by Lauren Langdon

The Dart sat down and talked to Jana Ashton, the only female construction worker working on the chapel, about her job as a journeyman, a brick layer.

How did you get into this line of work?
My college had a class which I took for nine months and then I joined the union here in Kansas City.

What is your favorite part of this job?
I would say that my favorite part is the people I work with. You get to spend a lot of time with people up there on the wall, you make a lot of good friends. Also, I love to be outside, but not so much in the winter when it is cold.

Do feel like you have a great comradeship with the people you work with?
Yes, the people on the ground and build the scaffold are laborers and you really have to have a lot of trust in those people, because my life is in their hands. If [the laborers] build that scalpel wrong I could fall. Also, I was sick one day a couple of weeks ago and I felt terrible because if I am not here that means my partners have to do more work or take a bigger section of the wall. Also, a lot of people I work with, I have done this for twelve years almost, sends me Christmas cards. I am friends with some of their families, and when my son just graduated [my work friends] came to his graduation party.

Do you often work with the same people?
It depends, right now the company work for is JE Dunn while our local union is out of Kansas City. In our local there is, let’s say 200 people, so you know the same people but it just depends on what company you are working for at the time who you are working with. Since we are about to be done with this job some of us might get laid off or might get sent to a different job, you never know what’s going to happen.

Out of the approximate 200 people who work for this company how many would you say are women?
I know for a fact that out of our union there is myself and two other ladies, but that’s just brick layers. In our union there are caulkers, the people who are caulking around the windows, and stone masons. I know that there are a couple of ladies who are caulkers, but not very many.

Why do you think there is not a lot of women in your field?
Number one, it’s harder work, and number two, you have to work with men and it’s tough working with men. Sometimes some [male workers] don’t like you and don’t want you to be on a job. A lot of the guys on the inside [of the chapel] doing sheetrock will never even say good morning to female workers, they will never even speak to them. Just because there has been times when [a male worker] just says one thing to [a female worker] and the lady will take it out of context. So, they wont speak to [female workers] at all because the don’t want to get in trouble which is understandable because there are a lot of women do want to come out here [on a job] and sue someone for sexual harassment. Again, it’s hard work. I don’t think I would suggest it to anyone. I would say that you girls better stay in school. I had two kids, and it was what I needed to do in that time of my life and it has been great. It’s really hard on your body because of the repetitive movements, I have back aches all the time and a lot of guys have shoulder problems.

Do you ever wish there were more women you could work with?
No, I personally don’t. I have worked at other places before where there are a lot of women and it always seems like there is so much drama. I am coming here to work and if I make friends along the way that’s great. My sister is a nurse, and at her office she always has a story about so-and-so. I think when a whole lot of women work together it’s just dramatic and I don’t like that.

Has there ever been a problem that has come up because you work in a male dominated field?
There was one instance where we could use the bathrooms in the building we working in but we had to drive a golf cart up the ramps. A man had followed me up there and scared me when I came out. I told my foreman who in turn told the other man’s foreman. [The man’s foreman] said that he had wondered where the man had been going all the time. It scared me, but of course he was sent to another job and I have never seen him since. That was the one and only issue I have ever had.

Do you have anything coming up that you have planned to do?
Yes, tomorrow is my last day here on this job because I am going to Hawaii for two weeks. I keep telling [the other workers], “I’m  going to be breaking up with you guys tomorrow.” It is sad once you have been coming to work with everybody for a month and you’re with each other every day it’s sad to leave everybody.