Journeywoman : A Carpenter's Story

Since ladies began working within the trades within the 1970s, little or no has been printed about their experiences. On this provocative and vital ebook, Kate Braid tells the story of how she turned a carpenter within the face of skepticism and discouragement. In 1977 when Braid was broke and out of labor, her male pals inspired her to use as a labourer on a building website on Pender Island, off the coast of British Columbia. She’d by no means heard of a girl doing this sort of work, however she was employed as a result of (she later discovered) the boss hoped {that a} lady onsite would enhance the boys’s efficiency. For the following fifteen years Braid labored as a labourer, apprentice and journeywoman carpenter, constructing homes, bridges and high-rises. She was one of many first certified ladies carpenters in British Columbia, the primary lady to hitch the Vancouver native of the Carpenters’ Union, the primary to show building full-time on the BC Institute of Expertise and one of many first ladies to run her personal building firm. Although she liked the work, it was not a straightforward profession selection however slowly she carved a job for herself, asking first herself, then those that would problem her, why shouldn’t a girl be a carpenter? Instructed with humour, compassion and braveness, Journey Girl is the true story of a groundbreaking lady discovering success in a male-dominated subject.