Julie Peri has always been a builder. She spent her childhood playing with Legos, her college years studying civil engineering, and her young adulthood as a construction supervisor for Habitat for Humanity.
Being a queer woman in construction isn’t easy, she says, in part because there simply aren’t many. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that only about 10 percent of people in the field are women, including office jobs. When you focus solely on women who work in the trades, that number drops to a measly 3.4 percent.
Between day-to-day sexism and the industry’s pervasive culture of machismo, Peri says the industry can often feel intimidating and unsafe to anyone who is not a cisgender male. “There’s this myth of the frailty of women,” she explains. “You’re not strong, and so you can’t do the work that guys are doing.”
About two years ago, Peri decided to do something about it. She believes in the importance of increased representation, and she craved a stronger community within her industry. Her happiest times at Habitat for Humanity, she noticed, were when she found herself working with a group of women, many of whom tended to be queer.
So in January 2018 she launched Dykes with Drills, a nonprofit dedicated to creating equity for women, transgender, and gender nonconforming people in the trades and construction industry. The San Francisco Bay Area-based organization hosts tool workshops, networking events, and community builds, all intended to increase gender diversity in the field and empower individual participants toward confidence and independence.
For Peri, the word dyke is a point of pride, a symbol of an empowered, accepting, self-sufficient community. At Dykes with Drills, a tool-wielding dyke is something to celebrate and organize behind because it symbolizes capability, strength, and confidence despite gender and sexual difference.
The organization, however, welcomes people of all gender and sexual identities. Its programs are open to those with experience as well as to people who have never used tools at all. Participants range from construction job-seekers to those who simply want to make small repairs in their own homes.
In its short existence, Dykes with Drills has already worked with over 1500 people and has become an active member of its surrounding communities. In addition to numerous introduction to tool workshops, volunteer teams have helped build tiny homes for the homeless in San Francisco’s East Bay area and Chico, California.
