The Department of Labor’s affirmative action mandate adopted in 1978 has failed to achieve its purpose, as women still hold fewer than three percent of skilled trades apprenticeships and jobs.

March 21, 2013 (New York, NY) – Legal Momentum, the nation’s oldest nonprofit advocating for the legal rights of women in America, announced the release of a report detailing how the U.S. Department of Labor’s affirmative action regulations intended to significantly increase women’s participation in registered apprenticeship programs has failed to do so.

“Still Excluded – There Are Still Virtually No Women In The Federally Created And Supervised Apprenticeship System For The Skilled Construction Trades” is an important analysis of the problems in the federally-created national Registered Apprenticeship system, including lack of federal oversight (compliance reviews), underfunding of the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations Act, and discrimination and harassment of women who are in apprenticeships.

“It seem clear that no progress will be made in increasing women’s entry to the skilled construction trades unless the Department of Labor strengthens the affirmative action mandate and devotes more resources to enforcing it,” said Timothy Casey, author of the report and Director of the Women and Poverty Program at Legal Momentum.

“Still Excluded” can be accessed at this link. The report is one of several well-received reports from Legal Momentum on poverty, TANF, and single mothers, including “Worst Off” and “Still Behind” – quoted in Forbes, The Nation, and by noted writer Susan Faludi in CNN Opinion.