Home Guru
By Bill Primavera
Women who have fought to claim their right to have jobs traditionally reserved for men have always fascinated me, and I have championed their cause.
When I was an operations officer at the Culinary Institute of America in the 1970s, I looked around and saw that only two of the 1,200 enrolled students were women. I knew that something was wrong and set out on a promotional campaign to open American kitchens to women chefs.
By the time I left the institute in 1980, one-third of the student population was female, and today when I read about remarkable achievements of women chefs, I feel that somehow I had a little something to do with that.
It was only natural that when I recently attended Author’s Day at the Mahopac Public Library to talk about my book, “Musings of the Home Guru,” I was delighted to find myself seated near an author named Leslie M. Jasper who had written a book called “Construction Tales: Volume I, A Woman’s Journey to Become an Electrician.” Involved for a dozen years in real estate and construction, I had never met a woman electrician. I couldn’t stop myself from asking how she came to choose that line of work.
“It came by way of the military,” Jasper responded, explaining that at 17 she tested for a military assignment as an airplane or construction mechanic. She chose the latter believing it would have greater application in civilian life. Soon after, she fell in love with a serviceman from New York, married and arrived in Westchester at 19 with a husband and baby in tow, quickly becoming a member of the electrician’s union.
But tragedy struck when her son, Tom, was 18 months old. Her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident and suddenly it was urgent that she pursue her chosen line of work.
“I grew up with a father who told me that I was smart, strong and capable of doing whatever I set my mind to doing,” Jasper said. “What others found shocking and daring, I found natural.
“Acceptance is very important when a woman steps into a man’s industry and attempts to become an electrician,” she continued. “In the beginning when I was given an assignment here and there, some of the guys would call me ‘Monica,’ a crude way to imply how I was getting my breaks, but I carried on, working as hard as I could to learn my craft. Once I showed how hard I was willing to work, guys were more willing to show me how to become an electrician. It never made sense to me that a woman could not handle a task strictly based on the fact that she is a woman. If anything, women typically have an eye for detail and are very thorough when doing a task.”
Jasper embarked on a more than five-year apprenticeship to become a journeywoman electrician that earns her the right to compete independently for jobs without having to be under the direction of another electrician. She was doing very well, but after 2009 when the effects of the recession caught up with the construction trades, she found herself largely unemployed. Jasper returned to school to earn a master’s degree in business and looked around for part-time work.
During the course of a subsequent interview for this article, she happened to mention that she was knowledgeable about construction, having bought a foreclosed home in Carmel in 1996, gutted it and rebuilt it from scratch. Plus, she’s had a real estate license since 2007, albeit inactive since 2011.
A light bulb went off in my head and I closed down the interview with my final question: “What are you doing looking for part-time jobs? You’re perfect to be a real estate agent.”
Just imagine those first-time buyers looking for a fixer-upper and having Jasper as their dynamo agent and adviser with her background, knowing exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.
Welcome to your new job, Leslie. Welcome to The Home Guru Team!
If you want Jasper to help you find a home, call her through our team at 914-522-2076.
To know more about this extraordinary woman, Jasper’s book can be found at Barnes & Noble and on iTunes.
Bill Primavera is a Realtor® associated with William Raveis Real Estate and Founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc., the longest running public relations agency in Westchester (www.PrimaveraPR.com), specializing in lifestyles, real estate and development. His real estate site is: www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com and his blog is: www.TheHomeGuru.com. To engage the services of The Home Guru and his team to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.