Marcia Braundy, Red Seal Carpenter, C of A, C of Q & PhD

Dr. Marcia Braundy, a multidisciplinary academic feminist, keeps her hand in as a Red Seal construction carpenter, multimedia project manager, educator, author, archivist, independent research scholar & social change activist. She has built Victorian renovations, double coal silos in a camp job with 400 men & 5 women, senior’s housing and shopping malls. She developed/delivered trades exploratory curricula used across Canada: Orientation to Trades & Technology. She was appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee to the President of the Federal Treasury Board on Employment Equity for Women in the Public Service (1986-91), chaired the Equity Committees of the CLFDB National Apprenticeship Committee (1987-1994/96), & the B.C. Provincial Apprenticeship Board (1992-97). She was Founding National Coordinator of Women in Trades & Technology National Network (WITTNN) for seven years (1988-1994/96). Grassroots WITT groups increased from 6 to over 40 across Canada. She published the quarterly Network newsletter & coordinated a unique national Industrial Adjustment Service (IAS) committee of WITT women, employers, unions, educators and government, looking at programs, policies & initiatives to increase the successful integration of women in trades, technical & operational (TTO) work as a Labour Market Adjustment issue for Canada. The National Standards & Program Development Guidelines for WITT type exploratory courses resulted. They are providing an important framework for such courses wherever they might be developed.

Braundy was appointed to the Selkirk College Board (1995-97), and she left to begin PhD studies at UBC. Her Class 1 dissertation: “Men & Women and Tool: Reflections on Male Resistance to Women in Trades & Technology” resulted from a 2-year SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship to write her Dissertation as a play, performed at the Brave New Play Rites Festival, videotaped, edited and taken on the road to union halls and technical schools in B.C., Yukon, and Northwest Territories. She achieved a PhD in Technology Studies from UBC (2005) and works w/men and w/women, often separately, to bring about effective integration for women in trades & technology training and work. Her book, Men & Women and Tools – Bridging the Divide (Fernwood Publishing) is used in Technology Education at UBC. Braundy curates and manages www.KootenayFeminism.com Some publications at: http://www.men-women-tools.ca/Publications.htm, others on ResearchGate. In 2020, Braundy revised her national study for the Federal Department of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Canada on “Lessons Learned and Best Practices for Increasing the Successful Participation of Women in Apprenticeship and the Skilled Trades,” and the government gave her limited permission to distribute it.

Braundy received significant seed-funding in 2021 from the Industry Training Authority of British Columbia (now Skilled Trades BC) and the Columbia Basin Trust to prepare her extensive holdings for a Freely Available, Publicly Accessible, Easily Searchable, Full Text-downloadable Digital Archive of Equity in Apprenticeship & Technical Fields. It will be an invaluable asset to employers, unions, educators, governments and social justice activists who are interested in lessons and initiatives of the past, present and potential for the future.

Hard at work on that, in June 2023, she attended the Supporting Women in Trades Conference in Winnipeg where she was extremely surprised and totally thankful to receive the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum. She has recently joined We Build A Dream as a Consultant & Team Coach.