I never knew there was a Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. The site has some interesting statistics on women in nontraditional occupations. It's a strange listing, though, since only careers in which women comprise 25% of the workforce or less are listed. It's omitting once nontraditional careers where women now comprise a significant portion of the workforce. For example, careers related to auto maintenance and repair were not on the 2002 list, but I would still consider that a nontraditional occupation for women. I want to see successes too! I suppose it's a difficult classification, though, since I agree with Josh's comment (Comment, 23 February) that non-traditional careers for women have historically been any job outside the home.

In 2002 only 2% of electricians and carpenters were women. Women make up only 3.4% of the construciton worker labor force. I'm shocked that only 20% of dentists are women. Thankfully from 1999 to 2002 women physicians have come to occupy more than 25% of the labor force.

As a side note, I'm bookmarking Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations as the first place I'll apply to for grant money for my Do-It-Herself school.