Did you bring protection? (From a lawsuit?)

Advertisement for Harley Davidson safety gear at TRU

Women are poorly represented in most construction trades. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters etc. tend to be male. In the early days of these professions, physical strength was one of the key requirements to do the job.

These days brains are just as, if not more, important for tradespeople. Trade schools and industry associations all say that they doing everything they can to encourage more women to enter the trades. And I actually do see a few women in safety boots around the Trades and Technology (T&T) building at Thompson Rivers University.

But then I see this advertisement in the men's room in the T&T building and I think that maybe it is all just window dressing. Perhaps women's role in the trades is merely to be whistled at by the guy on the scaffolding at the construction site.

I am amazed that the university permits this advertisement on campus, and that campus women's groups have not protested and had it removed. But I guess that women taking classes in the T&T building don't spend a lot of time in the men's room.