Breaking barriers: Getting more women into skilled trades

* It's well known the construction industry is dominated by men. In fact, only 5% of skilled trade workers in Canada are women. And that's according to Statistics Canada. But our next guest is leading the charge to change that and get more women into the industry and actually succeeding within it.

- This year, she's also recognized as a recipient of the YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction awards. Natasha Ferguson is CEO of EthelFox Construct Group, and she joins me now with more on her journey. It is so nice to have you here.

* Thank you for having me.

* It is my pleasure. Can you just tell me about how this all came to be? How did EthelFox came to be, but how did your interest in trades begin?

* So it started at a very young age. My father is still a tradesman. He used to drag me around with him on his job sites. And I just kind of picked up different things from him during this time. He was a little bit of a slave-driver, so I was wallpapering and drywalling at the age of five, six, seven.

* Wow.

* But I didn't actually start going into that. I went into corporate communications, had a really, really good run there. And in 2013, I decided to switch over to construction.

* Wow. Tell me about EthelFox. So you switched over to construction, but in what way? And then how did that company grow from it?

* So I met my second husband, and he was a roofer and a contractor himself. And I was a serial entrepreneur. So we started this roofing company-- a little small roofing company called SkyLimitless Roofing. And I got up on the roof, and I just started loving it from there on in.

- Started building my skill set. We had some great success with the roofing company. And then a few years later, we would open up in landscaping, architecture company. And then we got into renovations. And yeah, the rest is history. EthelFox Construct Group is named after my mom, my late mother Marian Osbourne, and my daughter, Fox.

* Does Fox come with you on site now?

* She does. She does. She's actually really strong. And yeah, she's a bit of a firecracker. She definitely goes by her name. So yeah.

* That's awesome. So tell me, obviously, the company is run and operated by you, and you've got some other things we're going to be talking about too and some of the work you're doing to help women get into trades-- is it harder, is it easier as a woman to get clients, to run the company? What do you notice?

* So in terms of clients, I've never had an issue with that. We're more on the residential side. We do touch commercial, but we're more on the residential side, because people are interested-- there's so little of us. I believe I'm like the only person, woman, that's running a full service construction company.

- So right off hop, when I engage with them, they're just interested. And they're like, well, we've never worked with a woman contractor. So not an issue there, but when you start talking about the industry, and just getting to a higher plane, and bringing the company to a higher plane, yeah, there's some discrimination there, as it is a male-dominated industry.

- So I find myself sometimes ... hard to get into commercial, hard to get into certain projects, doors open. People kind of thinking, doubting, and saying, can she do this? Or are you the boss?

- I've had so many times where I'm on site and they'll be like, where's your boss? And I'm like, no, no, I'm the boss.

* Yeah. Thanks for that. That's me. Yeah.

* Yeah.

* That's fantastic. And do you see things changing? Are you seeing progress? You are a living example of just the fortitude to make that progress happen. But are you seeing more?

* I am seeing more. I think when I started in the industry, there was-- just to begin with, the reason why I even decided to start my own company is because I was going for these jobs, interviews, and I just wasn't getting them, even though I had the trade skill. I had the project management skills and the business aptitude.

- And I was still having issues with that. So what do I see now? Things are easier for me. But I still have my struggles. So is there change afoot? For sure.

- That number of 5% was actually raised. It used to be 3.9%, I think. So, obviously, there are people out there that are making an impact above and beyond myself. But then there's also the local unions and other companies and organizations that are really wanting to take away that narrative of the gender bias.

* I was going to say one thing, that you talked about making an impact. One of the best impacts you can make is by doing it and showing people to do it.

* Absolutely.

* But you also work and have started a non-profit organization called A Women's Work. What is that?

* So A Women's Work is a nonprofit organization that I founded a few years ago. It was an actual idea of my mother, my late mom. And we support women in the trades through training, and self esteem programs, and career placement.

- I'm super excited about it because we have over 350 women that have enrolled in the program. We are working with the government. We're working with other organizations. And for us, it's just about collaboration and bringing more women into the trade, and just educating women. Because I think the biggest thing and the reason why there aren't a lot of women is, yeah, there's that whole gender bias sort of narrative, but then it's also the lack of education around the skills and what you can achieve in the industry.

- It's just such a robust industry. And there's so many things that you can do in the industry. So yeah, just being able to educate them. And once they're educated, they feel empowered. And they really want to know, Natasha, how did you get here?

- So I think my story and my platform has really helped to bring more women out to ask those questions. Yeah.

* I think you're an incredible inspiration, I'm sure, for your daughter, for everyone. Such a pleasure talking to you.

* It's such a pleasure.

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