Women at work
Out the back of the Porirua suburb of Whitby, townhouses are being built. For the most part, the site is like any other. But on site B, there is something obviously different. The crew are all women.
‘‘If you want to do it, just do it.’’
Out the back of the Porirua suburb of Whitby, townhouses are being built. For the most part, the site is like any other. But on site B, there is something obviously different. The crew are all women. The number of female apprentices working in the male-dominated trades industry more than doubled this year, from 845 last year to 1785. This has come as part of a broader spike since the Labourled Government made all apprenticeships free in July this year, part of an effort to stimulate the economy after the Covid-19 outbreak.
Emma Brown, the director of Yellowhammer Services, has worked in construction since the 1980s but took a break five years ago.
During her time off she researched toxic masculinity in the construction industry. It’s something she had personal experience with. Over her years in the industry she had been told to ‘‘toughen-up,’’ and left after coming out as a trans woman.
‘‘When I did come out, I was basically told to p...-off,’’ she said.
In her research she had pinpointed the issue as arising from apprenticeships so she decided to do something about it, forming the first all-female crew she had seen during her time in the industry.
‘‘The biggest question I am often asked is how I manage
heavy lifting, well you just help, you just get an extra pair of hands,’’ she said. ‘‘You divide 100kg by four people, its 25kg each instead of 33kg each.’’
She hoped to see more young woman enter the industry, as it would help the skill shortage. ‘‘And it’s a great way tomake a dollar.’’
For Joanna Lambert, joining Brown’s team as an apprentice was a chance to leave office life behind, while completing her life goal of learning to build her own house. She often forgot how strange it was being part of an all female crew.
‘‘One time on another site, I saw [people] I assumed were the developers or a team of women from the office, and they all stood on the road, put on their orange jackets and walked down the little lane all these houses were being built on, and I remember turning and thinking, man what are all those women doing here,’’ she said.
‘‘It was just such a weird sight, and I thought, that must be what I look like when all the guys walk past our site.’’
When Keijahan Ranginui left school, she had planned to do a mechanics course with WelTec but switched to carpentry, the same course her brother was doing.
After she finished her course, Brown hired her as an apprentice. ‘‘It’s quite different seeing all the guys around, and we’re the only group of females.’’
The pair said the biggest piece of advice they could give young women wanting to enter the industry was to be eager and willing to learn.
‘‘There is the perception among women a lot that you need to prove yourself. I think that is unfair treatment already if women put that on themselves,’’ Lambert said.
‘‘I think any good apprentice is someone who is a reasonable, nice person that has manners, can work with everyone else, can teach, can learn and wants toget better.’’
As for Ranginui, her advice was simple. ‘‘If you want to do it, just do it.’’