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Showing posts with label "canada carpenter". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "canada carpenter". Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The only woman in the carpentry class -CANADA
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Study seeks to boost participation of women in construction -Canada
February 6, 2009
Construction Sector Council
Study seeks to boost participation of women in construction
PATRICIA WILLIAMS
staff writer
The Ottawa-based Construction Sector Council is undertaking a study aimed in part at identifying strategies to boost women’s participation in the construction trades.
While initiatives have been undertaken over the years, primarily focused on raising women’s awareness of non-traditional careers, the council says there has not been an appreciable increase in the percentage of women working on the tools.
Data indicates that women account for only three per cent of those in the construction trades.
“We know that the overall number of women employed in the construction industry has increased,” says Rosemary Sparks, the council’s senior director of planning and development.
“But the percentage of women in the trades hasn’t really changed. We are trying to find out why that is.”
Previously, the council conducted research on participation of immigrants and Aboriginals in construction.
The study on the state of women’s participation is expected to be completed this spring.
The study will look at women as one solution to the skill shortages identified in the council’s Construction Looking Forward scenarios.
Sparks said the objectives are to gain insight into such areas as: whether barriers to women’s participation have changed; what initiatives have proven successful; what constitutes realistic benchmarks; and what needs to be done.
Study components include interviews with industry stakeholders and focus groups with women in construction.
“We are looking for people who have something to contribute to this topic,” Sparks said.
As part of the process, the council is contacting key trade associations for feedback and to arrange interviews with companies. While outreach also is being made to labour organizations, the majority of the interviews will be with employers.
“We will be seeking their views on what kind of support they think is needed to encourage women to enter the industry and perhaps more importantly, stay in the industry,” Sparks said.
The Mechanical Contractors Association of Canada has sent a questionnaire to its members as part of the study. Questions include:
•Has your company introduced any recruitment or retention practices to increase women’s participation in the trades and/or construction management ranks?
•What do you think labour needs to do to recruit and retain women?
•What do you think the industry needs to do to recruit and retain women in management occupations?
http://dcnonl.com/article/id32392
Construction Sector Council
Study seeks to boost participation of women in construction
PATRICIA WILLIAMS
staff writer
The Ottawa-based Construction Sector Council is undertaking a study aimed in part at identifying strategies to boost women’s participation in the construction trades.
While initiatives have been undertaken over the years, primarily focused on raising women’s awareness of non-traditional careers, the council says there has not been an appreciable increase in the percentage of women working on the tools.
Data indicates that women account for only three per cent of those in the construction trades.
“We know that the overall number of women employed in the construction industry has increased,” says Rosemary Sparks, the council’s senior director of planning and development.
“But the percentage of women in the trades hasn’t really changed. We are trying to find out why that is.”
Previously, the council conducted research on participation of immigrants and Aboriginals in construction.
The study on the state of women’s participation is expected to be completed this spring.
The study will look at women as one solution to the skill shortages identified in the council’s Construction Looking Forward scenarios.
Sparks said the objectives are to gain insight into such areas as: whether barriers to women’s participation have changed; what initiatives have proven successful; what constitutes realistic benchmarks; and what needs to be done.
Study components include interviews with industry stakeholders and focus groups with women in construction.
“We are looking for people who have something to contribute to this topic,” Sparks said.
As part of the process, the council is contacting key trade associations for feedback and to arrange interviews with companies. While outreach also is being made to labour organizations, the majority of the interviews will be with employers.
“We will be seeking their views on what kind of support they think is needed to encourage women to enter the industry and perhaps more importantly, stay in the industry,” Sparks said.
The Mechanical Contractors Association of Canada has sent a questionnaire to its members as part of the study. Questions include:
•Has your company introduced any recruitment or retention practices to increase women’s participation in the trades and/or construction management ranks?
•What do you think labour needs to do to recruit and retain women?
•What do you think the industry needs to do to recruit and retain women in management occupations?
http://dcnonl.com/article/id32392
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Wage Gap Widens Again for Women- Canada
Wage gap widens again
More effort needed to make the wage gap disappear.
Dateline: Tuesday, February 03, 2009
by Elsie Hambrook for the Moncton Times and Transcript
New figures released this month showed that the difference between the average wages of women and men — the pay gap — had worsened for the second year in a row in New Brunswick. No media covered the report, but some of us heard about it.
In 2008, New Brunswick women working full- or part-time earned on average $16.46 per hour and men, $19.16 per hour. That's a difference of over 14 percent. The previous year, women were closer to men's average earnings — a difference of 12.6 percent, and the year before that, better still, 12 percent.
The Canadian picture is similar and also worsened in 2008. Canadian women earned 84 percent of what men earned, $19.43 per hour compared to $23.18 for men.
The pay gap has fluctuated a lot in the past, improving and worsening, but generally it has been improving since 1997, when there was a 20 percent difference in the average hourly earnings of New Brunswick male and female workers.
Converting the earnings to hourly pay is the fairer method of comparing women's and men's relative earnings. Sometimes another measure is used, comparing the annual salaries of full-time workers.
That measure is even more depressing: the gap now hovers around 25 percent. Decades ago, in the 1970s, it hovered around 35 percent. In 2006, women working full-time all year in New Brunswick earned 75 percent of men's average earnings.
Whatever way you measure it, why is there still such a difference, especially since women have as much education as men?
Margaret Mead had part of the answer. The famous anthropologist noted in her travels studying societies around the world, "There are villages in which men fish and women weave, and ones in which women fish and men weave. But in either village, the work done by men is valued higher than the work done by women."
That's what pay equity is about — correcting that traditional bias against whatever is "women's work." New Brunswick does not have pay equity, but there are interesting signs of movement to end the "women discount".
As the Canadian Labour Congress awareness campaign put it last fall: "Hurry! 30 percent off Women's Labour — When They're Equal, the Savings Will be Gone!" and in fine print, "Valid for most workplaces without a union."
Unionized women earned about 97 percent of unionized men's earnings in New Brunswick in 2008 — $22.41 per hour compared to $23.22 per hour. Non-unionized women earned on average 80 percent of non-unionized men's average earnings in New Brunswick in 2008: $13.98 compared to $17.50 per hour.
The current New Brunswick government's platform includes extending pay equity to the private sector through legislation. We should see action on that promise soon, given that there is an election next year. The provincial government said in last fall's throne speech that it is going ahead with a pay equity law applying to all of the public sector — including hospitals and schools.
It is also heartening to know that three occupations that are especially low paid and female-dominated, today as ever — workers in child care centres, transition houses and home support services — are receiving early attention, with unbiased job evaluations under way and, we presume, salary adjustments in the near future.
Pay equity is only part of the explanation. There are a variety of factors usually blamed for the persistent gap between women's and men's earnings.
One factor is the segregation of women and men in the workplace. Women have certainly entered law and medicine and a few other areas, but men have certainly not crossed over to many non-traditional occupations and women are even losing ground in some sciences, engineering and trades. The great majority of women are still found in teaching, health, sales, clerical or service occupations, a smaller range than where men are found.
And when governments adopt big-budget economic rescue packages, as is happening now, regard must be paid to whether spending will increase inequality or else we can only fear that the pay gap will worsen again in the future. When we need to spend to get out of a recession, there are many ways of doing it.
Which leads to another part of the reason behind the pay gap. Though most women are in the labour force — even most mothers and most lone mothers — society has not changed enough to accommodate family life. So women interrupt their careers more often than men, sometimes because of sexual harassment, discrimination against childbearing women, lack of access to child care services, violence and unequal division of labour in the home. More women work part-time and legislation surrounding part-time work make it easy to exploit.
To finish on a positive note, we also learned this month that in 2008, female Community College graduates of the previous year, who were working full-time, earned on average 13 percent less than male graduates in New Brunswick, an improvement over the previous year when the gap was 20 percent.
A similar survey of 2005 graduates had found a pay gap of more than 14 percent and in 1997, female graduates of the previous year were earning 19.5 percent less than male graduates.
Elsie Hambrook is the new Chairperson of the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Her column on women's issues will appear in the Times & Transcript every Thursday. She may be reached via e-mail at the eddress below.
Email: acswcccf@gnb.ca. Website: http://www.acswcccf.nb.ca.
http://www.straightgoods.ca/2009/ViewFeature.cfm?Ref=70
More effort needed to make the wage gap disappear.
Dateline: Tuesday, February 03, 2009
by Elsie Hambrook for the Moncton Times and Transcript
New figures released this month showed that the difference between the average wages of women and men — the pay gap — had worsened for the second year in a row in New Brunswick. No media covered the report, but some of us heard about it.
In 2008, New Brunswick women working full- or part-time earned on average $16.46 per hour and men, $19.16 per hour. That's a difference of over 14 percent. The previous year, women were closer to men's average earnings — a difference of 12.6 percent, and the year before that, better still, 12 percent.
As the Canadian Labour Congress awareness campaign put it last fall: "Hurry! 30 percent off Women's Labour — When They're Equal, the Savings Will be Gone!" and in fine print, "Valid for most workplaces without a union."
The Canadian picture is similar and also worsened in 2008. Canadian women earned 84 percent of what men earned, $19.43 per hour compared to $23.18 for men.
The pay gap has fluctuated a lot in the past, improving and worsening, but generally it has been improving since 1997, when there was a 20 percent difference in the average hourly earnings of New Brunswick male and female workers.
Converting the earnings to hourly pay is the fairer method of comparing women's and men's relative earnings. Sometimes another measure is used, comparing the annual salaries of full-time workers.
That measure is even more depressing: the gap now hovers around 25 percent. Decades ago, in the 1970s, it hovered around 35 percent. In 2006, women working full-time all year in New Brunswick earned 75 percent of men's average earnings.
Whatever way you measure it, why is there still such a difference, especially since women have as much education as men?
Margaret Mead had part of the answer. The famous anthropologist noted in her travels studying societies around the world, "There are villages in which men fish and women weave, and ones in which women fish and men weave. But in either village, the work done by men is valued higher than the work done by women."
That's what pay equity is about — correcting that traditional bias against whatever is "women's work." New Brunswick does not have pay equity, but there are interesting signs of movement to end the "women discount".
As the Canadian Labour Congress awareness campaign put it last fall: "Hurry! 30 percent off Women's Labour — When They're Equal, the Savings Will be Gone!" and in fine print, "Valid for most workplaces without a union."
Unionized women earned about 97 percent of unionized men's earnings in New Brunswick in 2008 — $22.41 per hour compared to $23.22 per hour. Non-unionized women earned on average 80 percent of non-unionized men's average earnings in New Brunswick in 2008: $13.98 compared to $17.50 per hour.
The current New Brunswick government's platform includes extending pay equity to the private sector through legislation. We should see action on that promise soon, given that there is an election next year. The provincial government said in last fall's throne speech that it is going ahead with a pay equity law applying to all of the public sector — including hospitals and schools.
It is also heartening to know that three occupations that are especially low paid and female-dominated, today as ever — workers in child care centres, transition houses and home support services — are receiving early attention, with unbiased job evaluations under way and, we presume, salary adjustments in the near future.
Pay equity is only part of the explanation. There are a variety of factors usually blamed for the persistent gap between women's and men's earnings.
One factor is the segregation of women and men in the workplace. Women have certainly entered law and medicine and a few other areas, but men have certainly not crossed over to many non-traditional occupations and women are even losing ground in some sciences, engineering and trades. The great majority of women are still found in teaching, health, sales, clerical or service occupations, a smaller range than where men are found.
And when governments adopt big-budget economic rescue packages, as is happening now, regard must be paid to whether spending will increase inequality or else we can only fear that the pay gap will worsen again in the future. When we need to spend to get out of a recession, there are many ways of doing it.
Which leads to another part of the reason behind the pay gap. Though most women are in the labour force — even most mothers and most lone mothers — society has not changed enough to accommodate family life. So women interrupt their careers more often than men, sometimes because of sexual harassment, discrimination against childbearing women, lack of access to child care services, violence and unequal division of labour in the home. More women work part-time and legislation surrounding part-time work make it easy to exploit.
To finish on a positive note, we also learned this month that in 2008, female Community College graduates of the previous year, who were working full-time, earned on average 13 percent less than male graduates in New Brunswick, an improvement over the previous year when the gap was 20 percent.
A similar survey of 2005 graduates had found a pay gap of more than 14 percent and in 1997, female graduates of the previous year were earning 19.5 percent less than male graduates.
Elsie Hambrook is the new Chairperson of the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Her column on women's issues will appear in the Times & Transcript every Thursday. She may be reached via e-mail at the eddress below.
Email: acswcccf@gnb.ca. Website: http://www.acswcccf.nb.ca.
http://www.straightgoods.ca/2009/ViewFeature.cfm?Ref=70
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Former carpenter becomes key part of Scott Construction management team
BRADLEY FEHR
Carrol Watamaniuk accepts her Outstanding Women in Construction Award during the 20th annual VRCA Awards of Excellence gala.
Project Management
Former carpenter becomes key part of Scott Construction management team
Brian Martin
correspondent
No matter how you slice it, it is a very long jump from running a local movie house to being the senior project manager during construction of an entire university.
Nonetheless it is a jump Carrol Watamaniuk made.
In November, she was honoured as the Outstanding Woman in Construction at the 20th annual Awards of Excellence put on by the Vancouver Regional Construction Association.
Recipients of the award are selected by the Canadian Construction Women’s Association.
As Watamaniuk tells it, in 1989 she had an epiphany in the middle of the night.
She woke up. A voice in her head told her she should become a carpenter. At the time she and her partner, the father of her two children, were running all the independent movie houses in Vancouver.
She is nothing if not determined. Not having a clue how to become a carpenter, she simply looked in the telephone book under the “Cs”. The only thing she found was the Carpenters’ Union so she went off to meet them. They directed her to the B.C. Institute of Technology.
There she was quickly enrolled in an entry-level trades program.
She discovered that not only was she good at carpentry, but she also loved it.
“How many jobs are there where you get to work with your body and your brain at the same time?” she asked.
Before long, Watamaniuk was a member of the union and working on a high rise residential project in New Westminster.
At the same time she continued taking courses at BCIT and concentrated on things such as blue print reading.
“When I was at BCIT there were not any women, which was a shock to me,” she said.
“I had no idea that women didn’t do that back at that time. The first five or 10 years, I didn’t see any other women.”
She didn’t, however, let that bother her nor has she experienced any type of harassment.
“I just kept my blinkers on and concentrated on my work,” she said. “It’s a gender neutral job as far as I am concerned.”
Eventually Watamaniuk had a parting with the Carpenters’ Union.
She took a construction management course at Douglas College.
“They had an issue with that,” she said.
In typical fashion she holds no hard feelings towards them.
But, she said, she had her plans and she intended to follow them.
As is typical for a journeyperson, construction took her to many different locations.
In addition to straight construction work she did a stint as an instructor for the Southern Interior Construction Association in Kelowna and then went on to teach for about a year at Okanagan University College in the same city.
Eventually life led her to Whistler and Squamish.
She got busy building her own home in Squamish with the idea of selling it.
Not long after that Scott Construction offered her the job of superintendent on the $53 million Quest University project at Squamish.
It was the chance of a lifetime.
“Without a word of a lie, I woke up every day wanting to go to work,” she said.
In contrast to her early days in the industry, on the Quest no less than five members of the Scott project team were women.
Among the most rewarding parts of her job, she said is looking at a site and envisioning what will be built there.
That and the personalities she deals with keep life interesting.
“There’s never a dull day,” she said. “To work with all these personalities and to see them succeed – it’s a huge pat on the back, which I can give to myself.”
Watamaniuk isn’t the only award-winner in her family.
Only days before she was honoured as Construction Woman of the Year, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.
Her 24-year-old son, Scott Mathieson, is a pitcher for the team.
All in all, it was quite a week in a family that seems to specialize in setting goals – and reaching them.
http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id31699
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