and responsible for all the parts that are removed from the car in a rebuilding contract. I make sure they are ready to go back to the car when it’s time to rebuild.”