Joy and Power


Non-Traditional Fields for Women
Against the Odds

by Sharon Goldberg

At the School of Natural Resources in Lindsay, Ontario, the emphasis is on practical, natural resources-oriented education in such diverse programs as Resources Drilling, Geological Techniques, Fish and Wildlife Technology, and Natural Resources Law Enforcement. For many years, very few female students applied or were accepted for admission to the programs and, currently, approximately 20 per cent of the student body is made up of women.

Support or
lack of it can
have a strong
influence
on the choices
we make
in our
professional
development
and
education.

As a faculty member of the School of Natural Resources, which is a division of Sir Sanford Fleming College, I became interested in the motivation of women to seek post-secondary education in non-traditional occupations. In the 1987-88 school year, I developed and administered a survey dealing with the attitudes of female adult students to studying in non-traditional areas.

Of the twenty-three women who participated in the survey, ten were in their first year, eight were second-year students, and five were third-year students. Their ages ranged from nineteen to fifty-one. They were enrolled in programs including Cartography, Farm Business, Fish and Wildlife, Forest Recreation, Forestry, Heavy Equipment, Law Enforcement, Environment Pest Control management, and Water and Terrain Geology.

The educational background of the women ranged from high school completion, to some college, to college completion, to some undergraduate work at university, to university completion in an undergraduate program. Their employment background covered all spheres: traditional (waitress, sales clerk, office clerk), non-traditional (farm labour, forestry, tree planting), a combination of traditional and non-traditional experience, and one woman who had never had paid employment prior to studying at the School of Natural Resources and who is also an international student from Zimbabwe.

Parents' educational and employment backgrounds were also varied. Some of their parents did not complete high school, some did, some a combination of high school and college education, and some had completed university. In addition, there was a split between those whose mothers worked outside the home, and those whose mothers did not. Surprisingly (to me), not one of the respondents had a mother who had paid employment in a non-traditional area.

En tant que membre du corps professoral de l'école des ressources naturelles du Collège Sir Sanford Fleming, Sharon Goldberg a élaboré et mené une enquête portant sur l'attitude des étudiantes à l'égard des études de nature non traditionnelle. Ont participé à cette enquête vingt-trois femmes, âgées de 19 à 51 ans. Sharon a découvert que la famille, les amis et les professeurs de la plupart de ces femmes avaient essayé de les dissuader de se lancer dans des études non traditionnelles. Les femmes sont tout à fait conscientes des obstacles qui se dressent devant elles lorsqu'elles poursuivent des études supérieures et se lancent dans la carrière de leur choix. Des écueils, comme le harcèlement de leurs pairs et instructeurs et autres difficultés du même genre dans la main-doeuvre, empêchent les femmes d'aller de l'avant dans le secteur des emplois non traditionnels. Toutefois, les femmes ne perdent pas l'espoir de voir des changements survenir à l'avenir et d'être un jour considérées par les hommes comme des partenaires à part entière. Il incombe à ceux et celles d'entre nous qui forment des femmes à des emplois non traditionnels de leur apprendre à surmonter les attitudes négatives auxquelles elles se butent pour les aider à atteindre cette égalité dont elles rêvent.

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