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Female Contractors: Women Skilled With Trades

Jill Rydall became a contractor because she hated doing dishes. Now she is an advocate for women in skilled trades.

Growing up in Sault St. Marie with four sisters and one brother, when Dad needed help in the shop after supper, Rydall volunteered. “My sisters would end up doing the dishes and my job was to go down to the shop and help my Dad,” she says. “I had tools in my hands pretty early on.”

After high school, Rydall’s parents told her she had to go to school or work. After a very short stint as a waitress, an opportunity came up with a cabinetmaker who was installing hardwood floors at her aunt’s house and looking to hire someone.

“My aunt bragged about her niece that builds stuff and that was my start in the construction business.”

For a year-and-a-half, Rydall installed and finished hardwood floors and manufactured butcher block tops, baseboard, casing and trim hardwood.

“I had a great experience there. I learned to use and maintain all kinds of machinery. As boring and repetitive as the job was, learning about all that equipment really paid off.”

BUILDING SKILL
“That is exactly what building skill is – repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. It gets boring, but you have to do the repetitive stuff to master it.”

After her experience with the cabinetmaker, Rydall decided she wanted to get into the home building side. She began working for her father, a contractor that did a lot of renovations as well as raising and moving houses, putting in basements and concrete work.

“People would freak out seeing a woman get out of a truck and unloading materials,” says Rydall. “But, they would think it was great. I really had some positive feedback and I liked that. I would get all the attention and no one would pay attention to the guys.”

Eventually, however, Rydall started to become a bit self-conscious about working for her father. She felt she was one of the only – if not the only – female contractors in Sault St. Marie at the time, and she did not want people to think that she was only in the business because her father had hired her.

Rydall realized how important the support and encouragement she received from her family was, but it was time for a change.

At that time, a teaching opportunity came up. An agency with federal funding dollars hired Rydall as one of two instructors to teach two six-month programs for women in construction.

“That was my start in teaching and I really enjoyed it.”

FIRST WOMAN IN UNION
Rydall’s fellow instructor encouraged her to join the carpenters’ union and so Rydall became the first woman in the Sault St. Marie carpenters’ union.

She worked on several jobs through the union, including commercial work.

“The concept is the same but the type of construction was totally different. It was a great experience.”

After Rydall completed a job, she would be laid off for a time. It was during these ‘down’ times that she started working for herself.

“I was never without work. I was laid off lots of times. As soon as I was laid off I would do personal jobs such as decks.”

Meanwhile, Rydall was accumulating hours as an apprentice with the union so she could write her licensing papers. She would need 7,200 hours to qualify. She had about 9,000 hours behind her, but they were not applicable because only the hours acquired as a member of the union were considered. Eventually, she left the union and transferred her apprenticeship over to her father.

“He granted me all my hours and I wrote my papers and became a licensed carpenter within the province of Ontario.”

TEACHING OPPORTUNITY
Another teaching opportunity came up, this time at Canadore College, but it meant moving from her small town of Echo Bay, ON, to big North Bay, ON. The position included teaching carpentry and cabinet-making – both of which Rydall had skills and experience in – and maintaining equipment.

Rydall was excited to be teaching again. “Carpentry is what I love doing, but when I started teaching and I saw the students finally ‘get’ something and be so excited, it dawned on me. I love teaching.”

After Canadore College, Rydall moved to southern Ontario to take the position of co-ordinator of construction programs and instructor for trades training at the Centre for Skills Development and Training. The program partners with industry organizations such as builders and construction companies and is part of the Halton School Board in the Region of Halton.

The Centre offers pre-apprenticeship training along with employability skills training to people receiving unemployment benefits or who want to upgrade their skills.

There are a number of different programs available at the centre, but Rydall is mainly involved with construction programs.

FILLING NEEDS
“Basically, we have an industry that needs people and a group of students that want to get involved in skilled trades. In some cases, students do not really have a clear direction as far as which skill trade to get into, but they want some kind of skill trade in construction.”

The centre’s programs are designed for people with little or no experience. Funding dollars are obtained through fee payer programs and federal and/or provincial funding. However, most funding comes with specific criteria and guidelines.

Currently, Rydall is teaching a program called the Skills Link funded by the federal government. Its goal is to get youth (30 years and younger) involved in skilled trades.

THREE PHASES
All of the skilled trades training programs have three phases.

The firrst phase is held at the centre and students are introduced to safety training and tool identification and usage. During this stage, students are screened and tested and offered a series of training programs to help make them more employable. Programs include CPR training, customer service training and attitude training.

“We get them to a stage that they have enough experience to go on to a real live site. If they do not complete the first phase, which includes showing up every day on time, they do not get to the second phase.”

In the second phase, students go out and work with different sub-trades. This gives students the opportunity to try out more than one trade and decide which direction they want to pursue.

“We help facilitate the match between the sub-contractor and the student. The second phase is for them to clearly define what area they want to get into. It is essential because it locks in the third and final phase of the program which is a paid placement.” Students are monitored throughout each phase.

WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION
Rydall teaches a variety of courses, but she is especially excited about training women in construction. She believes skilled trades offer women terrific opportunities.

“Go for it,” she advises women who are interested. “Be serious about it and be ready to commit to it.”

“Once you have the skills, look out, because you can do what you want. There is no cap on your earning potential. You may not make big dollars in the first few years, but once you have the skills, you can make a lot of money.”

“The payback is enormous and, by far, outweighs the tough work.”

WOMEN ARE STRONG ENOUGH
Rydall is a strong believer that women can build their skills and strength and be as effective, if not more effective, than the average worker.

“The concept that women are not strong enough and that they do not know how to use tools – it is bogus. It is a matter of being physically fit. The skill level of the group of women I have worked with was higher than any average group I have ever worked with.”

She says she would love to have a television show that shows her doing physical tasks like “carrying sheets of plywood and ripping on the table saw.”

“The more women that know these trades are out there, the better. Working in the industry has made me realize that there are so many opportunities for women out there and yet there are so few women.”

“I really support women in trades. They can do it.”

Contractor Advantage, May/June 2004
Castle Building Centres Group Ltd.
Reprinted with permission