Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment in Skilled Trades Project

The Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment in Skilled Trades project (formally sexualized violence in skilled trades project) emerged from the work of YWCA Halifax’s Shift Change project. Shift Change is a systems-level project that works to change the workplace culture norms that act as barriers to entering the skilled trades for women and gender-diverse people. Through meetings with the Women in Skilled Trades Agency Network (WiSTAN), Shift Change heard that the agencies that support women in trades were receiving a lot of disclosures of workplace sexualized violence, yet it seemed no sector wide work was happening to address workplace sexualized violence in the skilled trades. The Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment in Skilled Trades project seeks to fill this gap and start the conversation.  

The Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment in Skilled Trades project has launched and collected information through a survey in June 2023 to learn about the prevalence of workplace sexual and gender-based harassment for women and gender-diverse people working in skilled trades. Survey respondents will have the option to opt-in to join a community of practice to help interpret survey results and co-develop an interview guide with project staff. Survey respondents will also have the option to opt-in for later in-depth interviews.  

Individual in-depth interviews will be used to gain a deeper understanding of women and gender diverse people’s experiences with sexual and gender-based harassment in the workplace, the social context that surrounds sexual and gender-based harassment in the skilled trades, and how the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, etc. impact access to services and support.  

The project will also survey employers in skilled trades and agencies that support women in trades to learn about their sexual and gender-based harassment policies, practices, and experiences supporting victims/survivors of sexual and gender-based harassment in their workplaces. 

Using information and data collected from the surveys and interviews, the project will inform an intersectional action plan, co-developed with research participants, to help skilled trades industries and organizations foster and offer work environments that are safe, supportive, and free from sexual and gender-based harassment.   

The sexualized violence and gender-based violence field has historically used a one-size-fits-all approach to resources and supports for survivors. This approach has centered white, heterosexual, able-bodied, middle class, cis-gender women and has resulted in barriers to support for Black, Indigenous, racialized women and gender diverse people, 2SLGBTQIA+ community members, immigrant women, and women living with disabilities. To counter this and create resources and recommendations that do not leave anyone behind, The Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment in Skilled Trades project is centering the voices of Black, Indigenous, racialized women and gender diverse people, 2SLGBTQIA+ community members, immigrant women, and women living with disabilities who are working in the trades and have experienced workplace sexual and gender-based harassment.  

For more information, please contact Stephanie, project coordinator at: s.gill@ywcahalifax.com