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"It's rewarding to be able to walk into something and know you had your hands on every aspect of it. And to know you can go back there with your kids (because) it's something that will be there forever."

Today more than 900,000 women work in construction. That's a rise of 18 percent in the last eight years, according to NAWIC, the National Association of Women in Construction. Through the end of 2005, Kansas City had the largest NAWIC chapter in the country with 105 members. Next week, NAWIC will hold its 51st annual meeting and convention in Kansas City.

The advances have not come without problems. Women account for just 9 percent of construction workers, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which published a study showing that 88 percent — nearly nine out of 10 — had experienced some harassment on the job.

"That surprises me, and I think it would surprise anybody in our company," said Paul Neidlein, manager of business development for Turner Construction. "If we even see a hint of that, the person would immediately be removed from the job. Standards are much higher with the expectation of treating employees correctly regardless of age, sex or race. The old attitudes just don't work anymore."

You wouldn't say Trisha Brooke, 40, "backed" into her job in construction management with the city of Kansas City, but that's sort of how she got there.

"I had back surgery about 10 years ago, which doesn't allow me to sit for long periods of time," she said. "I pushed my boss to let me do construction management so I could be in the field."

"Sometimes kindness will kill them," Brooke said. "If that doesn't work then I have to raise my voice. Sometimes they won't respect you any other way."

"But I am starting to get more respect," she said. "They now know I know what I am doing and I'm not just some chick who came out of the office. I've had people tell me I am one of the fairest construction managers they've dealt with."

"They've just had to adapt," the 42-year-old Kansas City woman said, especially when she shows up wearing a mud-covered mess at school functions.

You don't wear prissy heels to build bridges over busy highways for Clarkson Construction. And after a midlife job change, that's exactly what Mays finds herself doing.

Being a woman on a heavy construction crew is still unusual, but it's getting less so every year. In 2002 Mays represented Kansas City at the International Carpenters Association's first-ever Sisters in the Brotherhood conference.

"I met women in all 50 states who are carpenters," she said. "It's not just a man's world anymore. But you have to work. It's not easy at all."

"I think it's fun to work (with men)," she said. "I've learned to appreciate them. They're not all like females say — you know, ‘dogs.' They're humans, and they have become my best buddies and trained me. And I don't know how it was 30 years ago, but they seem to have adapted to having a woman on the crew. I haven't had any problems."

Construction wasn't her first career choice. In the mid '90s, Mays' husband had a heart attack. He recovered but was left unable to work. That same year she had a baby. Suddenly she was her family's sole support.

At the time she worked at Children's Mercy Hospital admitting patients to the emergency room. She needed more money. She said a prayer. That's when she met David Shipley, a carpenter working on a project at the hospital. She asked him how she could get a job like his. After finding out she was serious, he guided her into an apprentice program.

She completed a five-year program at the Builder's Association in North Kansas City and started her job in 2002. Today she helps build bridges, hotels and hospitals.

"You have to strive for what you want in life," she said. "I'm just tickled pink with the opportunity for people to believe in me and to be able to provide for my family."

That's Karen Hogan's job. As a project manager for Turner Construction, she's the liaison between architects and subcontractors, the bridge between concept and execution.

In other words, she makes sure what can be dreamed in theory can actually be done in practice — on time and on budget. Recently she oversaw construction of the Liberty Memorial WWI museum expansion.

"It's rewarding to be able to walk into something and know you had your hands on every aspect of it," she said. "And to know you can go back there with your kids (because) it's something that will be there forever."

Hogan has worked for Turner nearly four years. Her father was a vice president of an electrical subcontractor in St. Louis. As a teen she wore a hard hat as she interned with him for three summers, doing jobs ranging from reviewing project drawings to on-site quality control.

"They had one of those science experiments, where you have a test tube," she said. "I just told my parents I wanted to be an engineer. They've been supportive ever since."

"She is a rising star," Paul Neidlein said. "And this isn't the first project she's had. Before this she was the project manager responsible for renovating every single bathroom inside the Hyatt at Crown Center, which was extremely complex. I think the biggest reason she's successful is that she doesn't let any of the perceived barriers of youth or being a woman stand in her way. She is practical and extremely intelligent, and that comes out in how she plans her work and everything she has been a part of."

It was only six words. But to Serene Thomas it was one of the biggest compliments she's ever gotten: "You're just one of the guys," she was told by one of her male co-workers.

He didn't mean she wasn't a woman. He meant she was accepted, a valued member of the team. The 29-year-old Prairie Village woman is a pipe fitter apprentice for Alexander Mechanical contractors. Her husband is a union iron worker.

Thomas uses pipe wrenches to join a variety of pipes, such as those in a building's air-conditioning system or boiler. A lot of heavy lifting is involved. She also does a lot of welding, As an apprentice, she learns more every day.

Thomas is in a five-year-program. She works during the day and goes to school two nights a week for four hours at a Kansas City training center. It's intense and involved. She learns advanced math, heating and cooling, refrigeration, welding, applied science, autocad (a computerized drafting program) and how to read blueprints.

"Sometimes you just have to look outside the box of normal, traditional jobs for women and say ‘Why couldn't I?' " she said. "And so I did."

"For me, personally, I don't have any problems," she said. "I work with a great bunch of guys who are willing to teach me their knowledge of the trade and don't let my gender interfere with that."

"I did wish that I had sisters," she said. "But as I got older I realized (my brothers) taught me a lot about men. It helps me to be a better wife. And ultimately it will help me to be a better pipe fitter, because I'm used to a male-dominated world."

The trades weren't her first choice. Before she started as a pipe fitter she worked in a nonprofit arts organization. She liked it but needed a change. A natural tinkerer, she chose pipe fitting.

"I talked with him more about the type of guys who I worked with and how intellectual they are despite the myths of construction workers," she said. "They're not dumb. To construct a building, it takes smarts."

"To look back at even the small part that I played in the piping system, to see something that my hands made, that my team made, that just confirmed to me this is something I want to do for a career."

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