Construction for many women is purpose-driven work, a career in which power tools represent personal power.
对许多女性来说,营建是一种目的导向的工作,在这个职涯中,电动工具代表的是个人的能力。
I want to walk on sidewalks, cross bridges and enter buildings that I know were raised by a community of builders that represents us all.
我希望我走过的人行道,越过的桥梁,和进过的建筑物都是由能代表我们所有人的建筑业所建起的。
I want to live in a world built by women, and I mean that in the most literal sense.
我想要生活在女性建造的世界里,我这么说,就是字面上的意思。
I have loved building things for as long as I can remember.
从我有记忆以来,我就喜欢建造东西。
And when I was 16 years old, a petite, nerdy, multiracial young woman, I walked on to my first construction site, and it changed everything.
我十六岁时,是个娇小、怪咖型、多种族混血的年轻女子,我走到了我的第一个工地,而一切就此改变。
As I worked alongside skilled masons and carpenters, learned how to frame a roof and mix concrete by hand, for the first time in my life, I felt powerful.
当我和老练的石匠及木工一起共事,学习如何建构屋顶的骨架以及用手搅拌混凝土,这是我人生第一次感到自己很强大。
And at the end of that project, I stood back and looked at what we had built -- a town park with a performance stage, paths and public furniture, and I knew that I had something to contribute to the world.
在项目的尾声,我站在后面,看着我们建造的成果——小镇的公园,里面有表演舞台、小路及公共设施,我知道我可以对世界做出贡献。
Construction transformed my hopes and anxieties into something tangible and beautiful, something that I could point to and say: “I built that.”
建设把我的希望及焦虑转换成为实在又美好的东西,我可以指着这些东西,说:“这是我建造的。”
So I went on to study architecture, and then I worked in architecture and construction management.
所以,我继续去读建筑。接着,我进入建筑及建筑管理的领域工作。
And as I found myself on job sites more frequently, I was almost always the only woman.
当我越来越常前往工作地点时,我发现我几乎都是唯一的女性。
And it never crossed my mind to quit because of this, but I did feel very lonely, and I longed for a sense of community.
我从来没有因为这样就起了放弃的念头,但我确实感到非常寂寞,很渴望有群体的归属感。
And over the past two decades, as I have found and built that community for myself, I've realized that the reasons that I love construction are not unique.
在过去二十年间,我自己为自己创造、建立那样的群体,我发现,我热爱建造的原因并不是独一无二的。
And that for my fellow tradeswomen, we all walk on to a job site with the same shared sense of purpose.
对我的女工匠伙伴而言,我们走在工地时,都抱着相同的明确目标,
We know that for us, building is both our power and our voice.
我们知道,对我们而言,建造就是我们的力量和声音。