Are Preconceptions About the Skilled Trades Stopping Women to Become Apprentices?
Image: MS OfficeKeywords: construction, industry, occupations, tools, women
I started off this week wanting to write about two topics:But while I was writing about the Patinstitute and their aspiration to attract more women to their training programs, I started to wonder why so few women think of the trades as a viable alternative.
- Wo-Built’s "Your Dream House" Design and Build Program – our new service package
- My meeting with the Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute (Patinstitute for short)
These are the questions:
"Do we (as a society) have misguided preconceptions about the skilled trades and their suitability for women? Is this the reason why so few women think of the trades as a viable alternative? Or is it just a matter that the training and job opportunities are not known? And regardless of reasons, how can we attract more women to enter the skilled trades?"
I would love to have your opinions on this and I guess the two other articles will have to wait.
Martina Ernst
CEO
Wo-Built Inc
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1 comment:
Yes.
My first point: Is there an International Sisterhood of Electrical Workers? The lack of such an organizations eager to welcome groups of labouring women may be the first clue to understanding why so few women find the skilled trades a viable option. Browse through the WSIB (Workers’ Safety and Insurance Board) website. How many women in construction do we see? Simply put, we are told this world is not for us.
We then turn to children's shows such as Bob the Builder and Handy Manny and it quickly becomes apparent as to why little girls adopt a preconception early in life that manual labour is not for them. Where’s Pam the Plumber or Ella the Electrician? Let's face it. The ideas we harbour and nurture both consciously and subconsciously about gendered divisions of labour, cultural norms, gender identity all contribute to a divisively gendered work culture. With a lack of support systems informing and cultivating women of their wide range of skills, talents, abilities and choices we as a society contribute to the continued segregation of women in the workplace. Of course this doesn’t have to be the case as WoBuilt and myself as a female tradeswoman have set out to prove.
Its great to see an encouraging push for females to explore the many career options that do actually exist for us, but there is no denying that we have a long way to go. It was only a mere fifty years since a woman’s place was in the kitchen- not to mention the fact that it is still considered to be a ill-fated to be borne a girl in many parts of the world.
We need to get over our preconceptions of masculine and feminine ideas of work and realize that every individual possesses his or her set of talents, ideas, initiatives. We then need to come forth collectively to build organizations and unions cognizant of the diverse working populace.
Sandy Oh
Fresh Cut Colours Painting
sandy@freshcutcolours.com
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