New Product Fits Women in Construction's Needs

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Jane Henry and her family started cleaning up their flooded home, prompting her to invent a new product offering help and safety to women in the construction industry.

During her home's cleanup effort, Jane was using unisex work gloves to throw out debris and damaged items, but the ill-fitting, though right-sized product fell off, inspiring her to re-sew the gloves to be better fitting. Henry tells CNN, "I tossed a large piece of board into the dumpster and one glove went flying off. My hand slammed between the board and the dumpster." When Henry would stop in at the hardware store where she bought her first pair, female shoppers noted her new, custom gloves and asked where she got them. Realizing this need for women in industrial, commercial, and emergency response jobs, Henry launched her women's workwear company SeeHerWork.

Many of the women Henry spoke with told her that the improper-sized clothing and gear they were forced to wear on the job made them less productive, hurt morale and put them at greater risk of getting caught in machinery, or having some other type of workplace accident. According to the U.S. government, less than a third of all workers in the manufacturing industry are women, women represent only 12.5 percent of all workers in mining and oil and gas extraction work, and just 9 percent of all construction workers in America.

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