The trucking industry in the United States is 7% women. Women make up about half of the country’s population, yet only 1 out of every 23 semi-truck drivers is a woman.

How can a job industry be so exclusively based on gender?

Turns out, subconscious job application bias, poor diversity selection within job recruitment, discriminatory Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training courses, and the overall acclimation to the trucker lifestyle all contribute to the poor perception women have about this profession. And this poor perception fails to include women.

Women will not even consider this job, though over one million jobs are projected to be added to the trucking industry over the next 10 years, alongside the opportunity for a salary of $19 per hour. But let’s change that.

18 Wheelin’ Women has the ultimate goal of changing this perception of trucking and what it means to be a trucker. By developing positive changes within the trucker job application language, job recruitment initiatives, CDL training environments, and trucker pit stops, this industry can become diversified based on gender, as well as be more representational of the United State’s population. 

Trucking should and can include women. Women are more than capable of driving big rigs. Steering wheels do not see gender, and neither should an entire job industry.

This industry can do better than 7% women, and it starts with inclusive job design.