Good afternoon. My name is Jacinthe Guay, and I am from Dimension Travail. We are honoured to be invited to appear before the committee, and we thank you for the opportunity. I am very happy to be here.
Our approach is more hands-on. We work directly with women, supporting them in their job search and providing guidance. We are also responsible for coordinating the Table lavalloise des femmes dans les métiers non traditionnels for women in non-traditional jobs in Laval. The round table brings together a number of key stakeholders in Laval, including the Laval school board, Service Canada, Collège Montmorency, the CCQ and Emploi-Québec.
First of all, I want to tell you about some of our projects, which, I believe, met certain needs and provided us with a lot of information about women.
The first project is Option gagnante, a full-time seven-week project to provide guidance to unemployed women. The projects gives women the opportunity to explore all trades without discrimination.
Through workshops on materials handling, and visits to job sites and training schools, a number of women discovered they had an interest in non-traditional jobs, which they did not expect.
It is important to note that women rarely choose non-traditional jobs as their first career choice. Only women who are intrinsically motivated, who are encouraged by friends and family and who are exposed to a parent model in the job who can provide them with information choose a non-traditional job.
Many of our clients instead choose these jobs as a second career choice. They are often women who have decided to explore their interests and their ability to leave unstable low-paying employment, to follow their dream and to take training that will help them qualify for gainful employment.
We also have a support group for female students in non-traditional jobs, as well as female workers in non-traditional jobs. The group provides a place outside work where they can get together, meet other women—as women are often alone in their teams—and share ideas and strategies for improving their work lives.
We also work to raise public awareness. As Ms. Russell mentioned, everything starts at a young age. Everything we teach children is already separated between boys and girls. Girls are given a model to follow and, unfortunately, we think that it harms them in the long run.
In the course of working with women, we realized that many of them were interested in and had the skills required for a non-traditional job, but that the actual conditions of the job were not in line with their family situation.
Non-traditional jobs work based on the ideal worker model. That ideal worker does not exist. It is someone who is available at all times to work alternating shifts, for example, starting work very early in the morning when day care centres are not yet open or doing overtime hours when necessary. For most women, that is not possible. Despite their manual skills or their interest in a non-traditional job, many women are not able to consider it as an option.
We also noted that, in both training and work settings, women are isolated and may have to deal with discrimination or harassment. Reverse harassment is no more helpful to women. It consists of giving them extra benefits that are not given to other workers. It contributes to isolating female workers even more and further promotes bias.
We believe that, in both the workplace and in training programs, women should have access to the tools, the information and the facilities they need, even if it is just a washroom, the same as every other worker.
Furthermore, our experience with employers has shown us that most of the employers that have tried to integrate women into their work teams saw a noticeable improvement in work quality. Among other things, women pay more attention to health and safety, which reduces the risk of injury. Women encourage team work and often come up with better work strategies, such as ways to reduce the physical strength needed to perform a task.
Employers who refuse to allow women on their work teams use preconceived notions to justify their decision to us. Most of the time, they do not have facts to back up their claims. When a critical mass of women is targeted in a workplace, all preconceptions go out the window, and we see excellent cooperation among men and women that draws on the strengths of each.
In some fields, we have seen a division of tasks based on gender. Take printing or silk screening, for example. A number of employers find that women are more meticulous. They give them silk-screening duties and pay them less, claiming that men, even with the same training, are more established, and they get paid more.
We see the same thing happening elsewhere too. Clients in carpentry-joinery have told us that they experience a similar division of duties, where they are put in the position of doing most of the work, while the man is established and does the work.
Why do we want to increase awareness? We mentioned stereotypes, but we also think that women need role models to identify with. The models they have in their families often have typically feminine roles. They need to see more models out in the community.
That can happen at all levels, such as in a management position. I am sure that seeing women in Parliament inspires a lot of other women.
They need a lot of information in order to make their decisions. They often have their own preconceptions and think that non-traditional jobs are jobs where workers get dirty and frequently injure themselves, when that is not the case. They also need to try out the job and use the tools, as they often lack self-confidence.
Finally, our position at Dimension Travail is that we must continue to work towards changing society's thinking by eliminating preconceived notions, to raise awareness and especially to open more doors to women. They need a chance to try out the job and carve out a place for themselves.
Thank you.