A daily reality of women in the trades

By Aldin Avdic

Would you be able to work knowing that some people look down upon you because of your sex? For women in the trades, that's a daily reality.

Payton Baxter, a SAIT student doing pipe trade, expresses her frustrations with the trades.

“I make $20 an hour," said Baxter. "I found out that the same guy that has been there the exact same time as me, he makes 24.50 an hour."

Baxter discovered the pay difference after coming to SAIT.

But not only does she feel she has been paid a different wage because of her sex, she feels that people don't take her seriously.

'Don’t tell me what to do because you're a girl,' Baxter remembered. 'I don’t want to listen to what a girl has to say. It's really sad a girl has to teach you math.'

Hearing these phrases thrown around made Baxter angry.

“I earned my place to be here."

According to the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health, an Ontario advocacy group for student mental health and well-being, 4.8 per cent of construction apprentice registrations are women, and only two per cent of those will finish their studies. Harassment, isolation, discrimination, and hostility were listed as some reasons women didn’t finish their apprenticeship.

While Baxter is vocal about her experiences, Amelia McPherson is more hesitant to speak out.

“I was talking with my co-workers who were more around my age, and they started around two dollars more than me,” said McPherson. “I haven’t brought it up because I don’t really want to. I don’t really want to argue about it.”

McPherson is 18, earning her red seal in the cabinet-making trade at SAIT.

McPherson said that her job, “took me months to find.”

Because of her young age, no one would hire her, being told she lacks experience. Not wanting to lose her job and passion she won't say anything about the pay difference.

Besides the pay, Mcpherson didn't have much to say about being ridiculed for being a woman.

“It’s never to a crazy extent," said Mcpherson. "I’ve never felt insanely unsafe where I needed to leave my job."

She says she only deals with odd comments here or there.

“You'd make a good wife,” Mcpherson recalled an older person telling her after sweeping the floors at her job.

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Jordis Furdal, a welding engineering technology student, recalled a time she was looked down upon.

“I was working with a guy I had a lot more authority over and a lot more experience than,” Said Furdal. “And he definitely just undermined me, didn’t take any of my opinions. He overlooked anything I said."

Bonnie Douglas, an executive director for the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology, (CCWESTT), gave her message to aspiring tradeswomen.

"Find your people," said Douglas, "There's a lot of networks of tradeswomen out there where tradeswomen are supporting each other and building each other up.

Jane Durango is a trade teacher at SAIT. Currently, she helps run the Women in Trades group at SAIT.

Durango explained that the clubs' goals have switched over the years. At first, the club was about helping recruit women into the trades. Now, it has changed to a support group for women to find help and support from each other. There is no agenda or formal discussion.

“The goal of the group is to show them that they’re not absolutely alone, they’re just alone when they’re at work,” said Durango

Durango felt that the issue around sex-based discrimination could be fixed more on a personal level.

“It's an independent journey for a man to respect women."