Judaline Cassidy, who had been working as a plumber on residential and commercial construction sites throughout New York City was laughed out of line the first time she tried to join the plumbing union in Staten Island.

“You better go home and do the dishes,” she was told.

Cassidy was the only woman  —  a black woman who stood at 4 feet, 11 inches, and had immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago at that  —  in her apprentice class. That day, she was the only one who left without union membership.

She didn’t allow that experience to change her path.

“I have this thing inside of me,” she says. “I just want to show people they are wrong about me.”

A year later, with the help of a male colleague who advocated for her, she became the first woman admitted to her local union.

Read her story here.