STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Tasks like trash pickup and pothole filling, which we could use more of in Washington, D.C., are typically handled by local public works departments. And there is a shortage of workers to fill those jobs. Too few young people are replacing retirees, and women make up less than 10% of that workforce. A new program in Georgia wants to boost the number. LaShawn Hudson of WABE in Atlanta reports.
LASHAWN HUDSON, BYLINE: Outside the historic City Hall in Griffin, Georgia, nearly 50 teenage girls are dressed in safety vests and hard hats. They are surrounded by heavy equipment - loud machinery, excavators and even a trash truck.
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HUDSON: Blake Ragon with the city of Griffin captivates the girls as he demonstrates how to operate a large black-and-yellow riding mower.
BLAKE RAGON: So if you push the right one forward, you're going to turn left. Pull it back to you and push this one forward, you're going to turn right.
HUDSON: Seventeen-year-old Terrya Young (ph) climbs into the driver's seat. Nearby, her friend Dacia Barrett (ph) watches with a wide smile. She's already had her turn.
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HUDSON: Young grips the control levers and takes the mower for a spin.
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HUDSON: Later, she says, it was a fun challenge.
TERRYA YOUNG: And it was only difficult because with the left one you turn right, and with the right one you turn left.
DACIA BARRETT: Yeah.
YOUNG: That was the only difficult part about it.
HUDSON: Barrett agrees that it takes a little multitasking.
BARRETT: Yeah. It really was. Like, into reverse, you have to look all the way back and stuff.
HUDSON: This is the inaugural Girls in Public Works Day. At the outreach event, high school girls get introduced to a wide range of careers available in the industry that makes cities run. Alexa Robinson has had a job in public works for 10 years. She's a watershed protection specialist.
ALEXA ROBINSON: I think it's fantastic to show them that you can do the job that you never thought you could do - that you can be the person who drives the really big, really cool truck.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.
ROBINSON: You can be the person who does the science.
HUDSON: But while women have the skills to do the job, they remain underrepresented. According to the American Public Works Association, only 1 in 10 public works employees are women. Men make up 99% of the fuel-operation jobs, the heavy work. It's something that the group's Georgia Chapter president, Chuck Mathis, is working to change.
CHUCK MATHIS: There's a shortage of females in public works. There's a perception that public works is a man's job. But I can say I've got - there are testimonies where ladies have come into public works, and now they're running public works departments.
HUDSON: The initiative comes as employers face a shortage of skilled workers. Data shows that more than 2 million skilled-trade jobs in the United States could go unfilled by 2030. And women should be a part of that pipeline, says Mariza Eller. She's a director of public works in Griffin and helped organize the event.
MARIZA ELLER: The sky is the limit. For any girl that wants to enter public works, call me. You can do it. Anybody can do it.
HUDSON: As for Young and Barrett, they may not know their career path. But they say the experience has given them a way to explore something new.
YOUNG: It was nice learning about the different opportunities, the different jobs and how they help the city.
BARRETT: Yeah. Like, having this whole thing just for girls so we can, like, understand different works and stuff is, like, giving us more opportunities in life and stuff.
YOUNG: Especially with most of the careers being boy - like, man careers that females can actually do. And females rule (laughter).
HUDSON: Organizers say they want to bring Girls in Public Works Day to other cities in Georgia and across the country.
For NPR News, I'm LaShawn Hudson in Griffin, Georgia.
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