Why are women still outsiders in the trades?

Ideas53:59An Outsider Inside the Trades: Hilary Peach

*Originally published on May 1, 2024.

"I'm not going to make a living performing poetry with no words in it," thought Hilary Peach, as she was starting out in her working life more than two decades ago.

Yet the experimental arts, and writing, were true passions. So Peach decided to look for secure, well-paying work to support herself.

"I started doing trades training,' said the B.C.-based author."So it became kind of a dual thing."

Peach spent more than 20 years as a unionized welder, travelling across Canada and the United States.

She worked in "pulp mills, chemical plants, refineries, and generating stations," and was often the only woman in an all-male, industrial working environment.

Those years led her to write a poetic, humorous, and honest memoir, Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood.

The book won the 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

On accepting the prize, Hilary Peach gave a speech exploring the historical roots as to why the trades remain such a male domain. She also described her own experiences, as both an insider, and outsider, in that world.

Here is an excerpt from her Laurier talk:

"What are you doing here? You don't belong here. Why are you here? I used to get variations of that question all the time. And it's confusing because it's not the kind of thing a worker would normally say to another worker.

If one dude told another dude he didn't belong on the worksite, it would make no sense because of his very dude-ness. He does belong, and he is considered indispensable. The newly-minted journeywoman, however, has just spent at least four years training in every aspect of her trade, holding her skills, and her less-experienced partner wants to know why she is there.

The question is weird because it is not of our time. It comes out of a 300-year-old legend and no longer makes sense in the context of modern life. It only makes sense to the apprentice because he has been taught that it has always been thus, and thus it will always be.

So when a woman pops up unexpectedly in the middle of his fairy tale, he really doesn't understand. But the tradeswoman has rejected the fairy tale a long time ago, perhaps generations ago. It is no mystery to her why she is there. She needs to pay the rent.

She doesn't realize that just by showing up, she is walking into the ground floor of the patriarchy, and destabilizing an entire hierarchy that is based on centuries of legend, practice, and personal belief.

The majority of tradesmen are highly skilled, perfectly decent guys. The stereotype that we hear is that the trades are rife with misogynists, and misogynists can be found in the trades. But they can also be found in other sectors, including politics, law enforcement, the military, entertainment industry, education, and medicine.

When I sit down in a lunchroom on a construction site, I don't see a room full of misogynists. I see a bunch of regular guys, many of whom still labour under a belief system that is no longer practical, or in sync with reality, on a job site where the values of diversity, equity and inclusion have never been addressed.

It's not uncommon for a tradeswoman to face systemic resistance from the entire crew. It is out of place, out of proportion, and without reason. For her, every day feels like riding a bicycle into a headwind, and the tradeswoman does not understand what it is that she has done.

To take systemic hostility personally is a natural response, but it is also a mistake to spend time trying to figure out why she is receiving this treatment. She might be assigned the worst jobs or the worst partner, or be the first person laid off. She might be isolated or bullied, or the subject of gossip or rumours or violence, and she has done absolutely nothing to deserve it except walk into a very, very old story. A story that has no part for her. You could say she is the right person in the right place at the wrong time.

With Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood I wanted to write a book that was respectful toward women, but that was also respectful towards men. We seldom talk about the raw deal that the men in hyper-male workplace environments are subjected to. The men, for the most part, are good guys. They are our allies, our mentors, our apprentices, our partners, and our brothers."

Listen to Hilary Peach's full talk by downloading the IDEAS podcast from your favourite app.

*This episode was produced by Lisa Godfrey.