Students take part in a tiling class at the Buildher training facility in Nairobi, Kenya.Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption On the busy workshop floor at Furniture International on the outskirts of Nairobi, workers often have to shout to be heard over the din of circular saws, hammers and machinery.
"At first, I was very shy," says 24-year-old machine operator Diana Ojiambo — slight, with a blue bandana tied over long braids — as she feeds cabinet panels through a PVC edger."I didn't know how to stand in front of people and speak up.
But now I can."Nearby, amid a sea of male coworkers, three other women sand and assemble cabinetry, while 23-year-old supervisor Jane Mwangi moves between stations, checking measurements and overseeing progress.Barely a year ago, none of these women had ever worked in the industry.
Ojiambo had never worked alongside men before.Women remain a rarity across Kenya's building trades, even as a frenetic construction boom, particularly in Nairobi, has helped turn the sector into a multi-billion-dollar industry.According to figures from Kenya's National Construction Authority, women accounted for just 3% of the country's accredited construction artisans.Those who do enter the sector are mostly confined to lower-paid informal jobs — carrying water, hauling sand or cleaning sites — rather than trained for more specialized roles.
Women are also typically saddled with the vast majority of unpaid caregiving and household work in a country that continues to battle long-held assumptions about gender roles.Women take part in a year-long training and internship programs in tiling (above), carpentry, painting and other finishing trades.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption Buildh...