Empowerment
Image credit: Daniell Koepke. From her poetry collection, Daring To Take Up Space. Click here to learn more.
This word means so many different things to many different people. Power, strength, confidence.
My personal definition of empowerment is to take up space. In a trades world, where men make up more than 96% of the workforce, your space is your everything. Let me explain.
As an office worker in the construction industry (my career choice prior to becoming a trades apprentice) I would often be the only female at a table of men (with the exception of administration) and would be interrupted, talked over, ignored, and sometimes shut down completely before having the opportunity to complete a full sentence. I was still required to perform the same tasks as the men, but not provided the same respect when it came to my thoughts or opinions regarding project matters.
I didn’t have the “balls'' to claim my territory at the time. I have, however, learned how to dangle them now, loud enough that the men can hear the inner thigh “slap” that is my “space.”
Men and women are inherently different, and our difference is what makes having both men and women as members of a “team” so beneficial. When you, as a woman, are such a small percentage, it sometimes takes being louder and more persistent (taking up more space) to break through the barrier that most often is an unconscious bias.
The first time I made the decision to “take up space” on site, it was incredible how quickly the brothers around me listened. For a few weeks I just sat back and observed, listened, processed things. At one point, however, something told me that my thoughts were integral regarding a particular event, and I pushed my way into the “discussion circle” with my “man voice.” Not only was I heard, but my thoughts were validated.
When you pick and choose your battles, and decide when it’s ok to just listen vs being loud, it is the most empowering thing on site.
We are in what is still very much a man’s world when going to work, and it takes practice and many many failed attempts, but finding that perfect balance between Venus and Mars is rewarding. The balance between being YOU, an amazing woman working your ass off to be an even more amazing tradeswoman, and being a strong worker using your man-voice to make sure you are heard and your opinions are validated, is EVERYTHING.
A fellow sister and a woman I wish I had met well before I started in the trades recently shared on a podcast that the best way to take up space is to do it in a way that’s not “controversial.” My mentor has said the same to me using different words. Although it can be hard to not call out everything (and there is a lot) that just shouldn’t be accepted on a work site, instead take a step back and ask yourself, “Is this worth taking up space for?”
There are some things that just aren’t worth the energy because there are larger issues at hand. Change is slow and can only happen in increments. Let things be like water off a duck’s back when they fall into the “not worth it” category, and save the energy for when the time calls for your voice to be heard. Those reasons are different for us all.
Take up space when it’s imperative you do; when you would lose sleep if you didn’t. You have a voice. Don’t lose your voice to the useless. Save it for the performance at the Sydney Opera House when it matters, when you know that if you don’t, you’ll regret it. You can’t change everything at once but little by little, change will happen without you even realizing it.
Empowerment = taking up space
Being Non Controversial = taking up space when it matters most
About the Author: Jill Stagg is a Canadian-based, second-year steamfitting / welding apprentice. Read more of her: “Nope” and “Pipe Dreams I Didn’t Even Know I Had.”