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Sexual Harassment Many men are not so much hostile to women coming into a classroom or onto a job as they are uncomfortable with something new, with change. Often, when they see that a woman is doing her own share of the work, they leave her alone or even befriend her. Some men, however, have decided that a woman cannot, should not, and therefore will not do this work--and they take it upon themselves to assure her failure.
Harassment dramatically undermines a woman's job performance and further isolates her. In a workplace with a strong tradition of "joking around", there is a thin line between banter and harassment. Sexual harassment is not workplace romance or flirtation; it is not mutual behaviour between two consenting adults. It is an exhibition of power and as such it is inappropriate, unacceptable, and illegal. Some of the more blatant sexual harassment is now giving way to gender harassment, which is more subtle and therefore harder to deal with. Gender harassment is not directly sexual but aims to humiliate or defeat someone because she is a woman. An apprentice machinist worked night-shift with a lead hand who repeatedly gave her jobs he knew she could not perform, then got angry that she couldn't do the work. One evening he asked her to machine a chrome diameter. Only later did another machinist tell her that you can't machine a chrome diameter--you can only grind it. After several months of such treatment, she dropped out of the trade. Employment Last but not least of the many factors acting I against women in trades and technologies is that we have more difficulty than most men getting a job in our chosen field. Most employers assume that women are trouble. Will she need special bathroom facilities? Is she strong enough to do the work? Will the men have trouble adjusting? Easier to say no. And besides all the barriers that women particularly face, the trades and technologies are not easy fields in which to work. Though many of us put effort into persuading other women to join us, we do not deny that our work is often physically heavy, uncomfortable, dirty, and often dangerous. Perhaps the danger is one of the things we like. After all, we are the stubborn ones. The work is also enormously rewarding. Not counting the excellent wages (which on union sites, so far, do not vary for men and women), it is deeply satisfying to build, repair, and create, to see your product at the end of the day and know it will last beyond your lifetime. You feel strong, healthy, fit and competent. There is a profound sense of independence that comes with having tried the hardest thing and succeeded in some way, if even at some cost. But given the need to make all the cultural adjustments themselves, on top of the challenges of the work, is it any wonder that women grow tired and drop out? The fact that the culture of women is clearly "different" from that of men does not mean "worse". It may, in fact, have something to offer. It is time to stop assuming women will do all of the adapting and to ask the dominant culture, the men, to acknowledge and respect what women bring to a job. Employers who worry that women will "change" a job are absolutely correct. One welder says that men have told her they go easier on each other when she's around, are more humane not just to her but to each other. We need to work together, to educate each other, in order to ease both women and men through these radical changes in the traditional culture of men's work. Kate Braid is a journey carpenter who has recently been appointed as Director of Labour Programs at Simon Fraser University. She has also published a book of poems about her work called Covering Rough Ground (Polestar Press).
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