Equality for women: Do women in the trades tell the tale?
SCENARIO ONE: It’s four a.m. and I am up for the day, having been woken by 17-year-old Holly, the cat who feels she needs fresh food *now*. I am too far gone by the time the tin is opened and the food served, so I just stay up, put the kettle on and tune in to CBC Radio to see if the episode of IDEAS catches my interest. This particular morning it does. Hilary Peach is giving a talk on her award-winning memoir Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood, about her career in welding. I am drawn in by her stories from the front line of her trade.
SCENARIO TWO: While I have never held a welding torch or cut, ground, and shaped metal pieces using immense heat, I have been in a classroom of pre-employment welding students who tested my mettle and almost caused me to run screaming from teaching as a job. That particular class was unruly and uninterested in learning anything I might have had to offer about communication skills in the workplace. Fortunately, my colleagues and a counsellor-friend talked me back from the brink and kept me in the classroom — that one with those pre-employment students and many others, where my mettle was equally tested but in which I learned to hold my ground, take up space as instructor, and drop an occasional well-timed F-bomb. If my lesson didn’t get their attention, that swear word usually did.
The unexpected can be both arresting and appealing.
SOME THOUGHTS: It seems that women in the trades, broadly speaking (no pun intended), remain both — arresting and appealing. Arresting, because women working with tools are unusual, still making up less than nine percent of skilled trades workers. Appealing, because, while women in the trades are wanted by employers, their minority status once hired makes them rather like an exotic animal roaming in an urban setting — unusual and noteworthy but not necessarily desirable (take that descriptor any way you wish). Can she carry her share of the load? How will she reach the supplies on the top shelf? Where will she pee?
Honestly…
There are ways to accommodate the realities of women’s stature and needs: leverage and teamwork can move mountains; ladders can solve height issues; and the installation of an additional washroom will solve the peeing issue.
What is more difficult to address is the sexism (and likely racism and homophobia, too) that pervades the trades. Recruiting women into the trades is one thing; retaining women in the trades is a different matter. The two books on this subject that I have read, and the third that I am reading, make this clear.
In her talk on the radio, Hilary Peach spoke of the welding instructor who told her, “This is not the place for you; go home and have some babies.” Nevertheless, Peach persisted. In her book Journeywoman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man’s World, Kate Braid recounts that a fellow carpenter lamented to her that if women can do men’s work and also do the emotional work at home and have babies, “then what do [women] need men for?”
I think ‘smash the patriarchy’ is probably the answer to that dilemma — for all genders.
What struck me most in listening to Peach is that her story is, essentially, the same as Braid’s. Published a decade apart, though their careers in different trades spanned more or less the same years, their books remind us of (at least) two things: (1) The trades tend to pay well and women deserve access to that earning power. (2) Internal strength is as important, if not more so, than physical strength for a woman to last beyond her introductory weeks in any trade.
I know that I was very nearly felled by the attitudes of the mostly male students in the college classrooms where I tried to impress on them the need to learn basic communication skills. Too many of them simply didn’t care, saying, “I want to work with my hands, not talk to anyone”, and their core program instructors didn’t much care either, leaving me to fend for myself in the face of their indifference.
But systems of ignorance and prejudice are impossible to fight on our own. It takes sisters and brothers of the heart and mind who want both equality and dignity for every member and who are not threatened by the extraordinary presence of a female on the line, but who embrace her (not literally) as a valuable colleague and an essential force for change in the workplace.
SCENARIO THREE: One afternoon, in a classroom of pre-employment plumbing students, a young man in the front called to me that he needed help with the assignment. “I’ll be there when I’m done here,” I replied from the back row where I was working with a student. I have exceptionally good hearing, so when I heard that front-row student mutter ‘what a bitch’ to his desk mate, my instinct took over. I drew myself up to my full 5’ 2” height and said, loudly and firmly, “I am not a bitch, I am your instructor and I expect you to respect me and the role I have here.” The silence that fell on that room was palpable. I had no further issues in that class.
Infuriatingly, that is what it can take to make the point that we are here to do the job and we are here to stay. Get used to it and get used to us; we are not going anywhere. But, man alive, it is wearing. Every ounce of persistence is required to keep returning to the site of neglect and harassment, the silent treatment and the cold shoulder. I well remember the loneliness of the lunch room in the aviation training building where, save for the secretaries, I was the only woman the students saw. The male instructors made no particular effort to connect or communicate with me; I was there to teach their students the ‘ethics & values’ course — and I can well imagine what they thought of that. Nevertheless, I persisted, but my days on that campus were always challenging for me.
SCENARIO FOUR: Quite by chance, I recently met a young woman who wants to make the trades her career and who is already earning her living swinging a hammer. She is the only woman on the crew but, while she mostly enjoys the work, the lunchtime conversations challenge her sense of self and of inclusion — “dick talk” is not of interest to her. Yet the men persist with it. Why?
That is the question, isn’t it.
Why does this culture of macho maleness persist, even in the 21st century with all the enlightenment and progress we have seen.
I don’t have the answer. Do you?
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| Read my review of the first two books here; read my review of the third one here. |
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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Welder photo by Filipa Saldanha on Unsplash
(Parting the smoky haze blowing through from Winnipeg)
ReplyDeleteMost men tend to be taller, heavier, and physically stronger than most women. They take up more space, eat and drink and fight and sleep more.
It’s mostly because they’re missing that leg from what could have been a complete X chromosome.
Good on you for coping and surviving. A classroom of “physically superior”, mentally challenged XYs who eat, drink, fight and f*** for entertainment.
Love,
Ann sans E
You've very clearly explained the "male epidemic of loneliness", they treat women poorly, as if we aren't human and entitled to the same respect as another human being. If men can't bring something to a relationship beyond money, what do we need them for? (Not a hypothetical question!)
ReplyDeleteWhat a pain to have to go through misery as a teacher just because you're female, congratulations on surviving and thriving.
Great sorting of issues with your commentary. I want to say my hubby was in cable television at the get go back in the late 60's. He worked his way up through the ranks, and when he reached manager plus a couple of other titles, he encouraged and trained women in the field of engineering. He was a full supporter. He always said, 'Women get the work done." Thank you Amanda for this very interesting observation.
ReplyDeleteI would like to share that my husband was in cable television since the late 1960's when it first hit the scene. He worked himself through the ranks, reaching the engineering field and became a manager in a large area, he reached out to women to train them in the field and support the introduction of their skills. Many went on to become managers themselves. He always said 'Women know how to get the work done." Thank you for this piece Amanda.
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