Structure
Hard Hatted Women is a nonprofit 501(C)(3) organization, incorporated in the State of Ohio. Founded in 1979, Hard Hatted Women originally functioned as a support group for women in nontraditional jobs. It was solely volunteer-operated until it hired its first staff person in 1990.
HHW’s Board of Directors is 14 members strong and represents an excellent mix of tradeswomen and professionals from both the private and public sector who share a strong commitment to the mission. Three members have served for multiple years and/or have had previous service on the HHW Board.
HHW Women maintains a paid staff of four (two full time and two part time), who maintain core functions while they direct and work with an amazing group of VISTA workers, volunteers, interns and contracted support.
Working with the Board, the Executive Director develops and implements corporate strategy and she directs and supervises all supervisory staff. She remains heavily engaged in local, state and national efforts that contribute to new and equal opportunities for women, as well as attempting to correct the gender pay gap still existing between men and women. (Despite efforts over the last 80 years, women makes an average of 80 cents for every dollar a man gets paid for doing similar work!)
The Director of Supportive Services and Leadership Development provides and/or ensures women have access to one-on-one career counseling, barrier removal assistance and career pathway development. She also coordinates programs such as the role model speakers' bureau, the tradeswomen mentoring program and the tradeswomen liaison program.
The Business Manager is responsible for all accounting functions, human resource administration and building and technology infrastructure, as well as maintenance of an effective database system, communications and development.
Due to a shared mission of alleviating poverty with the national Americorp/VISTA program, HHW is delighted to have been selected as a host for seven VISTA members. These individuals will be working to support both Tradeswomen TOOLS implementation and expansion of our youth education programs, as well as supporting HHW communications, development and advocacy activities. HHW has the capacity to take on this number of volunteers due to the expertise of our staff who each have significant experience in supervision and program management, and due to strong community partnerships.
HHW has been blessed with the efforts of a number of dedicated Volunteers, who often carry out programmatic and professional level functions. This includes:
§ Program Assistant, 10 hours a week
§ Role Model Speakers Coordinator, 4 hours a week
§ Tradeswomen instructors, role model speakers, mentors and math tutors (as needed)
To find out existing needs and how you can join our volunteer staff, please consult the volunteer section of this website.