Hi, today I have Christina Dal Dosso and we are
going to be talking about women in trades. I'm
so glad you got in touch with me because this
is something that I really feel is important.
Now, You are in the trades? Yes, I studied to
be in the skilled trades, but currently I'm doing
marketing for the skilled trades. For the HVACs?
For HVAC, yes, correct. So she does go on ladders
and she knows what she's talking about. But I
mean, even we're talking, even skilled trades
can be like aesthetics and hair. And I mean,
get out there and use your hands, use your minds,
use your... energy and build something creative.
Absolutely. There's lots of jobs that people
don't realize are skilled trades. I had no idea
either until I attended the Ontario Skilled Trades
competition and that gave me an eye opening to
just what the possibilities are. Now what is
that? I've never heard of that. So there's two
categories. There's a competition for the high
school students and there's also a competition
for the college. and it's within Canada, so we
have welders, we have florists, we have hairstylists,
and they all compete, and it's just a great way
to get yourself out there. These are all trades
that we are seriously lacking in the Windsor
-Essex County area, like bricklaying and even
landscape design and construction. There's not
a lot of women in those areas. I absolutely agree
and we're also at a time where a lot of the population
is retiring from skilled trades so we do need
to fill up that gap with women and with whoever
else is interested. Do you feel that there are
more women that are willing to take these courses
and to take these jobs? I feel like it all starts
with learning what's available, right? So these
skilled trades competition shows and even just
career expo shows that show you what skilled
trades are out there. And that gives high school
students a good opportunity to understand that
there's more than just engineering or becoming
a doctor or a lawyer. And then OEAP. Absolutely.
Some of the schools have that, and that allows
them to try things out. Absolutely. We have an
OEAP student at my work currently who's doing
plumbing. And then some of my skilled trades
workers, like my nail technician and my hair
artist, they also did OYAP, which allowed them
to understand what career possibilities are after.
Now, doing an OYAP program through high school,
does that cut down on any of your time in college
or university? So it actually allows you to get
your level one while you're still in high school.
So it's almost like you graduate high school,
but then you fast track your first year of your
apprenticeship. Oh, that's great. Absolutely.
Everybody likes that because then you end up
saving some money, too. And time, right? Yeah.
For sure. I had somebody on here a year ago and
urban artistry and she does carpentry and woodworking
and beautiful work and even she had said that
we definitely need more people and my son he's
a carpenter and I don't hear him talking too
much about having women in that area which is
sad. Yeah I fully agree and I feel like once
again it comes down to just not knowing what
opportunities are out there. have like carpentry
classes or auto shop and I know from my personal
experience that I was removed from my auto program.
My counselors warned me when I tried taking carpentry
and they told me that I would be one of the only
girls in my class. So I feel like we're now moving
out of a fear -based inquiry and now we're trying
to showcase women that it's not scary and you
don't need to be super strong or physically fit.
You can use your intelligence as well as your
technical skills in any trade. I'm glad that
they've changed because I'm going to be 55 and...
The school I was at is no longer around, and
it was a technical school, and you had your home
act, or you had automotive or carpentry, and
the mechanical side, the girls did not go. The
guys were allowed to do home act. but we weren't
allowed to do their stuff and it was never fair
because I personally probably would have preferred
to work in the auto shop. Yeah it's fun right
like it you're working with your hands and I
know a lot of people that are auto mechanics
they've always had an inkling to just tear stuff
apart put them back together so I feel like I
like how we're not looking at gender anymore
when it comes down to joining the trades and
we're we're working together with different perspectives.
And I feel like one thing that all of us women
can relate to is clothing. And I feel like we
all have a pair of pants that have no pockets,
right? Which... We need pockets. And one thing
that's important for women joining the skilled
trades is proper PPE gear. So there's a couple
of Canadian content creators that are also in
construction, and that's what they dedicate their
page towards, showing the difference between
men's clothing in the construction field and
women's. I've always loved a good cargo pant.
Right? All the pockets? Yeah, the phone goes
in there, but... and then you would have the
tool belt. Now, how are the men accepting of
the women coming into these fields? They've had
time to adjust and adapt, I would say. My dad
is a tool -and -die maker, and I remember when
I was younger, he would tell me about all the
changes that would happen back then and till
now. A huge change was no pinup model posters
and calendars. So they've had a lot of that time
to adjust certain things like that. And now when
I went to trade school, I remember we have our
own designated bathrooms where we have like tampons
and pads and stuff, which is really inclusive.
So we have our own designated spaces. and there's
men that are looking to be like a mentor to anybody.
It's nice to hear that men are accepting and
mentoring the women and that times are changing.
Now you are also part of... the Women in Skilled
Trades site? We're called Women on Sites. Okay.
Yes. So we have a bunch of chapters all over
Canada and we've recently started expanding to
the States, which is really exciting. It's a
drop -in program that happens once a month. So
we just started our Windsor chapter, I believe,
back in November or December. And it's open to
anyone in STEAM. So that's science, technology,
engineering, arts, and math. I hope I said that
all correctly. And it's available to apprentices
or... full -scale skilled trades workers like
it doesn't matter where you are in your journey
and it's a community of other women that are
just there for mentorship and communication and
community. So that's a huge site and I was peeking
around on it and they also have an area for jobs
as well. Yes, there's a job search network. They
try to post any jobs where anyone can apply to,
which is great. We just did the pictures for
the high school robotics competition, and there
were quite a few girls on the various teams,
but there was two teams that were specifically
all women. That's awesome. I love the robot flipping
videos. They're so entertaining. Very impressive
what these high school kids were doing and then
I think it was probably about 90 % of the photographers
which were kids from the high schools were the
girls. That's awesome. That were taking the pictures
for their classes for the school and that. That's
great to hear because even photography sometimes
it could feel very like male dominated and it
could be hard to like break into the fields as
like a woman that's interested so it's great
to hear that there's more women in just different
industries. I'm just finding it's hard to get
the women and the men to break the stigma. It's
got to be men. You know, well, we're just little
so we can't carry this stuff. Well, we're not
as weak as what you might think. Absolutely.
And it's all about teamwork and it's all about
transferable skills too, right? So let's say
you can't carry something. Maybe you can use
like your networking and your communication skills
to have someone else help you out, right? Now,
you also do the marketing for the HVAC, so you
have to get... up there to take pictures or what
do you do to make you get onto the roofs? I had
a fear of heights before starting this job and
I remember on my first day I would climb a ladder
and I still climb ladders to get on top of roofs
to take photos of our rooftop HVAC units which
is basically like a big air conditioner unit
and it was kind of scary at first but as long
as you have three point contact you know you're
all good. It's scarier coming down, and I always
tell myself if I don't get down, I don't want
to call the fire department to come get me. That'd
be so embarrassing. But it was definitely getting
over my fear of heights. And when it comes down
to new construction condos, I find that sometimes
I'm the only woman on that site. So it comes
down to my communication skills of introducing
myself to the site supervisor, saying, hi, I'm
not health and safety. I'm actually with marketing,
so you don't have to worry about me. And yeah,
I go about. I take my photos. And then I go back
to the office and edit them. And I put them into
our social channels and stuff. So do you work
for one specific company or do you work with
various companies? So I work for one specific
company in Windsor. I also do marketing and photography
with my own business on the side. And what type
of photography do you do? So for my own business,
Chaos by Eris, I like to do creative portraits.
It's just something that I'm drawn to. They're
so much fun. They're so cool. They really are.
Now, how did you come up with that name? Because
that's a really, really interesting name. I have
a lot of people calling me Eris. I wish my name
was Eris. It's so much cooler than Christina.
But I drew from the War of Arts by, I believe
it's Steven Pressfield. And I also drew from
Greek mythology. So Eris is the goddess of destruction
and chaos. And I know it's kind of crazy, but
I find with chaos comes clarity. So I feel like
when it comes down to art, there's so much chaos
that happens, but then there's a beautiful end
product. That's really well said because I was
looking at your site and you do have some wonderful,
wonderful shots. Thank you. That's a lot of hard
work too. Yes, and I find I work against imposter
syndrome all the time so I'm getting over the
fear of not feeling enough or not posting enough,
not being creative enough and I'm just trying
to do my own thing. I really do appreciate you
being here and it's so important to have women
in skilled trades and to realize that we can
do it. The men are there to help us and to support
us and to allow us to become part of the team.
And it's nice to hear that it's finally starting
to sway that way. Well said, yes. And they can
find also more information about it on Women
On Sight. WomenOnSight .ca, yes, correct. And
you can RSVP if you'd like to join our Windsor
chapter meetings that happen monthly. Now are
you involved in that site or are you just part
of the chapter? I'm part of the chapter and it
is sponsored by Build A Dream. So they are the
ones that run our chapter. And if you have a
daughter or a a female relative in there in high
school, tell them to try out the OYAP program
or give it a shot in college. I mean... And it
opens your opportunities, right? We always need
carpenters and electricians and welders, so it's
not like you're going to go out of business.
Absolutely, right? With AI advancing, we're always
going to need people to have hands -on skills.
So thank you so much, Christine. I really do
appreciate you being on here. Thank you, Tracy.
Bringing this awareness to us and I'm going to
make sure to have more women trades people. Trades
women. Trades people, yeah. That's okay. But
my name is Tracy and I want to thank you so much
for joining me for another episode of Waikiji
and Bloom. And you guys all have a great day.