Friday, March 8th is International Women’s Day, a perfect time to talk about an important, yet often overlooked, component of the construction industry: women in construction. There is a lot to talk about on this topic, including the challenges, the benefits, the importance of, and the experiences and stories of women who are a part of this very male dominated world.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day campaign is #balanceforbetter. As the website declares:
The future is exciting. Let’s build a gender-balanced world. Everyone has a part to play – all the time, everywhere. From grassroots activism to worldwide action, we are entering an exciting period of history where the world expects balance. We notice its absence and celebrate its presence. Balance drives a better working world. Let’s all help create a #BalanceforBetter.
The first woman joined Pacific Solutions Contracting in a full-time position in 2015. By 2016 we had a crew of 18 people, including 3 women. Today we have 29 team members, 7 of whom are women and who are in positions across the entire business, including project operations, marketing, finance, management, on-site carpentry, finishing, and in our millwork shop. We are extremely proud of the women who are a part of Pacific Solutions Contracting. Each one of them brings skills, experiences, and perspective that helps us improve every day as a group and as a business. By no means are these stats perfect, but they are progress, and they are important for us to be aware of as we work towards being a more gender balanced business.
There are small changes we have made as well towards gender balance. One example is our wording in our job descriptions and career advertisements. Traditionally we have used terms like “Project Foreman” or “Journeyman Carpenter”. We recently updated those to instead read “Project Foreperson” and “Journeyperson Carpenter”. This was a small but very important change in how we wanted to be communicating about the roles and encouraging every qualified candidate, no matter who they are, to apply.
We asked our female team members to share some of their experiences about being in this industry. Here are their stories, experiences, and thoughts on being women in construction:
“As a woman in construction in this company, I am thrilled with the collaboration that goes on and the variety of perspectives that everyone expresses.” – Barbara, Project Coordinator
“I love being a woman in construction and wish I saw more women in construction. Anytime I see another woman on site I am overjoyed. It’s definitely a male dominated field but I feel that it is slowly changing. As far as my experience goes, I know that I am very lucky to work with a crew who sees and treats me as an equal as this can be, unfortunately, rare. I know a lot of women who face sexism at work and I have heard of other construction companies who won’t even hire women. I would love to see it be an even mix of men and women in trades, and I hope that’s the way of the future.” – Christen, Carpenter
“I have been a woman working in the construction industry in both Asia and Vancouver. The environment is very different in Asia. There are many extra challenges faced by women to be seen on the same playing field as the men. It is more fair here, and women are treated more respectfully.” – Gloria, Finance
“Of the four places I’ve worked in my joinery career, Pacific is by far the most inclusive of women in the trades. I’ve experienced harassment, discrimination, and patronizing attitudes in most places in this industry, and Pacific stands out because the entire team treat us all as equals – which should be the norm but sadly it isn’t in all cases yet.” – Drae, Joinery
Be a part of this year’s International Women’s Day conversation using the hashtags #balanceforbetter and #IWD2019, and share your stories about #womeninconstruction. The more we can talk about it, the more we can keep making progress towards a gender balanced workplace and world.