Woman’s Work

Kate Braid’s memoir is beautifully written, with the lilt of poetry and the rich descriptiveness of a novel. In fact, in my first couple of attempts at reading this book, it was that style that I found off-putting. I was expecting something different: more fact and less flair. I found, for example, the detailed descriptions of scenery and the light on a certain morning more than 30 years ago a bit difficult to believe. Ditto for the detailed retelling of conversations presented in quotes as factual recitations.

At a certain point I decided to suspend my disbelief and found myself lulled by the rhythm of Braid’s storytelling. I became eager to find out where her journey took her and greedily consumed the last two thirds of the book. I have to admit my connection to her story grew as I realized the parallel courses of our experiences.

I too worked in a “non-traditional” job in the late 1970s. Kate Braid was the first woman member of the Carpenters local in Vancouver. I was one of three women who were the first to work in a men’s jail as correctional officers and members of the Toronto (Don) Jail Ontario Public Service Employees Union local. Kate went on to become involved in her union local executive and became a delegate to provincial and national conventions, as did I. She became a member of the British Columbia Federation of Labour’s Women’s Committee and I was a member of the Ontario Federation’s Women’s Committee. We were both involved with the Left Caucus of our unions.

Those were heady days for feminism and for feminists. Women like Braid were making inroads into men’s jobs and were earning men’s pay. They were also establishing their leadership credentials and breaking into the power structures of organized labour.

Braid takes us on her journey from construction labourer to apprentice carpenter, to journey-women carpenter, to independent contractor, to construction pre-apprenticeship program instructor. Her experiences while “swinging a hammer in a man’s world” authentically relate the complexity of relationships between men and women during those early days of women breaking into the trades. The characters are all recognizable: the sexist, the power broker, the chivalrous protector, the supportive union brother and then the rest of them—the majority who keep their heads down and say nothing as long as they are left alone. I found it interesting that Braid comes to prefer this world of men’s work. Even so, it is more complex than a simple choice. She describes it as striving for a certain kind of balance in her life.

After deciding to leave a contracting partnership with a woman friend when the union calls her for a job, she explains:

Two other threads of Braid’s life are woven through her retelling of this period of her life. As she comes into her full sexuality in the 1970s in the age of multiple lovers and communal living, we catch a glimpse of her personal life and the sometime contradictions of the powerful Braid in the workplace and the power balance in her relationships. We also see her growing feminism, attending events to hear leading feminists such as Kate Millett and Andrea Dworkin, her engagement with left politics and union politics, and her involvement in protest such as the Solidarity movement in B.C. in response to the Bennett Social Credit government’s attacks on labour.

About two thirds of the way through the book I find the explanation for how she has such accurate and detailed memories of conversation, places and exact timing of events from so long ago. She has kept extensive journals throughout all of these years. I am further enlightened when I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book. After her life in construction, Kate Braid returned to school and obtained a master’s degree in creative writing. She is a published author of a number of books of poetry and non-fiction. Her first book of poems, entitled Covering Rough Ground (about her life in construction), won her “an award for the best book of poems by a Canadian woman in 1991.” A member of the Creative Nonfiction Collective, she purposefully brought those techniques into the writing of her memoir. I decide by the end of my reading, unlike my first impressions, that she has done that very well.

I am not sure who is the target reader for this book. Certainly, any of us who lived and worked during those years and were active in the women’s movement or labour movement will find this a pleasant walk down memory lane. Anyone interested in some of the groundbreakers of women in non-traditional work will find in this a treasure trove of insight and instructional examples of how one woman handled challenges on the job site. I kept thinking about a long-time colleague, Debbie Field, who went to work in the coke ovens of Stelco in Hamilton and became active in the Steelworkers Union, and a number of the other women who broke new ground whom I have known over the years. But I found myself mainly thinking that, with respect to women in trades, I fear that not a lot has changed.

I think perhaps women might be a bit more accepted these days, but I cannot be sure of that. Braid points out the numbers have not changed that much: “the number of women in trades in both Canada and the US has stayed at roughly 3 percent.” A minority still for sure. I used to hear a lot about the Women In Trades organization that Braid was part of, but not so much these days. I do not know what exists today, but Braid’s book has prompted me to want to find out.

We are facing a very serious shortage of skilled trades workers today and it is predicted to worsen over the next decade or so. I have spent much of the last decade working with youth in high poverty neighbourhoods. There has been some attempt to match interested youth with trades training, but for the most part it is young men who are being attracted to this opportunity for secure and well- paid employment. More needs to be done to reach out to young women and convince them there is an opportunity here for them too. Skilled trades-women can provide powerful inspiration and be impactful mentors to these young women. Maybe WIT or a successor organization is doing this kind of work but if so, it is not very visible in the high-poverty neighbourhoods of Toronto. Braid’s book has lit a fire in me to see if we can do something to change that.