![Women in Trades panel](https://i0.wp.com/nwlaborpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/WITPanel.jpg?resize=585%2C372&ssl=1)
![A popular booth at the fair lets participants operate a jack-hammer. Helping out is Laborers Apprenticeship Coordinator Aida Aranda, a member of Laborers Local 296. She has volunteered to help at the fair for the last five years.](https://i0.wp.com/nwlaborpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/WITJackhammering.jpg?resize=200%2C285&ssl=1)
More than 2,000 women and teenagers were introduced to careers in “non-traditional” trades such as construction worker, lineman, and firefighter at the 22nd annual Women in Trades Career Fair held May 8-10 in Northeast Portland.
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. (OTI) produces the interactive, three-day fair to increase the number of women working in the trades, and to help fill the gap in the labor force that will be created with record-levels of upcoming retirements of skilled trades people. OTI said that women make up about 7 percent of those employed in non-traditional trades in Oregon — which is double the national average.
Seventy exhibitors had booths at this year’s fair, including employers, government agencies, apprenticeship programs, and community and technical colleges.
[More images here.]