Project Rolodex: A Network For Women And LGBTQ+ People In Trades

Emily Carlson found herself painting houses as a summer job after graduating with a bachelor’s in interior design. It was 2010, with the 2008 recession still looming large, when her client said, “Emily, I think you could start a business.”

She thought that was an insane idea since it was just under-the-table work for the summer. But the client, who was a business owner in her 60s, sparked a career that Carlson has now had for the last 10 years. Through that client’s referrals, Carlson was able to start her business, now named Righteous Digs, where she began as a handywoman and narrowed it down to painting halfway through.

Despite working in the business for 10 years, last summer was the first time she’d ever met another female painter, Denisea Elsola, and was able to share the frustrations and challenges of being a woman in the painting industry. From there, the two co-founders brought together the women painters they knew and started Project Rolodex.

Project Rolodex is a Twin Cities-based collective for women and queer tradespeople to find a safe community, become more visible in their fields and create a network of referrals to support each other. Project Rolodex also hosts events for other queer and women tradespeople to meet and connect, and are hoping to host events to connect them with contractors and people to help break them into the field.

They started with four members nine months ago and have since grown to fifteen. They’re hoping to be able to provide this space for all queer and tradespeople in the Twin Cities and also help women, families and the LGBTQ+ community feel comfortable with the tradespeople who are working in their homes.

“To offer that to the community and to give them a safe place to choose the people who work on their homes is also a big part of our passion,” Carlson said.

Women and queer people in trades are faced with a lot of stereotypes and harassment while on the job.

Elsola, the owner of TheArtGoddess, started in the painting industry with her dad about 25 years ago and said it wasn’t until she did jobs alone that she faced stereotypes from men, such as assuming that she didn’t know what she was doing or telling her to be careful. She said she’s also been blamed for previous painters’ messy work, such as paint drips on the baseboard.

“Being belittled when you’re doing your job is a feminist issue all the way,” Elsola said.

Jo Nowak, a queer member of Project Rolodex and owner of GreyDuckPainting, said she feels safer when she’s working the job with another woman. She connected with Project Rolodex after finding that their goals of giving back to the queer community and helping queer individuals get into the business aligned.

Carlson said she’s had clients watch her work for hours on end, try to get her to go out to dinner with them and has even had to fire a client for how uncomfortable he was making her. She said they’ve found they are also often held to a higher standard than men who are working the same job.

“Guys get away with anything, any behavior on job sites and any level of craftsmanship, and we have to be perfect just to be considered acceptable and to be in the room,” Carlson said.

Since women and queer people make up such a small portion of the trade industry, about 4%, the industry doesn’t see a point in investing in them, so they chose to invest in themselves, said Carlson.

Project Rolodex fosters the growth of small businesses while expanding each company’s network and recommendations of people they know and trust will do a good job, according to Penny Erickson, a general contractor at Blackrock Exterior, a woman-owned and operated contracting business.

“For us, it’s finding a community and finding people we can back up and know that these are the people we want working with us,” Erickson said.

The three pillars in their mission are revenue, representation and resources, where they hope to be seen in the industry, increase revenue for underrepresented women and queer tradespeople and provide them with resources to advance their skills and break into the industry, according to Carlson.

Moving forward, Carlson said she hopes to build brand partnerships to increase representation and bring awareness to the issues they face. Elsola also wants the representation to bring awareness to the trades as an option for young women and queer people.

“We need to represent women and queer people in the trades so younger generations feel welcome and open to the opportunity to explore this career path,” Carlson said.

As they’re starting up, Project Rolodex is focused on bringing in new members to build a directory of people for the community to rely on and feel safe and comfortable working with. They invite all queer and women tradespeople to get involved with Project Rolodex.

“We’re out here, we’re hard workers and we’re contributing to the community in a really positive way,” Nowak said.

Carlson’s passion stays strong as she continues to speak up about the issues women and queer tradespeople face, work to bring representation and grow Project Rolodex to make sure they’re taken seriously in the industry.

“I want to change the world, but that’s too big of a mouthful to chew,” Carlson said. “We can’t get the resources and the revenue without representation, and no one’s gonna take us seriously until there’s numbers.”