Women in Trades: Breaking the Bias

*Note: This session has passed. Please view the recording (and resources) below.

This event is being hosted by BCcampus to help support women in trades, with an emphasis on “breaking the bias.” Our panel guests are Hilary Peach, Lauren Bowles, and Miranda-Lee Kurucz. We’ll have a 30-minute panel discussion followed by a 30-minute Q&A session.

Facilitators

Hilary Peach (she/her) is a welding inspector and a boiler safety officer. As a travel-card pressure welder in the Boilermakers Union, she traversed the continent for two decades, from BC shipyards and pulp mills, through the Alberta tar sands and the Ontario steel belt, to the colossal power generating stations of the eastern seaboard of the United States. She is an advocate for diversity and equity in the trades, a bicyclist, a writer, and an event producer. Hilary has created three audio recordings, Poems Only Dogs Can Hear, Suitcase Local, and Dictionary of Snakes, and in 2018 released a collection of poetry, BOLT (Anvil Press). Her upcoming memoir, THICK SKIN: Field Notes From A Sister In The Brotherhood, will be out on Anvil Press in August of 2022.

Lauren Bowles (she/her) is a journeyperson construction electrician living and working in Burnaby, B.C. She has five years of experience in marine and industrial environments. Currently, she is the co-chair of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 213 Women’s Committee, a member-at-large for the Vancouver and District Labour Council, and member of the BC Center for Women in the Trades Governance Committee. Outside of labour and trades activism, she enjoys cooking, lake swimming, drawing, and spending time with her nephew. Her favourite part of being in her trade is having a better understanding about how the world works around her. No day is the same, she says, and the amount of niche skills you can learn is limitless.

Miranda-Lee Kurucz (she/her or they/them) is a fourth-class power engineer and fourth-year steamfitter with UA170. Miranda-Lee has spent 14 years in the construction and maintenance industry and is a director with Build TogetHer: Women of the BC Building Trades. When she’s not working, she spends her free time with her husband and stepson on their small hobby farm — with 55 pets! — in Northern B.C. She loves that her occupation allows her to live her small-time farmer dreams by not only giving her invaluable skills for building and fixing the family homestead but also the financial independence and ability to make hours that work for her to have quality time with family at home. Without the trades, she wouldn’t have been able to afford post-secondary education, so she’s always incredibly thankful she stumbled so luckily into such a wonderful path.

While this session focuses on the experiences of women, people of all genders are welcome to attend and listen.

This event is free. To ensure we have an inclusive and welcoming environment for all, we’ve added registration to all our sessions.

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