March 8 is International Women’s Day, when we celebrate the achievements of women in every corner of the world and recommit ourselves to calling out inequality and working together to forge a gender-equal world.
As I think about that, four little words are carved in my mind.
“We don’t hire women.”
As a carpenter, I had applied for a job with a construction firm, and they had emailed me to come in for an interview. When I arrived at the company office, the human resources manager escorted me to the owner’s office and then left the room. As soon as the door was closed, the owner confided that he would never hire a woman because they are “distracting,” they’re only in construction to “find a husband,” and other asinine assertions.
I countered his ridiculous arguments and tried to redirect the conversation to my knowledge, skills, and experience, but he had no interest in them and asked me to leave. He had already hired most of the men in my carpentry foundations course, which is why I applied in the first place.
It was a brutal and demoralizing interaction, especially since it was the first job interview I’d managed to get after changing the name on my resuméfrom Kristine to Kris. I previously spent weeks pounding the pavement with no results and thought – correctly – that I was more likely to get a call back if the employer thought I was a man.
As I drove home that day, I pondered a career change. Women represent less than five per cent of workers in the skilled trades, and maybe I wasn’t meant to join them. Plus, if I thought finding a job was difficult, actually doing that job was fraught with its own horrifying barriers.
A 2017 research report, Enhancing the Retention and Advancement of Women in Trades in British Columbia, found that women are persistently harassed, bullied, excluded, discriminated against, and exposed to other uncategorized “incivilities.” The report found “many troubling examples” of tradeswomen being faced with inappropriate conduct and having no recourse due to a lack of enforced workplace policies around bullying and harassment.
Alarmingly, between 40 and 42 per cent of the women consulted for the report identified gender-based bullying, harassment, and exclusion as significant challenges.
Among the report’s conclusions was that it isn’t women in the trades bringing along with them a multitude of barriers that need to be solved. Rather, it is the way the sector has functioned for so many years that makes it systemically challenging for women to develop a career in trades.
Today, I’m happy to report that we are finally beginning to address those barriers. For example, the BC Centre for Women in the Trades is cultivating a growing population of male allies through its Be More Than a Bystander program. In partnership with the BC Lions and the Ending Violence Association of BC, the program teaches men how to effectively intervene when they see bullying, harassment, and other forms of inappropriate behaviour toward women.
The Industry Training Authority invests significant resources into women in trades training, and recently hired a director of women in trades to ensure more women see the trades as a viable career and a professional pathway.
Last year, LNG Canada introduced a four-week workforce development program aimed specifically at women to help them start and succeed in the skilled trades. The company had more than 1,000 applicants in just four months, proving women want these jobs. Graduates of the program have a direct line to an entry-level employment position as an apprentice on the LNG Canada project site in Kitimat.
Strategic recruitment practices by construction unions are also working. The construction crew expanding Vancouver International Airport is more than eight per cent women, which is almost double the national average. Meanwhile, the percentage of women getting their apprenticeship through a union training school is as high as 19 per cent.
And finally, initiatives like the B.C. government’s Community Benefits construction framework, which prioritizes hiring of tradeswomen, Indigenous workers, and other underrepresented groups on certain public projects, mean women will be able to start and advance their apprenticeship in an environment free of harassment, bulling, and other forms of discrimination.
So while we still have a long journey ahead, there is much to celebrate this International Women’s Day. To all the women and male allies who are traveling on this road together, thank you. You have made the difference.
A Red Seal carpenter, Kristine Byers is a regional representative, recruiter, and trainer for the BC Regional Council of Carpenters (BCRCC), as well as chairperson of the BCRCC’s Sisters in the Brotherhood and a director of Build TogetHER BC, the women’s committee of the BC Building Trades. Kristine lives in New Westminster.
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