This collection documents the work of Ronnie Sandler, an activist in the tradeswomen's movement. Much of Sandler's work focused on expanding women's access to fields where they had not traditionally been employed, such as building trades and transportation. The bulk of the collection focuses on Sandler's efforts to organize with tradeswomen's organizations to access funds from the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, in order to train women for nontraditional jobs; reports, contracts, proposals and other documents regarding various Compliance U.S.A. projects, a company Sandler founded that consulted on employment and civil rights related matters for construction projects; and material related to Northeast Women in Transportation (NEWIT) and consulting projects. The collection contains organizational papers and correspondence related to these organizing efforts, as well as numerous manuals and reports related to women's employment; documents generated by various tradeswomen organizations; and materiral related to tradeswomen events and conferences. For digitized material related to all tradeswomen archives collections please consult the Tradeswomen Archives Project .

Ronnie Sandler grew up in northern New England and earned a BA in psychology and education from Franconia College in New Hampshire in 1971. In 1972 Sandler began her career as a carpenter in New Hampshire, and would later go on to become a union activist in her chosen profession. In 1976 she became the first woman to join a trades union in Michigan when she became a member of the Detroit local of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. While in Michigan Sandler started a program called STEP-UP for Women, to prepare women for successful entrance into apprenticeship programs. In 1985 she created another iteration of this program in Vermont with funding from the Vermont Department of Education.

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There are no access restrictions on this collection except where noted at folder-level.