Earlier this year, the Canadian Association of Women in Construction (CAWIC) announced its plans to "conduct research and develop an action plan to improve women's advancement into leadership roles within the construction industry" with support from a sizable government grant (CAWIC, 21 February 2014). CAWIC is recruiting employers in Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland/Labrador to collaborate with as part of its Women's Advancement Project (CNW, 26 August 2014).
Visit http://www.newswire.ca to read CAWIC's most recent press release and www.cawic.ca to learn more about CAWIC.
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Canada invests more $ to get more women into construction
Over $200K in funding to get women working announced: Hamilton's YWCA receives funding for project to get more women in construction, manufacturing
By Sola DaSilva, CBC News
Posted: Jan 24, 2014 2:30 PM ET
Posted: Jan 24, 2014 2:30 PM ET
Last Updated: Jan 24, 2014 2:37 PM ET
The Hamilton YWCA says women are underrepresented in traditionally male-dominated careers like construction and manufacturing — but now it has a hefty government cheque to try and change that.
On Friday, parliamentary secretary for Status of Women Canada Susan Truppe announced the YWCA will receive just over $240,000 for a three-year project that will advance recruitment and retention of women in those industries.
This type of project is even more significant because of the imminent skill shortages facing Canada, says Truppe.
 |
| Susan Truppe, parliamentary secretary for Status of Women Canada, announces funding support for Hamilton YWCA project to advance the recruitment and retention of women in construction and manufacturing industries. (Sola DaSilva) |
“There is going to be a skill shortage and we think that women have a great opportunity to able to fill those roles and they are certainly talented and skilled enough,” Truppe said. “This is important because of Hamilton being a bit of an industrial city … so Hamilton is an ideal place to do this project. These jobs are out there and are very well-paying and that’s why we want to see more women — so there are better opportunities for women to prosper.”
The funding will go towards outreach, planning and strategies to help women in Hamilton join the trades, says Denise Doyle, the chief executive officer of Hamilton YWCA.
“We already know that we have to look to women, Aboriginals and new immigrants when we think about where our workers are going to come from in the next ten to 15 years. Employers today are investing in strategies in order to be more effective in those recruiting processes,” Doyle said. “We hope that our work over the next three years is going to not only engage with women who want to enter those trades but also engage with the employers and help them bring women into their organizations.”
According to a report released by the Conference Board of Canada in Oct. 2013, many Hamilton employers report skill shortages. A survey of 1,538 Ontario employers (about 4 per cent of which were from Hamilton) showed the highest shortages were in the engineering and infrastructure fields, followed by the energy and utilities industries and the manufacturing and automotive industries.
Recruiting women to these occupations, many of which are high paying, will provide an opportunity for women to leave low paying or minimum wage jobs for unionized employment.
“The one thing that I can assure you of is that this program is going to be run by strong women leaders and the men involved will encourage the young women who are coming up to negotiate more than a living wage and an equal wage,” Doyle said.
The funding will go towards outreach, planning and strategies to help women in Hamilton join the trades, says Denise Doyle, the chief executive officer of Hamilton YWCA.
“We already know that we have to look to women, Aboriginals and new immigrants when we think about where our workers are going to come from in the next ten to 15 years. Employers today are investing in strategies in order to be more effective in those recruiting processes,” Doyle said. “We hope that our work over the next three years is going to not only engage with women who want to enter those trades but also engage with the employers and help them bring women into their organizations.”
According to a report released by the Conference Board of Canada in Oct. 2013, many Hamilton employers report skill shortages. A survey of 1,538 Ontario employers (about 4 per cent of which were from Hamilton) showed the highest shortages were in the engineering and infrastructure fields, followed by the energy and utilities industries and the manufacturing and automotive industries.
Recruiting women to these occupations, many of which are high paying, will provide an opportunity for women to leave low paying or minimum wage jobs for unionized employment.
“The one thing that I can assure you of is that this program is going to be run by strong women leaders and the men involved will encourage the young women who are coming up to negotiate more than a living wage and an equal wage,” Doyle said.
To view the full article, visit http://www.cbc.ca/.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Repost: Registration Is Open for the 3rd Annual Women Building the Nation Conference
The 3rd Annual Women Building the Nation Conference will be held on April 5-7 in Sacramento, CA. The event celebrates women who are leaders in the construction workplace, their communities and in their unions, is sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) and the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC) and will be held at Sacramento’s Sheraton Grand.
The goals of the conference include:
• Recruit more women into building and construction trades
• Promote retention of women in the trades
• Develop tradeswomen’s capacity for leadership and career growth, on the job and in their unions
The three day event, which also represents the 13th year of the Women Building California gathering, will begin with a Friday meet and greet that will connect women who are leaders in their unions. On Saturday, tradeswomen, union leaders, apprenticeship coordinators, contractors, and politicians will facilitate 30 different workshop sessions aimed at helping women have continued success in their careers in the trades. Topics for the workshops will include Pre-Apprentices, Staying in & Staying Strong, Promoting Leadership, and Policy and Politics.
• Promote retention of women in the trades
• Develop tradeswomen’s capacity for leadership and career growth, on the job and in their unions
The three day event, which also represents the 13th year of the Women Building California gathering, will begin with a Friday meet and greet that will connect women who are leaders in their unions. On Saturday, tradeswomen, union leaders, apprenticeship coordinators, contractors, and politicians will facilitate 30 different workshop sessions aimed at helping women have continued success in their careers in the trades. Topics for the workshops will include Pre-Apprentices, Staying in & Staying Strong, Promoting Leadership, and Policy and Politics.
On Sunday, attendees will join for mind-melding caucuses set up by each trade. A National Policy Forum will be held that day as well.
Registration is done based on a tiered system that will cost the attendee $75 before February 22nd, $100 before March 31st, and $125 from April 1st, until the doors open on Friday the 5th. Members of unions affiliated with the BCTD will receive a $15 discount.
More information is available at 916-443-3302, or on the SBCTC website.
Content from Chaz Bolte at wepartypatriots.com.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Repost: Trade unions still fail to lure women leaders, study finds
There is little doubt that Frances O'Grady has made history as the first woman to be elected General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress in September 2012. A recent study from Queen Mary, University of London casts some light on the level of O'Grady's achievement in the wider union landscape.
This cross-national study found that in both the UK and the US, women still have fewer top positions in trade unions despite growth in overall female membership.
The paper, Lift as You Rise: Union Women's Leadership Talk, discusses the lack of women at union leadership level, and the management styles adopted by those women who do climb to the top.
Unlike corporate organisations, unions are generally democratic, but their leadership structures in both America and Britain are historically dominated by white men. While more women have joined unions in the last decades, the proportion of female leaders in either country remains low.
Some 130 women, including the most senior union officials from the UK and North Eastern USA, were interviewed for the study, which was carried out by Professor Geraldine Healy and Professor Gill Kirton of the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary.
Among the UK's 10 larger unions, there are now four women general secretaries; however only two unions have achieved proportionality on the National Executive.
In the US, women's representation has increased dramatically since the 1970s, but men continue to take the top and most powerful positions. In nine major US unions with significant female membership, women comprise 24 per cent of top leaders, but in none of these unions does the female proportion of leaders reflect membership rates.
Women who were interviewed often had greater expectations of their female leaders than their male leaders; typically they expected other women leaders to be less hierarchical and more supportive and encouraging of other women. Those who failed to exhibit these feminist leadership practices were often condemned by other women.
Professor Kirton explains: "Prejudice against female leaders stems from the widely held beliefs about how women ought to behave. Popular media representations of women leaders are often as either mother figures or bitches.
"When a woman shows that she is prepared to be ruthless or dictatorial or when she has an aggressive personal style, this can meet the severe disapproval of other women and was heavily criticised for failing other women."
The researchers found that in many cases American and British women union leaders did express a strong sense of accountability, not just to members generally, but specifically to other union women – they want to lift other women as they climbed.
However, certain cases were documented where women asserted their readiness to adopt the more masculine 'traditional' models of leadership because they found them "efficient and effective".
"Inequalities may have become more subtle, but in some cases, they have become more difficult to challenge," says Professor Kirton. "Women can and do lead in ways that marginalise and exclude other women, resulting in women feeling more let down that when it is men doing the excluding.
"Masculine leadership, whether exercised by men or women, is failing women, so it is the type of leadership that matters, not simply the leaders' gender."
More information: Lift as You Rise: Union Women's Leadership Talk, hum.sagepub.com/content/65/8/979.full.pdf+html
The paper, Lift as You Rise: Union Women's Leadership Talk, discusses the lack of women at union leadership level, and the management styles adopted by those women who do climb to the top.
Unlike corporate organisations, unions are generally democratic, but their leadership structures in both America and Britain are historically dominated by white men. While more women have joined unions in the last decades, the proportion of female leaders in either country remains low.
Some 130 women, including the most senior union officials from the UK and North Eastern USA, were interviewed for the study, which was carried out by Professor Geraldine Healy and Professor Gill Kirton of the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary.
Among the UK's 10 larger unions, there are now four women general secretaries; however only two unions have achieved proportionality on the National Executive.
In the US, women's representation has increased dramatically since the 1970s, but men continue to take the top and most powerful positions. In nine major US unions with significant female membership, women comprise 24 per cent of top leaders, but in none of these unions does the female proportion of leaders reflect membership rates.
Women who were interviewed often had greater expectations of their female leaders than their male leaders; typically they expected other women leaders to be less hierarchical and more supportive and encouraging of other women. Those who failed to exhibit these feminist leadership practices were often condemned by other women.
Professor Kirton explains: "Prejudice against female leaders stems from the widely held beliefs about how women ought to behave. Popular media representations of women leaders are often as either mother figures or bitches.
"When a woman shows that she is prepared to be ruthless or dictatorial or when she has an aggressive personal style, this can meet the severe disapproval of other women and was heavily criticised for failing other women."
The researchers found that in many cases American and British women union leaders did express a strong sense of accountability, not just to members generally, but specifically to other union women – they want to lift other women as they climbed.
However, certain cases were documented where women asserted their readiness to adopt the more masculine 'traditional' models of leadership because they found them "efficient and effective".
"Inequalities may have become more subtle, but in some cases, they have become more difficult to challenge," says Professor Kirton. "Women can and do lead in ways that marginalise and exclude other women, resulting in women feeling more let down that when it is men doing the excluding.
"Masculine leadership, whether exercised by men or women, is failing women, so it is the type of leadership that matters, not simply the leaders' gender."
More information: Lift as You Rise: Union Women's Leadership Talk, hum.sagepub.com/content/65/8/979.full.pdf+html
Provided by Queen Mary, University of London
Read the original article, published on September 14, 2012, at phys.org.
Read the original article, published on September 14, 2012, at phys.org.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
$10,000 Edna Award to outstanding young woman leader deadline July 31st
For the second year in a row, the Berger-Marks Foundation is offering its $10,000 Edna Award to an outstanding young woman leader in the social justice movement.
The Edna Award will spotlight the contributions to social justice made by women age 35 and younger. It will honor one woman who has made an extraordinary contribution early in her career – and whose ongoing work will likely improve the lives of working women and men. The top Edna Award will be presented to the winner in a fall ceremony, which also will recognize several runners-up.
Edna Award nominees are not permitted to nominate themselves. So it’s up to you or a colleague step up and nominate a young woman who's made a real difference
-- and whose good work has impressed you.
Nominations will be accepted online only through July 31, and will be judged by a panel of well-known leaders who are also women. Find out more on our website at www. bergermarks.org. Also on our website, you can read about the young woman who won last year’s first-ever $10,000 Edna Award and the three Nominees of Note who were each awarded $1,000.
To inspire you to nominate a dynamic young woman, I leave you with a quote from one of this year’s judges, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler:
"Major change in our country has always been led by young people. Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. At 25, Cesar Chavez was registering Mexican-Americans to vote. Walter Reuther headed strikes demanding GM recognize its workers’ rights starting when he was 30."
We look forward to being introduced to today’s promising young women leaders. Thanks for what you can do to help.
In solidarity,
Linda Foley
President, Berger-Marks Foundation
The Edna Award will spotlight the contributions to social justice made by women age 35 and younger. It will honor one woman who has made an extraordinary contribution early in her career – and whose ongoing work will likely improve the lives of working women and men. The top Edna Award will be presented to the winner in a fall ceremony, which also will recognize several runners-up.Edna Award nominees are not permitted to nominate themselves. So it’s up to you or a colleague step up and nominate a young woman who's made a real difference
-- and whose good work has impressed you.
Nominations will be accepted online only through July 31, and will be judged by a panel of well-known leaders who are also women. Find out more on our website at www. bergermarks.org. Also on our website, you can read about the young woman who won last year’s first-ever $10,000 Edna Award and the three Nominees of Note who were each awarded $1,000.
To inspire you to nominate a dynamic young woman, I leave you with a quote from one of this year’s judges, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler:
"Major change in our country has always been led by young people. Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. At 25, Cesar Chavez was registering Mexican-Americans to vote. Walter Reuther headed strikes demanding GM recognize its workers’ rights starting when he was 30."
We look forward to being introduced to today’s promising young women leaders. Thanks for what you can do to help.
In solidarity,
Linda Foley
President, Berger-Marks Foundation
Sunday, July 1, 2012
2012 TRADESWOMEN LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Sept 28 - 29 2012)
Friday, September 28 & Saturday, September 29, 2012
NECA/IBEW Electrical Training Center
16021 NE Airport Way Portland, OR 97230
At the 7th Annual Tradeswomen Leadership Institute, participants will learn how to be more effective leaders in their workplaces, unions, companies and communities while building relationships with and gaining vital support from a community of women who share similar experiences working in the trades.Visit this website for event details and registration!
Examples of past workshops include:
Retrieved from: http://www.tradeswomen.net/tradeswomen-leadership-institute/
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
(Funding opportunity) Women in Clean Energy Program for United States
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a three-part plan to help implement the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment initiative or “C3E” – a Ministerial program aimed at attracting more women to clean energy careers and supporting their advancement into leadership positions.
This new program, pursued in partnership with the MIT Energy Initiative, is designed to translate the goals of C3E into concrete, meaningful action in the United States.
This new program, pursued in partnership with the MIT Energy Initiative, is designed to translate the goals of C3E into concrete, meaningful action in the United States.
“The Department of Energy is committed to advancing American leadership in the global clean energy economy and capturing the new markets and jobs of the 21st century. We will be more successful in these endeavors if we harness the talents of all of our citizens,” saysEnergy Secretary Steven Chu. “Through the U.S. C3E initiative announced today, we are excited to join with MIT to ensure we are leveraging the skills and experiences of women nationwide to help solve important national and international energy challenges.”
MIT President Susan Hockfield, highlighting the importance of this partnership says “Inventing a sustainable energy future represents the defining challenge of our time. To make progress against a problem of such scale, complexity and global scope demands the fullest range and depth of talent, ideas and commitment; by definition, then, women must play essential roles in the drive toward transformative energy innovations. MIT is pleased to join with DOE to help develop and implement the C3E Initiative, and to sponsor both the Women in Clean Energy Symposium and the awards program this fall.”
The new components of the U.S. C3E action plan were announced this week at the Clean Energy Ministerial, a global forum of the energy ministers and leaders of 23 governments, joining together to promote policies and programs to advance clean energy technology, share best practices and lessons learned, and encourage the transition to a global clean energy economy. Sweden’s Minister of Information Technology & Energy, Anna‐Karin Hatt, and South Africa’s Director General of Energy, Nelisiwe Magubane, delivered keynote addresses at the C3E event, followed by a moderated panel discussion on the policies and programs that have been effective in increasing women’s participation in the clean energy workforce.
These new activities help deliver on the U.S. commitment to C3E, launched by nine governments at the first Clean Energy Ministerial in July 2010. Australia, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States each committed to undertake meaningful activities to advance women in clean energy and close the gender gap in their own national contexts and link their efforts wherever possible. Each country is developing its own implementation plan, tailored to its unique workforce and industry needs and talents.
Retrieved from: http://www.buildings.com/News/IndustryNews/tabid/3290/ArticleID/13970/Default.aspx
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