The Sunday Spark – Women in trades face uphill battle

The Sunday Spark newspaper beside a notepad with "Women In Trades Face Uphill Battle" written on the page with a drawing of a hammer and wrench.
The Sunday Spark19 Comments on The Sunday Spark – Women in trades face uphill battle

The Sunday Spark – Women in trades face uphill battle

A few days ago, a news headline about sexism in skilled trades caught my eye. A couple of days later, my daughter graduated from a pre-apprenticeship program at our local community college. In Week 17 of The Sunday Spark, a look at how women in trades still face an uphill battle.

The Sunday Spark is a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a sustainable living tip for the week. Also this week: Tokyo mandates solar panels on new home builds, LinkedIn QR codes, and simple and sustainable Mother’s Day gift ideas

Newspaper clipping with headlines: Women in trades face uphill battle, LinkedIn QR codes, The best gifts for Mother's Day

The Sunday Spark – Week 17

On my mind this week: Women in trades face an uphill battle

It still feels unwelcoming. Women speak out on sexism in skilled trades in Ontario” was the CBC News headline that caught my eye. The article spoke of the discrimination women working in construction trades experience on job sites. From inappropriate comments and unwanted touching, to work environments that don’t support women juggling work and family responsibilities, it’s a tough road for these trailblazing women. It’s a sad commentary in a country where women are supposed to be equal.

Two days after I read that article, my younger daughter received notification that she had graduated from her two-year pre-apprenticeship college program with High Distinction—recognition awarded for achieving a 90+ average in all of her courses. The fact that she’s the only female in her class certainly shines a light on how few women pursue skilled trades careers.

In Skilled trades – A great career choice for young people, I wrote about my daughter’s decision to do a pre-apprenticeship program. Had she chosen the university path everyone expected her to follow, I’m certain she would not have experienced the growth and learning that she has in her two years at college. Her program covered Level 1 and 2 apprenticeship training for Industrial Millwright and Industrial Electrician, along with courses in robotics, welding and PLCs. The video of her final project blew me away.

Despite her academic achievements and strong work ethic, the road ahead won’t be easy for my daughter and other young women like her. The combination of her young age—she’s turning 20 in a couple of weeks—and gender means many employers and co-workers won’t take her seriously. This mindset needs to change!

Pinterest image: Tool belt with assorted tools

The solution to our labour shortage is obvious

Large numbers of retirements leave many companies struggling to fill open positions. To solve this, employers must look beyond the white male talent pool they’ve hired from for decades. In Canada, women make up just 2.4% of working-age apprenticeship certificate holders in the trades fields of construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, and precision production. (Source: StatsCan) It’s clear that women, and other underrepresented groups, are the key to solving labour woes. It’s going to take a significant shift in mindset, but it needs to happen.

Women have proven they’re capable of doing the work. Now it’s time to remove the barriers to success that are holding them back from achieving their full potential.

I’ll be watching with interest!


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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

  • To celebrate Earth Day, we went on a tour of our local landfill and recycling centre. It was fascinating. I’ll share my learnings in an upcoming blog post.
  • I started my tomato and pepper seeds. I’m a few weeks behind schedule but I hope they have enough time to grow before it’s time to plant them outdoors at the end of May.
  • The weather warmed up a little, so I got outdoors for more walks this week.

Three things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

  • The city of Tokyo, in Japan, has announced that all new homes built after 2025 will be required to have solar panels. This will reduce their dependency on coal-burning thermal power and help them achieve their carbon reduction targets. (Source: Reuters)
  • Our Waterloo Region Waste Management team collects landfill gas and turns it into enough electricity to power 4,000 houses every month.
  • It’s easy to export a QR code from LinkedIn to add to a resume, email or presentation. It’s a cool way to help people connect with you. In the search bar on LinkedIn, you simply click the icon on the right and your personalized QR code will appear for you to share.
LinkedIn search bar showing icon for QR code

Sustainable living tip: Mother’s Day gifts

In Canada and the United States, Mother’s Day is coming up on May 14. This year, challenge yourself to think outside the box and buy a low-waste and eco-friendly gift for mom.

Check out What Mom really wants for Mother’s Day for some gift ideas your mom will love. In addition to being sustainable, some of these ideas won’t cost you a penny!


I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.


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Hi there! I’m Michelle and I live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I am married with two young adult daughters. I’m a big fan of reducing waste, using less plastic, decluttering and simplifying life as much as possible.

19 thoughts on “The Sunday Spark – Women in trades face uphill battle

  1. Congratulations to your daughter! Your post made me think of a woman I worked with 30 years ago – she was the only woman electrician for the local utility I was working for right out of college. She was remarkable and impressive – and made such an impression that I’m delighted to be thinking of her all these years later. Sending your daughter some of that same appreciation and encouragement!!

    1. Thank you Wynne. We are very proud of her. That’s such an amazing story about your former co-worker. Very few women in her generation worked in the trades. I think that’s part of the challenge—there aren’t many female role models for women entering the trades. That will change over time but, for now, women entering those jobs mainly have to chart their own path.

    1. Thanks Judy. She’s very determined and won’t let men push her around. I admire that quality in her. I didn’t have that level of confidence at her age.

  2. Your daughter sounds very determined, and I hope she manages to create a career that she loves regardless of the work situation. But I agree, it needs to grow and be more inclusive. This is one of those times when I ask loudly, what does gender have to do it? Ugh. And oh, she is lucky to have such a supportive mum!

    1. Thanks so much! Yes, my daugther has always had a stubborn—determined—streak. She will need it to be successful. I agree that it should be about ability, not gender, but sadly there’s still a lot of old-school thinking in many workplaces, especially in the trades.

  3. About women equality, I know an engineer (woman, of course) who has her own business and from time to time she picks up the phone without passing through the secretary. Can you believe that there are people who wants to speak with a man, because they cannot believe that she is the engineer? There is still progress to do with women equality!

  4. I love that that your daughter has chosen a career path that isn’t as common for women. I agree, there needs to be more of a focus on women who are successfully carving out paths in all kinds of fields so sexism can become a thing of the past (speaking from an optimistic perspective 🙂)..

    1. Thanks so much! I want to be optimistic but it will take a lot of very strong young women like my daughter to make it happen. Sadly, there are a lot of men just waiting for women to fail so they can say “I told you so”.

  5. Congratulations to your daughter Michelle! I find it truly frustrating that while so many talk about how far females have come in work opportunities the real story is very different and your example points that out clearly. Women are still believed to have their place and not dare to cross into specific territories deemed only for men. I hope your daughter can be recognized for her skills above all else.

    1. Thanks, Deb. Yes, it is very frustrating. One of the things about the CBC news article that really got me was the one young woman who said she had been asked why she was taking away a job that should belong to a man. What the heck?

      My daughter knows what she’s up against. She has experienced all this in her college program but she stuck with it and excelled. It really is frustrating, though.

    1. Thanks Victoria. I’m so proud of her. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do what she has done when I was 19. It will be interesting to see what she does next.

I'd love to hear your ideas. Drop me a comment below.

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