MARINA – A local home-building company which has spent the past few years transforming former Army land into parts of local communities, has an all-women crew helping to prepare new sites for homes.
“I love this career,” said Jocelyn Rivera who credits her sister Jessica with motivating her to pursue the same line of work in construction. Younger sister Maikel Rivera credits both of her older sisters with inspiring her to get into the profession also. Women have been making inroads into the home-building industry for years now with strong representation in sales, marketing, legal, and finance, but there are relatively few in the construction industry.
To move thousands of yards of dirt to prepare a site for vertical construction, grade setter Norma Lopez works on the ground choreographing the movement of the vehicles with a walkie-talkie in hand, and the three Rivera sisters on the crew follow her direction, each operating an earth mover.The women belong to the Operating Engineers Local 3, and have each begun or completed their five-year apprenticeship, schooling and daily hands-on experience.
Teichert Construction was started in 1887 by Adolph Teichert and is one of only five companies from the “first 100” to retain its original license from the state of California. When Teichert first started his business, there were few women found anywhere in leadership positions. The women said that their male counterparts help, give guidance, and share their experience and background knowledge with them when needed. They agreed that Teichert is a company that is welcoming to women and emphasizes safety and harassment training as part of its culture.