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Women in the Trade
5 Plays10 days ago
What's the deal??
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Transcript
Introduction to Women in Trades
00:00:00
Baker Plbg
Okay, everybody, it's another fabulous day in the barn. Hope everybody's well. Today I want to talk about women. Women. Women in the trade. There is a lot of emphasis on the ladies these days, which I don't really get it.
00:00:21
Baker Plbg
And why don't I get it? So I did some digging, and a fact come to find out... um I said, what is the most populated um trade with women?
00:00:36
Baker Plbg
which Which trade has the most women? And interestingly enough, here's what it came up with, which I didn't realize, which I should have, makes sense, um was an actual trade. So number one ah trade with the most women, can you guess what that is?
00:00:55
Baker Plbg
Three, two, one. ah hairstylist. And number two, with 92% of the workforce is women. Number two is esthetician, which has 96% women in it.
00:01:12
Baker Plbg
And then it goes on to say um there's a misconception that It's important to note that the term trade can sometimes be used narrowly to refer to skilled manual jobs.
Exploring the Definition of 'Trade'
00:01:28
Baker Plbg
Looking at the broader economy, professions with even higher female representation includes dental hygienists, child care workers. That's a trade?
00:01:41
Baker Plbg
Okay, fine. ah Speech pathologists, teachers?
00:01:46
Baker Plbg
Come on. So ah did you know that 97% of teachers are women?
00:01:54
Baker Plbg
96% are speech pathologists. Child care workers, 94%. We could talk about ah toxic masculinity if you want.
00:02:02
Baker Plbg
No, we won't get into that. There seems to be a lot of women in the educational fields. Maybe that's not a good thing.
00:02:12
Baker Plbg
My thoughts, not yours. Anyway, i that is a pretty wide definition of what a trade is, far wider than I was prepared to give it. And as you know, some people have accused me of being of gatekeeping women from the trade, and I'm not. I guess, I mean, go be a hairstylist, I guess.
Statistics and Trends in Female Trade Representation
00:02:30
Baker Plbg
I'm kidding. ah Interestingly enough, as I've said before, are there are ah hundred 165 certified plumbers in Canada. 165. That is a pretty small group.
00:02:50
Baker Plbg
um And according to these stats, which is a stats can from 2022, women make up 8.3% of the skilled trade workers in Canada, which is a steady increase from 1997 from 5.9%. Now,
00:03:05
Baker Plbg
from five point nine percent now And then the plumbing sector shows a lower representation with less than 2%, which I think is probably accurate. um i have The number I've used before that has come up before is between 3% and 4% in the trade. Now, I did learn yesterday that the trade is incredibly an incredibly broad term for companies.
00:03:37
Baker Plbg
i' I can't believe that they're putting teachers in listed as trades, but they are. That's according to AI. So listen, if you waste your whole life off of AI, you're going to be screwed it up pretty badly. So don't you know don't ah write home about that one.
00:03:57
Baker Plbg
But according to, robert this is in the US as of May 2025. According to trade school data, female representation in specific trades remains low.
00:04:09
Baker Plbg
Electrician power line installers is 0.0%, which I'm surprised is that low. Or no, sorry, that's power line. So linemen, 0.7%. HVAC, 0.15%. Plumbers, 2.2%. Electricians, 2.9%. Welders, 2.9%.
00:04:20
Baker Plbg
hvac point one five plumbers two point two electricians two point nine welders which is, i think, i mean, 3.9 to six and Carpenters 3.1 to 4.2.
00:04:34
Baker Plbg
It's an incredibly small percentage. And i should what I should do is ask, I didn't look this one up ah prior to, which I should have.
00:04:48
Baker Plbg
I
00:04:50
Baker Plbg
ah i forgot what was gonna ask. Anyway, um
00:04:56
Baker Plbg
Lost my train of thought there for a half a second. I'm just going to pause this while I think of what I was thinking of. right back. Okay, I remembered. ah How much money is being invested into women in the trades?
Financial Initiatives for Women in Trades
00:05:06
Baker Plbg
ah twenty eight 28.9 million in March of 2024.
00:05:10
Baker Plbg
Announced for 15 projects under the Women in the Skilled Trades and Initiative. initiative um And these projects will recruit, retain, and support women in 39 eligible Red Seal trades.
00:05:22
Baker Plbg
I didn't know there was 39. It does seem, which I think most of you would agree with, that we are... oh to chopping up things into finer and finer detail to, I don't know what, to skew the numbers.
00:05:39
Baker Plbg
39 Red Seal trades. I'm to have to look that up I mean i would just like I said, I'm over here looking. And dental hygienist, child care workers, speech pathologists, and teachers. That can't be right. I realize it's AI. and That can't be right.
00:05:52
Baker Plbg
ah Another $84 million was dedicated over four years, starting in 2023 to 2024. Doubled the funding for union training and and initiative programs.
00:06:03
Baker Plbg
Aims ah to help underrepresented apprentices, including women, succeed in skilled trade careers. Obviously, it's the... the um ah visible minorities, I would say.
00:06:15
Baker Plbg
And then in 2018, another 10 million bucks to that, which is fine. So you're i mean you are seeing things increase very slowly and incrementally ah from the, what was my original one here?
00:06:31
Baker Plbg
um and That the data says... Women is up. And that includes all this big, ah like a much broader pot from 4% to, see.
00:06:47
Baker Plbg
let's see I should just read it. a Recent data in the U.S. shows that women participation in registered apprentice programs has surged with nearly 15% of active apprentices being women in 2024, 9.4% from 2014.
Authenticity and Representation in Trades
00:07:04
Baker Plbg
So I don't know what that means when they say registered apprenticeship programs when there's 39 red seal trades, which include apparently dental hygienists and childcare workers.
00:07:18
Baker Plbg
anyway do a deep dive ah listen there's i'm not gatekeeping anybody uh i will continue to say it till the cows come home you just need to be authentic who you are and use your words properly if you are not a plumber you can't say you're a plumber don't use plumber in your page oh that was unintentional um like just be real.
00:07:44
Baker Plbg
Like we don't need any more influencers in this thing. We need real plumbers and people will say, well, she's bringing people to the trade. I guess then fine. Be publisher page, be or whatever you are.
00:07:58
Baker Plbg
And there, I, I, I mean, she's the easy target cause she's out there trying to do stuff, which is good. I don't want to be the guy that is bringing that stuff down. i just want,
00:08:09
Baker Plbg
to be authentic and to be real and that you are representing yourself honestly in whatever you do. Anyway, those as always are my thoughts, not yours.
Personal Stories and Career Choices
00:08:20
Baker Plbg
so um I am the father of three daughters and two sons.
00:08:26
Baker Plbg
um And so I have tried to include all of my daughters in my trade. They all have plumbed at some point in their lives and all of them chose to do something else.
00:08:40
Baker Plbg
Which is completely fine. And if they had decided, in fact, my oldest daughter, I thought would be great in it. And then my second daughter, um we actually signed up as an apprentice and took her to job sites. This was over COVID.
00:08:56
Baker Plbg
And she worked with the boys for probably four or five months and was like, no, this is not, I hate this. I'm not doing this, which is fine. That's how it goes. And that's everybody gets to make their own choices and whatever.
00:09:09
Baker Plbg
So please do not dissuade your children, male or female from being a part of the trades. ah But I do think it's important that we are, realistic with our expectations.
00:09:22
Baker Plbg
And I would encourage you to dig into the numbers and see, um you know, if this initiative, it it's the problem that I have is even at the even the best numbers it gives me here, you know, 15% of active apprentices are women in 2024.
Focus on Demographics and Diversity Support
00:09:40
Baker Plbg
All right, that's fantastic. your work is male.
00:09:46
Baker Plbg
And if i was a ah i was running a business, then I would obviously focus on 85% of my business. And if the 15% decided to come along and whatever, then that would be that would be part of it um for sure.
00:10:03
Baker Plbg
But I don't think it should be the emphasis. I think, as with most things in government, I think they mess everything up and make things far more complicated than they need to be. um but That's it.
00:10:15
Baker Plbg
ah Go out there, support the trades, support your lady friends in and their efforts to do so, and encourage them to be authentically who they are. My thoughts, not yours. As always, have a beautiful day, and hit me up in the DMs if ah you think I got something wrong.
00:10:34
Baker Plbg
Did I get it right? Did I get it wrong? You let me know.