A Work Biography (updated 21 October 2009)

Marcia Braundy is a university-educated journey-level carpenter. After developing four alternative schools (Antioch University West & The Whole School in Winlaw, B.C. are still in operation), she started in construction in 1974, working on the Vallican Whole Community Centre. Braundy completed pre-apprenticeship in 1977, her Red Seal qualification in 1981, and continues in the trade to the present. She was the first woman in the construction sector of the B.C. Carpenter's Union (1980), building Victorian renovations, hospitals, seniors housing, a shopping mall and a coal silo 278' tall, in a camp with 400 men and 5 women. She received her BA in Environmental Education from Antioch West (1972), and her PhD in Technology Studies in Education from the University of British Columbia (2005). Dr. Braundy traveled with the DVD of her play, Men & Women and Tools , to union halls and technical schools in BC, Yukon and Northwest Territories (2005-2006) exploring the challenges of integrating women successfully into trades and technical work in Canada . The book, based on her PhD dissertation, Men & Women and Tools: Reflections on Male Resistance to Women in Trades and Technology is forthcoming in 2010 from Fernwood Publishing.

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Marcia Braundy founded the newsletter of the Nelson Women's Centre, which became IMAGES – Kootenay Women's Newspaper (1973-1991). She was the original editor, and later became part of the Collective formed to produce the paper for many years. It documented the women's movement in Canada as it was practiced in the lives of rural women in the West Kootenays, telling both personal and political stories and was sold in bookstores across Canada. In 2009, Braundy headed the project to create a digitized, searchable CD of 85 issues of IMAGES, now available from the West Kootenay Women's Association. The second phase of the project, an annotated, illustrated, hot-linked digital Timeline of the development of 2nd Wave Feminism in the West Kootenay is underway.

In the early 1980's, she worked for several years with a group of 13 women to develop EMMA's Jambrosia as a business to support chronically unemployed women in the West Kootenays, under the auspices of first LEAP and then LEAD programs of the federal government. The product was distributed throughout Canada and the US. Working with a small crew including the owner of the property, she built the factory in Crescent Valley where they produced a wonderful fruit product that couldn't be called jam because it wasn't 70% sugar, it was 70% fruit! The building now houses Mountain Sky soaps.

Braundy developed and instructed Women In Trades and Technology (WITT) exploratory courses at Selkirk College (1983), the College of New Caledonia (1986), and Yukon College (2006). She authored Orientation To Trades and Technology - A Curriculum Guide and Resource Guide With A Special Emphasis On The Needs Of Women in 1987 for the Province of BC, and completely revised it in 1997, sponsored by the Government of British Columbia, WITT National Network and Human Resources Development Canada. The Canadian Vocational Association published "Out of the Stream and Into the River" (1992), highlighting Canadian issues for these exploratory courses.

Working with Sally Mackenzie and Valerie Ward, she developed and delivered over 40 sessions of The Workplace In Transition: Integrating Women Effectively , a seminar for trades instructors, job stewards, counsellors & supervisors, to assist them to deal more successfully with women training and working in the technical workforce ( She delivered it at BC & Ontario colleges, the union for the Department of National Defense, Ontario Hydro Staff Trainers, BC & Yukon Joint Board Coordinators etc). She produced the A/V " What Happens to Women In Tradesland," available in DVD, as a tool for the seminar.

Braundy worked with equity group integration efforts on major construction projects. A founding member of the Equity Integration Committee of the $1.3 billion Island Highway project on Vancouver Island , and the Women's Ad Hoc 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, partly as a result of her discussion paper: Employment Equity, Women's Needs and the implications for the Columbia Basin Trust .

Braundy organized "Surviving and Thriving - Women In Trades and Technology and Employment Equity" (1988, 240 participants), and managed, with others, "Surviving & Thriving II - The Sequel" (1992, 300 participants), and, with Trish Robertson, "Building Bridges – Building Partnerships" (1994, 374 participants), national conferences with 60-80 workshops over 4 days. She was managing editor of Surviving & Thriving – Women In Trades and Technology & 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 construction and consulting company, Journeywomen Ventures Ltd., started in 1983, trained and qualified two women apprentices to journey-level. In 1986, Braundy travelled to Grenada, at the request of the Division of Women's Affairs, for an ACCC-funded project to develop and instruct a technical introduction to a two-year training program for women in electrical, plumbing and refrigeration. She organized the implementation of the longer program while there.

From 1989-94, Braundy was elected National Coordinator of the WITT National Network, advocates for women in trades, technology, operations and blue collar work, and grassroots WITT groups across the country increased from 6 to over 40. She published the 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." She retired from the organization after the limited two terms, leaving WITTNN with $1.75 million dollars, over three years, to work as a cross-sectoral council with the wide range of industry Sector Councils to integrate women more effectively in technical fields.

Appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada on Employment Equity for Women in the Public Service (1986-91) Braundy chaired their Sub-Committee on Training, recommending the government, as employer, develop a service-wide apprenticeship program with an emphasis on designated groups, and bridging programs to move women into technical occupations. The President then disbanded the Committee, and that recommendation never received a response.

Nominated by the Canadian Congress on Learning Opportunities for Women , Braundy sat on the CLMPC National Task Force on Apprenticeship (1989/90), the Canadian Labour Force Development Board Sub-Committee on Apprenticeship (1991-94) chairing their Equity Committee, and the CLFDB's Employment Equity Working Group (1993-94). She was appointed by government to the BC Provincial Apprenticeship Board (1992-97), and chaired their Equity Committee.

As a member of the National Women's Reference Group on Labour Market Issues (1989-94), the BC Women's Employment and Training Coalition (1985-1999), Kootenay WITT (1983-2002), and the West Kootenay Women's Association (1972-present), she has a long history of involvement with organizations working for social and economic equality for women.

An educator and Employment Equity consultant, Dr. Braundy's subject areas include Women's, Men's and Gender Studies, with a focus on Training and Work, Communications and Principles of Teaching for Teacher Education, Technology Studies in Education, Orientation to Trades & Technology, Employment Equity and Human Rights, “Free Schools” and Alternative Education, Apprenticeship, Qualitative Research Methods and Alternatives in Research Representation.

Awards and Additional Publications:
Braundy received The Governor General's Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation, 1993, for service to the community. "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 , was co-authored with Deanna Rexe (BC Ministry of Skills, Training and Labour, 1996). At UBC, she collaborated with Drs. M. Bryson, S. Petrina and S. de Castell, investigating the participation and performance of males and females in technology-intensive classes in B.C.'s Secondary Schools: "Conditions for Success"? (2003) Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. Another 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" 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 (SSHRC) to complete her dissertation using theatre as a pedagogical tool. "Dewey's Technological Literacy: Past, Present, Future" won JITE's Outstanding Conceptual Article (2003-2004). “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' (NAITTE) Graduate Student Research competition (2004). Her play, Men & Women and Tools was performed in the Brave New Play Rites Festival (2002).

The issues that arise at the site of men and women and tools continue to hold a fascination for her. She recently 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.

Degrees, Qualifications and Professional Development:
Baccalaureate Degree: Antioch College West/Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, San Francisco, California, 1972
British Columbia Certificate of Apprenticeship and Red Seal Qualification in Carpentry 1981
Master's level course work: University of British Columbia, 1998
PhD, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2005
1998, 2002: TAGS Instructional Skills Workshop - UBC
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004: TAGS – UBC May Institutes & Workshops on Web Page Design, Power Point, Adding Images and Graphics to your Word and PowerPoint Documents, Introduction to Animated GIF, Excell, FrontPage, WebCT.
2001: Visiting Scholar Don Krug's Flash and Dreamweaver course for teachers; ECS computer skills workshops.
2002 TAGS Presentation Skills Workshop - UBC
2003, 2004 Project Management Professional Development, UBC FOGs

2003 ConflictResolution Professional Development, UBC Faculty of Graduate Studies

Winlaw, British Columbia, Canada V0G 2J0

Email: Dr. Marcia Braundy