Educational Media Reviews Online

The Century Freeway Consent Decree gave women training opportunities and job training with pay in construction trades. To a large degree it addressed the job needs of a community that was going to be displaced as a result of freeway construction. This project began in 1982 and produced the Century Freeway, the I-105, from Norwalk through El Segundo on to the Los Angeles International Airport in California. Six years later, women applied pressure to ensure the recruitment of women in construction trades with a pre-apprenticeship training program which also taught them how to look for jobs. While affirmative action required that federal contractors make good faith efforts to hire women and minorities, there has not been any specifically implemented monitoring.

Using the Century Freeway project as a springboard, the videomaker Vivian Price provides testimonials from women who share their experiences of working as construction tradespeople. While some had positive experiences, the majority did not and internalized their anger, alienation and despair resulting from job-related problems. The issues are presented in a somewhat disjointed and fleeting way but end up enumerating, and to some degree, elaborating on a few of these problems. They include issues of childcare and absences due to child illnesses, bathroom facilities, sexual harassment, sexist attitudes in themselves, and, extending to sexual orientation.

There are some technical problems with this video which not only make it appear as an amateur production but occasionally distract from appreciating its content: The sound levels vary from interview to interview and sometimes are distorted. The sound editing is frequently jerky and the mixing is often unbalanced. On the image side, the brief biographies at the end of the video are difficult to read because of the font size. Recommended for specialized collections dealing with trade union issues and for Labor Studies Programs in particular. Women's Studies collections may also find this video useful. This video has its own website at www.hammeringitout.com.

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