The proportion of women in architecture, construction, and engineering jobs is super-low. This Long Beach group is creating a pipeline.
This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, Nearly 20 years after founding a successful environmental and safety consulting services company, Robin Thorne said she still gets checked for being a Black woman in the construction industry.
“I've had situations where people, they don't even make eye contact, and then the male has to step back to say, 'She's running the show,'" she said. Thorne runs CTI Environmental, a multi-million dollar company that was contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers to do debris removal after the L.A. fires. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report.
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She’s been an engineer for decades and knows fewer than one of four workers in architecture, construction and engineering industries who are women — and much fewer are women of color.at Long Beach City College on Saturday, May 30. The event’s meant to create the type of excitement normally associated with young people signing up for college sports teams.
There were far fewer women in these jobs when Thorne was growing up in Philadelphia, but she didn’t let roadblocks, including those in her personal life — like being a single mom on public assistance — stop her.
“When I thought about being an engineer, I didn't think about it being male-dominated. I just knew I wanted to be an engineer,” she said. She added that some women do give up on similar dreams or fail to find the spark that allows them to see themselves doing these jobs. That’s why Thorne started DemoChicks seven years ago.
She wants young women to see her and think “engineer,” as well as connect with women who are already working in these industries. The organization is called DemoChicks because demolition is one of the jobs that keeps Thorne’s company busy.
More women are entering architecture, construction and engineering jobs than before, but the percentage of women in each industry is still low:These are mostly stable jobs with good entry-level wages, jobs such as safety coordinators, project managers, project engineers and construction managers. Beyond giving teen girls IRL examples of women in construction industry jobs, DemoChicks supports their academic efforts, which often means helping them out meet college expenses. DemoChicks gave out $1,000 scholarships to eight women last year .
One of those scholarship recipients in 2024 was Ana Terrazas. She recalled growing up in South L.A. , not as a latch key kid, but as a truck cab kid. Ana Terrazas as a teen at her mother's construction job.
Terrazas now works for a large construction company as a project engineer. ”My mother… was a truck driver,” Terrazas said, driving belly dump trailers on construction sites. Terrazas would help her mother change tires and lend a hand with any mechanical repairs. Her grandfather was a truck driver too.
“Since then I've always been obsessed with job sites, and also the superintendent, the one that would tell everybody where to go, how to do their job, and organize everything,” Terrazas said. Two years ago she was working hard to finish her two majors — civil engineering and construction management — to earn her bachelor’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona. She applied for and was awarded a $1,500 scholarship from DemoChicks. That help, she said, had a big effect.
“I didn't have to take as many hours of work to be able to focus more on my studies and also in my internship during that time,” Terrazas said. The internship, at Swinerton, a nationwide construction company that's more than 100 years old, turned into full time work as a project engineer. Terrazas paid it forward earlier this year, inviting Thorne and a dozen DemoChicks to a Swinerton work site during Women in Construction Week.
She urged the women to tap into their drive to succeed and lean on people like her for help.
“As long as they're driven and this is what they want, there shouldn't be a reason for them to not be able to get a job here,” Terrazas said. You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community.
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