Women not wanted: female construction workers face chronic unemployment and daunting odds. A new mayoral commission will have to change the face of an industry.(INSIDETRACK)

JOYCE COLLIER LIKES to stand back from a day's work and see an empty space filled with something solid. She feels pride that it was her hands and her skill that put it there. But for the past five years, instead of plying her trade as a plumber, she's been left to tend the fire and clean the kitchen.

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Literally. This winter, Collier spent her workdays watching over space heaters, checking fire exits and cleaning up after tradesmen on their work sites. But it was better than having no job at all. Even though she qualified as a certified plumber from a five-year union apprenticeship in 1999, for the past half-decade she has rarely worked more than four months of each year.

The last time Collier checked, of the 21 women in her union, Plumber's Union Local 1, only six were employed using their trades. (Another six are in apprenticeships.) Women make up less than 1 percent of the 5,700 members in her union, and they have an unemployment rate of 60 percent. According to a business agent with Plumber's Local 1, the union's unemployment rate as a whole is about 3.5 percent.

Chronic unemployment has led many women to leave the trades altogether. Collier has compiled records showing that from 1989 to 2004 the number of women in her union fell from 56 to 21, as they "lost their books" when they fell behind on union dues. They couldn't afford their dues because they weren't getting work.

Carlyne Montgomery was one of them. After she qualified in 1995 following her apprenticeship, Montgomery would call her union delegate every day to look for work. She says she found herself continually passed …