Repost: Lessons from returning women migrant workers

A recent article in The Phnom Penh Post illuminates the importance of protecting Cambodian women who face many challenges and dangers while they migrate to and from worksites in Thailand:

"Chandy’s story was positive – she received her wages, retained her belongings and returned to Cambodia unharmed. But in crossing into Thailand as an irregular migrant, there were no guarantees of her safety or protection. Indeed, many of Chandy’s fellow returnees had much darker stories to tell." (Holliday, 10 Sept. 2014)

Chandy's story is just one of many women who overcome barriers to earn a living for themselves and their families.

Visit http://www.phnompenhpost.com/ to read the full article. 

Repost: Alliance Seeks to Improve Conditions for Female Construction Workers

OSHA announced the alliance and its new website for this purpose on Aug. 22.

OSHA has signed an alliance with the National Association of Women in Construction to develop training resources to protect female construction workers. It will focus on musculoskeletal and sanitation hazards and issues related to poorly-fitting PPE, and OSHA has created a related website.

"Safety and health problems in construction create barriers to women entering and remaining in this field," said Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. "Through this alliance, we will work together to forge innovative solutions to improve the safety, health, and working conditions for women in the construction trades and retain female workers during a critical time of job shortages in this industry."

The two-year agreement is intended to develop training programs, fact sheets, and other outreach resources. Following a recommendation from its Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, OSHA created the Women in Construction Web page, a site that outlines and addresses safety and health issues specific to female workers in this industry.

For more information on the alliance, visit OSHA's new Women in Construction webpage or this description of the alliance.

View the original article at http://ohsonline.com.

Union aims to smooth trades work for women

http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Union+aims+smooth+trades+work+women/5667498/story.html

BY BILL MAH, POSTMEDIA NEWS NOVEMBER 7, 2011 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 1 )

"Women's issues are not necessarily the same as male issues on a job site and in non-traditional occupations," says Martyn Piper, executive secretary of the Alberta Regional Council of Carpenters and Allied Workers.

Photograph by: Bruce Edwards, Postmedia News, Postmedia News

Some of the challenges faced by women working in the trades might never occur to a man.

"Harnesses," said Margaret McDonald, a scaffolder from Fort McMurray.

"The harnesses for when we climb high steel. Trying to make sure a company has the right size to fit women. It's little things like that."

McDonald said most employers are usually "pretty good" about having their safety officers supply harnesses fitted for women. "It might take a while before you get it."

But not all issues faced by women in the trades are as easily fixed.

More than 100 people, mostly women working in non-traditional jobs, took part in a recent conference looking at how job sites meet the unique needs of women.

The Women's Conference hosted by the Alberta Regional Council of Carpenters and Allied Workers, a union representing 11,500 Albertans - including about 480 women. The event for networking and education came six months after the union created a women's committee to help female members play a bigger role in an industry dominated by men.

"Women's issues are not necessarily the same as male issues on a job site and in non-traditional occupations," said Martyn Piper, the union's executive secretary.

Journeyman scaffolder Brandi Thorne, chair of the women's committee, originally studied at university to become a statistician, but an opportunity came up to work in the same field as her husband.

"Some of the differences are that we tend to live with a higher demand for family and child care, elder care, and we have different physical needs," Thorne said of men and women.

The conference offered workshops on issues such as parenting and pregnancy, fitness and nutrition, respect in the workplace and effective communication, and as well as talks from government, labour and industry representatives.

"The weekend is also about finding the voices of women and what are the barriers that exist out there and what would the solutions be to break down those barriers and get more women - and keep more women in construction," Thorne said.

Alberta in particular and industry in general have been trying to coax more women and more aboriginals to enter the trades as a worker shortage looms.

In 2010, 17,400 Albertans retired, 2,300 more than in 2009, and about 190,000 are expected to retire in the next 10 years. The province says Alberta will face a shortage of at least 77,000 workers in the next decade.

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

Read more:http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Union+aims+smooth+trades+work+women/5667498/story.html#ixzz1d2YqCZ3r

Do Professional Women and Tradeswomen in the South African Construction Industry Share Common Employment Barriers, despite Progressive Government Legislation?

Do Professional Women and Tradeswomen in the South African Construction Industry Share Common Employment Barriers, despite Progressive Government Legislation?

Authors: Jane English , Karen Le Jeune
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 1 50 2011
Published online: 13 August 2011
DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000095

The post‐apartheid period in South African history will most likely be recorded as the most positive legislative period for women ever, yet the construction industry appears to exclude women, both professionally and at skills and crafts level. The paper aims to classify, list and discuss the common characteristics and affects of the barriers to women entering construction at all levels, professionally and in trades, or having entered the industry, retaining their employment. Besides cataloguing the barriers, initiatives to overcome or circumvent barriers are also investigated. The research paper reviews the results from four separate studies undertaken in Cape Town between 2005 and 2007, all of which used mixed‐method research design approaches. The conclusions drawn from the research indicate that South African women in professional and trade employment in the Construction Industry have many common barriers and these barriers are the same ones experienced by their counterparts employed in international construction industries. However, due to the paradigm shift in societal values brought on by the move from apartheid to democratic rule in South Africa, a platform for change has been created. This is strongly reinforced by legislation encapsulating the government's drive to include women in all aspects of economic activity. The legislation in question is the South African Construction Sector Broad‐Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Charter, 2006, which purports to bring about substantial change in the gender composition of the construction sector. It is imperative that in the future, the research monitor and plot the continued barrier breakdown progress initiated by government legislation to encourage further and other initiatives.

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Click the title or DOI above to access the online abstract, which features links to the full text of the article, as well as other information.

Shaun added the following comment about the article:

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