Commentary
How can we build a women's town without tradeswomen? One of the workshops that most challenged me was entitled “Women Construction Workers of the World Unite” it was a workshop for women in blue collar non-traditional occupations. There were women representing a variety of different trades. For many it was the first time we came to understand that our struggle to become builders, to gain the skills and respect as competent workers that we are, was a global struggle.

This workshop showed me too the unnecessary divisions between women. I noticed the remnant class and professional boundaries between those who work building their own houses and neighborhoods for no pay, those who worked as unskilled laborers for little pay and can't claim the title trades woman, trades women proper, and then those who enter construction through tertiary education such as engineers and architects, who so often do not earn a living in the profession. We all have the desire to build. I kept thinking that it might be more constructive to work to build community among women who work in construction, regardless of the level of remuneration or training, we all face the insecurity of doing work that tradition says we don’t. What would womenstown look like when no one remarked that the laborer, builder, electrician or engineer was a woman?