With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1159085
a few occasions, overwhelmed by the ani- mosity, she locked herself in a washroom and cried. Other times, she was one of many witnesses to men dropping their tool pouches and brawling. With similar stories abounding, one of BCCWITT's efforts is the Be More Than a Bystander program, which teaches men to speak out when they see female colleagues being mistreated. Tradeswomen also complain that their resumé ends up in the recycling bin as soon as a hiring manager receives it. Some men in recruiting roles, especially if they're older, want to protect jobs for the guys—not see them handed out to ambitious young women, Colman-Shepherd says. To get around this, tradeswomen will often give only their first initial when applying for jobs, or take on masculine given names. As a result, some women have had to quit the trades, unable to tally enough apprentice hours to earn their ticket, says Colman-Shepherd, a powerfully built 6'2" former national rower, who dealt with the hiring hurdle by "showing up in person." The first-year retention rate for trades- women is less than 50 percent, the British Columbia Construction Association ( BCCA) estimates, versus 70 percent for men. Hire more women—now The trades sector is a key economic driver throughout the province, employing about 180,000 workers out of a total of more than 242,000 in construction, according to BC Stats. What's wrong with its continued domi- nation by men? Well, lots. For starters, the B.C. construction industry needs all the help it can get. Partly thanks to big projects—think LNG Canada and its associated Coastal GasLink pipeline, Woodfibre LNG, a new Pattullo Bridge, the Site C dam, the Millennium Line's Broadway SkyTrain extension, expansions to ports and Vancouver International Airport, the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline— the current labour force will increase by 17,600 workers through 2028, Ottawa-based industry group BuildForce Canada predicts. Provincial population growth of almost 1.3 million by 2041, if Statistics Canada is right, will also call for the construction of about 500,000 new homes, Vancouver- based data provider Rennie Intelligence forecasts. With Build- Force estimating that 44,200 baby boomer tradespeople will retire by 2028, who will fill all those jobs? Just as hordes of Rosie the Riveters rolled up their sleeves during both world wars to work in the factories, today's dire need for tradespeo- ple should open more doors for women. "The skilled-trades short- age is becoming a serious crisis," says France Daviault, executive director of Ottawa-based Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, which organizes national conferences, sympo- siums and webinars for women and youth. Daviault cites B.C.'s low unemployment rate (4.5 percent in June) as proof that com- panies and unions need to take a fresh look at the female majority in Canada's work- force: "It makes good business sense for industry to tap into this 51 percent." Recruiting women to the trades will also benefit men, by reducing bullying on work- sites and enhancing diversity. The latter is documented as a way to boost an organiza- tion's corporate intelligence, driving innova- tion, profits and morale, says Lisa Langevin, assistant business manager at Local 213 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ( IBEW) in Port Coquitlam and presi- dent of the BC Tradeswomen Society. Construction companies that hire women might find that their staff work bet- ter together, too. "Women are socialized to be more collaborative, and they bring that to the workplace," says Victoria's Lindsay Kearns, a HeroWork volunteer and electri- cian who is vice-president of the BC Trades- women Society. Tradeswomen are also encouraging more-flexible work hours to accommodate young children, since few child-care facili- ties open early enough for mothers to make the crack-of-dawn job starts on construction sites, Langevin says. Fathers stand to gain from these demands, given that many men are single dads facing the same child-care pressures, she adds. On a macro scale, more tradeswomen will help fight B.C.'s high child poverty rates, contends Langevin, who is also a BCC- WITT board member. "Economically, it lifts women out of poverty," says the electrician, who began apprenticing in 2002, follow- ing a career as a behavioural consultant. "And because women are often primary caregivers of children, it lifts children out of poverty as well." Just ask men how lucrative the sector can be. In 2015, those with an apprenticeship SEPTEMBER 2019 BCBUSINESS 31 "Economically, [working in the trades] lifts women out of poverty. And because women are often primary care- givers of children, it lifts children out of poverty as well" —Lisa Langevin, assistant business manager, Local 213, IBEW, and president, BC Tradeswomen Society NO NONSENSE (Left) Electrician Emelia Colman-Shepherd, a coordinator with the BC Centre for Women in the Trades; (below) Volun- teers at the Our Place Therapeutic Recovery Community job site