Marcia Braundy
A Work Biography
Marcia Braundy is a university-educated journey-level carpenter. She was the second qualified female carpenter in British Columbia, and the first woman in the construction sector of the B.C. Carpenter's Union, building everything from Victorian renovations, hospitals, housing and shopping malls to coal silos 278' tall. She started in construction in 1974, completed pre-apprenticeship in 1977, her Red Seal qualification in 1981, and continues in the trade to the present. She received her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2005.

Ms. Braundy has developed and instructed Women In Trades and Women In Trades and Technology exploratory courses at Selkirk College and The College of New Caledonia in B.C. She authored Orientation To Trades and Technology, A Curriculum Guide and Resource Guide With A Special Emphasis On The Needs Of Women in 1987, and revised it in 1997, sponsored by WITT National Network, HRDC and the BC government. The Canadian Vocational Association published "Out of the Stream and Into the River" (1992), highlighting Canadian issues for these exploratory courses.

Braundy has delivered over 40 sessions of The Workplace In Transition: Integrating Women Effectively, a seminar for vocational instructors, job stewards, apprenticeship/training counsellors, foremen/supervisors, to assist them to deal more successfully with women training and working in the trades/technology workforce and produced the A/V /"What Happens to Women In Tradesland".

She worked with integration efforts to increase the participation of designated equity groups on several major construction projects. A founding member of the Equity Integration Committee of the $1.3 billion Island Highway project on Vancouver Island, and the Ad Hoc Women's Committee on the Columbia Basin Trust (1994-1998), she worked to ensure a gender impact analysis and jobs for women. The Island Highway achieved a high of 22.9% equity hours worked, with an average equity participation of 16.8%. The Columbia Basin Power Projects are also working towards similar targets under a similar collective agreement.

Braundy organized the 1988 "Surviving and Thriving - Women In Trades and Technology and Employment Equity", and managed "Surviving & Thriving II - The Sequel" in 1992, and "Building Bridges – Building Partnerships" in 1994, all national conferences with 60-80 workshops over 4 days. She was managing editor of Surviving and Thriving - Women In Trades and Technology and Employment Equity, Kootenay WITT 1989, and a writer on Winning With Women in Trades, Technology, Science and Engineering - the Report of the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology presented to the Prime Minister of Canada in 1993.

Her small renovation and finish work company, Journeywomen Ventures Ltd., started in 1983, has trained and qualified two women apprentices to journey-level.

From 1989-94, Braundy was the elected National Coordinator of the WITT National Network, advocates for women in trades, technology, operations and blue collar work. Under her tenure, grassroots WITT groups across the country increased from 6 to over 40. She published their Network newsletter and coordinated a national Industrial Adjustment (IAS) committee of WITT women, employers, unions, educators and government, looking at programs, policies and initiatives to increase the successful integration of women in trades, technical and operational (TTO) work. Their focus on Front Line Education, WITT Exploratory Course National Standards, Role Modelling, and Employment Equity led to a national cross-sectoral Human Resource Council and the publication of "Welcoming Women into Trades, Technology, Operations and Blue Collar Work: A Checklist of Strategies."

As a member of the Federal Advisory Committee to the President of the Treasury Board on Employment Equity for Women in the Public Service (1986-91) she chaired their Sub-Committee on Training and was instrumental in recommending the federal government, as employer, develop a service-wide apprenticeship program with an emphasis on the designated groups and institute bridging programs to move women into technical occupations.

Marcia Braundy sat on the CLMPC National Task Force on Apprenticeship, which led to tenure on the Canadian Labour Force Development Board Sub-Committee on Apprenticeship from 1991-94, and their Employment Equity Working Group, 1993/94. She was a member of the BC Provincial Apprenticeship Board from 1992-97, and chaired their Equity Committee.

She was been a member of the National Women's Reference Group on Labour Market Issues, the BC Women's Employment and Training Coalition, and has a long history of involvement with organizations working for social and economic equality for women.

"What Needs to Change to Get More Women Into Apprenticeship" appears in the book, Strategies That Work: Women In Trades, Technology and Applied Science, Green Dragon Press 1995. The Equity In Apprenticeship Resource Kit, co-authored with Deanna Rexe, was published by the BC Ministry of Skills, Training and Labour in 1996. At UBC, studying for a doctorate, she collaborated with Drs. Mary Bryson, Stephen Petrina and Suzanne de Castell, investigating the participation and performance of males and females in technology-intensive classes in B.C.'s Secondary Schools. That work is published as "Conditions for Success"? in the Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. In the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, she critiqued the 1998 Yearbook of the Council on Technology Teacher Education (CTTE) on Diversity in Technology Education. She also collaborated in a joint article with Dr. S. Petrina, Dr. P. O'Reily, S. Dalley and A. Paxton:” Missing XX Chromosomes or Gender In/Equity in Design and Technology Education: The Case of British Columbia?” which won the 2001 Silvius - Wolansky Outstanding Scholarly Publication in Technology Education. She received a two year Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada to complete her dissertation on these issues using theater as a pedagogical tool. “Dewey’s Technological Literacy: Past, Present, Future” won JITE’s Outstanding Conceptual Article (2003-2004), and “Men & Women and Tools: Investigating Resistances to Equity Initiatives”, an article based on her dissertation, won First Place in the US-based National Association of Industrial and Technical Teacher Educators’ Graduate Student Research competition (2004). Her play, “Men & Women and Tools was performed in the Brave New Play Rites Festival in 2002.She is currently touring union halls and technical schools with the DVD of that show.

Braundy received her PhD in Technology Studies in Education at UBC in 2005 where she taught Communications, Principles of Teaching, and Curriculum and Instruction in an Integrated Technology Studies Teacher Education program. The issues that arise at the site of men and women and tools continue to hold a fascination for her. She has just completed a major renovation project on a log home on the Little Slocan River. The easy and positive attitudes of all the men with whom she worked gave her great heart.

Her home address is R.R. # 1, Winlaw, British Columbia V0G 2J0 Email: mbraundy@interchg.ubc.ca Web: Men & Women and Tools