With the construction holidays approaching, it is worth taking the time to reflect on the place of women in the construction industry. Is it time to review the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of Quebec ?
Equality in employment means that no one should be denied employment for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability. Thus, when a person truly has the possibility of gaining access to a job that interests him, without any arbitrary obstacle intervening between his competence and the possibility of proving it, a certain equality.
Already in 2013, the Council for the Status of Women demonstrated in its opinion – Diversity on site – Women in the construction trades1 – that many women want and have all the necessary skills to integrate this typically male sector, but many of them are unable to find their place in it. It is not so much the lack of physical strength or the absence of skills that restrict women’s participation in this industry, but rather the prejudices that are entrenched in this male culture. According to the council’s analysis, their main challenges are discrimination in hiring; sexual and gender-based harassment; inadequate occupational health and safety measures and policies; the lack of measures to reconcile work and family.
When they persevere and succeed in entering the construction industry, 62% of female workers leave the sites after five years, compared to only 36% of male workers.
According to testimonies obtained by the Council from women who have left the sector:
“Among them, 50% say they are leaving because they are tired of the discrimination they are victims of. […] Others, after having practiced the difficult gymnastics of work-family balance without success, give up, overcome by the work schedules of the construction sector which require the presence of the workforce from the start. dawn on construction sites. Resourcefulness has its limits when it comes to finding someone to babysit at five in the morning […] These desertions, painful for the workers themselves, because they are unanimous in affirming that they adore their job, also have the effect of reinforcing the opinion of many workers and even of certain employers, namely that women have no place on construction sites…”
Comparison between provinces
A comparison, made using data from the 2016 census, shows Quebec’s lag in terms of the situation of women in the construction industry.2 In fact, although the proportion of women in a trade or occupation related to construction is very low across Canada (3.3%), it is in Quebec that it is lowest with 2.2% women. The higher participation rate of women in this industry in Alberta (5.4%), Saskatchewan (4.6%) and Prince Edward Island (4%), suggests that there is there are indeed barriers to employment in Quebec for women wishing to join this sector of the industry. Can we really talk about employment equity in such circumstances?
The construction industry has certainly evolved over the past ten years, but the presence of Quebec women there remains starving.
It is high time for the Conseil du statut de la femme to reassess the situation and recommend concrete measures so that no woman is refused employment in the construction industry for reasons beyond her competence.
Equal Employment Opportunity Act
Among the measures that could contribute to the achievement of this objective, let us mention the adoption, in 2000 in Quebec, of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act in public bodies to counter discrimination in hiring and employment for women, ethnic minorities, visible minorities, Aboriginal people and people with disabilities. Note that this law only recommends the hiring of a person belonging to one of these groups insofar as he has first demonstrated skills equivalent to those of other candidates for the same job. The problem is that this law, which allows Quebec employers to identify and correct rules and management practices that could have discriminatory effects, particularly on women, does not apply, as its wording indicates , than to public bodies.
Strongly, a revision of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act to extend its scope to the private sector under provincial jurisdiction, including the construction industry, as is the case, for the sectors under its jurisdiction, of the federal Employment Equity Act. Employers in the construction sector would thus be required to adapt their working conditions and their employment systems to allow those who wish to do so, and who have the required skills, to join.