Bonita Carroll
LET'S CONVERSE ABOUT CULTURE...
ABOUT ME
My first real experience of significant gender imbalance within a workplace occurred approximately eight years ago, when I began working as a ceiling fixer. I had applied to be cast on a home renovation reality television show - but had no skills in the field whatsoever. At the time, my parents were having some maintenance work done on their house, so I asked the tradesman who was fixing the ceiling if he needed any help. I began as his trade assistant the very next day. Over the course of a year I learnt how to sheet ceilings, build walls, plaster and paint. And, despite not being cast on the renovation show - I absolutely loved the work! Which is why, what surprised me most, was that not once within that year, did I work with any other females. And, more often than not, assumptions were made that I was the client rather than the trade worker. Why was I overlooked as a tradie?
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I took myself back to university to explore this phenomenon further. Having already completed a Bachelor’s Degree, I won First-Class Honours in Sociology and Anthropology through my examination of women's underrepresentation in skilled manual trades. I was then awarded an APA scholarship to further my research as a PhD. My work unites the seemingly disparate fields of Sociology and Engineering, exploring the lived experiences of women working in manual trades (specifically in heavy industry).
My fieldwork took the form of a deeply embedded human experience, conducted in a remote mining town in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. For 9 months I lived in a donga, and my time was spent working amongst and integrating with the intimate fabric of maintenance teams from two of the world's leading iron ore and oil and gas resource extraction companies.
The work investigated the on-going conundrum surrounding women’s enduring low representation in skilled manual trades. Why still, do so few women opt to occupy these social spaces? It placed employment trends and workplace incidents within the broader realm of cultural practices, shining light on the impact that gendered practices have on social change in multiple facets of modern life.
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I am passionate about influencing the development of positive social transformation, smart diversity and inclusion initiatives and achieving gender parity. But how do we tackle such issues while our social world is in a state of significant tumult? It is my belief, that in order to create change within the world we live, we need to examine, reflect upon and better understand the daily habits we practise, that have been creating it. This begins through the facilitation of honest, open and at times, challenging conversations. Let's start them!
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