“You’re too smart and you’re too pretty. Get out of here.” 

Growing up in Michigan, Felicia Wiseman would often tag along with her father to the hardware store and side jobs. He was a union millwright and then a mason, but Felicia was never invited to do any of the actual work. Only the boys in her family got a chance. After going to college and getting a degree, she soon realized that a career in the office cubicle was not for her. So, she headed for her father’s old union hall to ask about joining the apprenticeship program. Felicia was dumbfounded by what happened next. “The guy at the desk looked at me and said ‘You’re too smart and you’re too pretty. Get out of here.’ And then he walked away,” she says. She was stunned for a moment and then realized that he wasn’t coming back. She left and immediately researched how to sign up for the electrician’s apprenticeship program. In less than a month, she had applied for and taken the entrance exam for the IBEW. “It was truly one of the best decisions that I have ever made,” Felicia says. 

It was a brave beginning, but plenty more challenges were still to come. 

As her career began, she found she had to prove herself repeatedly. “I needed to be twice as good as any of the guys to be considered half of the time for opportunities,” she says. Yet she saw that her efforts were bigger than just her own growth. “All the while I hoped that by doing the things that I did, the next woman coming through would have it easier than I did.” Still, some people seemed to go out of their way to make things difficult for her. “During the first year of my apprenticeship on my first work assignment, the foreman on the job decided to transfer me to a different jobsite. He said that he was ‘Going to make me quit.’ I thought to myself ‘Challenge accepted!’ and prayed that I would not come across anyone else like him. 

But it was hard. The new job site was over an hour away and it ended up being a two-hour drive in the morning because Felicia needed to take her toddler son to her sister’s house so that she could drop him at school on her way to work. The job site itself was so remote that cell phones could not get any reception, so they gave everyone the landline number to the trailer just in case family needed it for emergency use. One day the general foreman walked over to the crew that she was working with and said that Felicia needed to call home. She had a really bad feeling. “I turned to the crew and said, ‘No, I have to go.’ They said go ahead, we’ll pick up your tools, which were spread out all over the job since we were working in multiple locations. I don’t remember the ride home, but I knew if my family used the number, it was dire. As it turned out, my father had passed away. I was off work for over a month. When I came back, the crew handed me all my tools and an envelope full of money. I was so overwhelmed that I started crying. This was my first of many brotherhood moments.” 

Felicia had found acceptance, despite her previous foreman’s efforts to thwart her growth. She began to really dig into her work and continue her drive to help others succeed in her footsteps. “I want women to be able to come into the industry and do their job while being their authentic self. I am so tired of having to tell the women trying to get in the apprenticeship that they may need to man up to do the job.” 

Felicia emphasizes that the uphill climb is worth the effort. “Careers in construction have long been considered male-only opportunities. I say they want to discourage you from having the luxuries that they have been privy to for all these years. The ability to buy your own home, buy your own car, raise your family, take vacations and earn more than most who have a college degree. You deserve all those things and a career in the skilled trades can be your pathway.” 

She remains proud of the work she has been a part of over the years. “As an apprentice, I worked on the remodel of the Detroit Science Center. There was an exhibit with a hot air balloon that went up and down that was not working. My journeyman and I were assigned to trouble shoot the issue and he let me figure it out all on my own. My son got to share that with his classmates whenever they took a field trip to the museum. It was one of my proudest moments because he no longer had to explain why his mother was always dirty when she came to the school to pick him up.” 

One of the intangible benefits she enjoys is being able see the results of her work. “Right now, we have the opportunity to work on such iconic projects in this area. One of the first and largest inner city solar fields. The Gordie Howe International Bridge. The brand-new Hudson’s building. My father got to work on building the Renaissance Center on the Detroit River and I still brag about it to this day. The schools that I do outreach in are schools that I worked on. I have pride in the projects that I have worked on and they’re all still standing and the electrical is still powers up.” 

Felicia describes how NAWIC has given her the opportunity to meet and network with women in all facets of the construction industry. “For many years I was told that the women in the office weren’t really part of the industry because they didn’t work with the tools. The truth is, they are just as important to the industry, its growth, and the advancement of women in all areas of construction.” 

What does she see for her future? She sees a formula for success. “I would like to increase my outreach to young people, especially females and underserved populations, about the career opportunities available in the skilled trades. We need to expose them at the elementary level, reinforce them at the middle school level, and lay out a plan of action at the high school level.” Years after being told she was ‘too smart and too pretty’ for a job in construction, Felicia Wiseman is forging a successful career while paving the way for others, proving that she is, indeed, the best person for the job. 

If you know of a NAWIC member that deserves to be recognized as a Best Person for the Job, contact us today!