FEMININITY AND FEMALE IDENTITY OF FOREST INDUSTRY WORKERS IN
NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA FROM 1960 TO 2000
by
Kathryn S. Doucette
B.A., University of Northern British Columbia, 2006

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
GENDER STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
June 2013

© Kathryn Doucette, 2013

UMI Number: 1525689

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Abstract
This research asked what effects, if any, working in the male-dominated forest
industry had on femininity and female identity of women who chose to work in the forest
industry of Northern British Columbia. In the literature when women are mentioned
attention is focused on their relationship to men who are involved within forest industries.
By using Feminist Standpoint Theory the participants’ stories are added to the discourse of
the forest industry. What the findings propose is that the participants experienced an increase
in strength - physical, mental and emotional - but they did not feel that their employment had
any lasting effect on their femininity and female identity. While the women had many
unique experiences interacting with forest industry employment, the same employment
patterns are observable while studying male employees in the forest industry, such as the
process to entry into the industry and the necessity of proving their capability performing the
work. Therefore, aspects of women’s employment within the forest industry are much like
men’s but work “in the bush” is still socially constructed as a masculine realm.

Table of Contents

Abstract

u

Table of Contents

iii

Glossary

v

Acknowledgements

vii

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Introduction of the Research Topic

1

Chapter Layout

18

Literature Review

20

BC Forest Industry History

20

Getting In

23

Barriers/Mobility Once In

27

Routine of Work/Proving Oneself

27

Tokenism

32

Domesticity

33

Female Identity and Femininity

35

Objectifications/Sexual Harassment

40

Conclusion

42

Methodologies

43

Postmodern Theory

43

Feminist Standpoint Theory

48

Oral History and Interviewing

52

Interviewing and Saturation

53

The Recruitment of Interviewees

55

The Interview Process

57

The Participants

59

Research Limitations

62

Conclusion

63

Chapter Four

Chapter 5

Analysis and Participants’ Responses

65

Getting In

66

Mobility Once In

75

Routine of Work/Proving Oneself

79

Cleanliness and Domesticity

85

Tokenism

93

Femininity

96

Sexuality

103

Summary

113

Conclusion

115

Conclusions

117

Challenges

129

Future Studies

130
132

Works Cited
Appendix A

Fig. 1. Region and District Offices Map

141

Appendix B

Interview Questions/Prompts

142

Appendix C

Research Ethics Board Approval Letter

144

Appendix D

Oral Interview/Transcript Release Form

145

Appendix E

Informed Consent

148

iv

Glossary
Femininity is the qualities or characteristics appropriate or unique to women. S. Holland
mentions, with regards to problems defining femininity, that, “The difficulties lie primarily in
the fact that the term ‘femininity’ is a concept which refers to a set of gendered behaviours
and practices, and yet which is fluid and not fixed, and can mean as many different things as
there are women” (8). Most cultures define ideals of what behaviours and activities were/are
socially acceptable for the participation of women. In Western societies, most aspects of
female lives were clearly delineated for a feminine woman, or a proper woman. In order to
determine whether a woman was fulfilling her feminine role, appropriateness of clothing,
household activities, employment outside of the home, language used, and even conversation
topics and interests were considered.
Forest Industry, in this thesis, encompasses the different types of employment held by the
participants. This term encompasses not only businesses primarily involved in the industry
but also services such as the first aid attendants in camp operations, staff running the various
camps and even the fuel trucks that service the businesses in the bush. For the purposes of
this thesis, the parameters of the definition are meant to be inclusive to attract as many
participants as possible: logging equipment operators, camp workers, logging truck drivers,
accountants in mills, mill workers, log scalers, professional forest technicians, bush road
builders, logging company owners, bookkeepers, first aid attendants, tree planters, cone
pickers, and environment assessors, to name a few. Morley Gunderson provides the
following definitions. Occupation “refers to the nature of work performed”, “the basic
content of the job.” Industry “refers to the type of economic activity of the establishment in
which the individual works” (155). Good jobs are defined as “well paid, and offer good

v

working conditions, benefits and opportunities for occupational advancement. Bad jobs
have the opposite characteristics, and perpetuate negative work habits that keep individuals
locked in such jobs” (156).
Gender is a social status, the legal designation of male or female, and a personal identity.
Gender is the range of characteristics attributed to femininity and masculinity. Gender is the
performance given by each person of his/her identity. One’s gender intersects with every
other category of one’s identity, like race, class, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
Northern in human geographical terms shares many characteristics with the definitions of
rural and indeed, many Northern areas are rural areas. Characteristics defining northern
include a smaller population spread further apart, colder climate, more limited species of
plants and animals, and shorter growing season. For the purposes of this thesis, the two
terms, rural and Northern, will be referenced interchangeably unless defined differently at the
time of usage.
Rural is a term that has been used to define areas that are dominated by extensive land use
(by, for example, agriculture and forestry) and by large spaces of undeveloped land. Other
defining elements include smaller populations spread further apart and lived in by people
who develop strong attachments to and respect for the land.

Acknowledgements

This thesis has been an endeavour that has witnessed many changes in the lives
around me and in my own life. I would like to thank all of the women I came into contact
with for their interest, support and suggestions during the course o f recruiting participants. I
offer my deepest gratitude and respect for the women who contributed to my thesis, many of
whom not only shared a part of their life story with me but also opened their homes to me.
Bringing their stories to light kept me inspired and motivated.
I offer my appreciation to my Academic Supervisor Dr. Jacqueline Holler and
acknowledge how your calming and focused demeanor provided an exemplary model during
tumultuous and ffactioned times. Your ability to ask questions which allowed me to perceive
that which I had failed to question proved invaluable.
To the members of my Supervisory Committee, thank you for inspiration, guidance
and patience. Dr. Robert Budde, I truly treasure your asking whether there is an essence of
‘Northem-ness’ and if so, what it looked like, which allowed me to wrestle with believing in
the existence while also denying the possibility. I am grateful to Dr. Kristen Guest for
guiding me through the process and encouraging me to be excited about the convoluted
sentences. It was also a pleasure working with you on the conference committee.
Thank you, Dr. Greg Halseth, for the enthusiasm you employed in your role as
External Examiner and for the inspiration you provided through your studies of Northern,
rural and extractive communities.
I would like to thank Defence Chair, Dr. Annie L. Booth, for volunteering your
expertise and taking time out of your busy schedule to participate in my defence.
A warm thank you to family, friends and co-workers: though time spent together was
often sacrificed, your encouragement was always palpable. Your inquiries encouraged me to
define my research.
To my partner, though it took some time, your constant encouragement, ability to
provide me with the space I needed and being present as a sounding board to do this work
were paramount for its completion. Your genuine pleasure in my interests remains both a
surprise and a treasure.
I offer my appreciation to my son for continuing to believe in and encourage me even
when I doubted myself. Your laughter always helped.

Chapter One
Introduction of the Research Topic
My research aimed to study female identity and femininity among women working in
the forest industry in Northern British Columbia and to understand their difficulties and
experiences as explained through interview sessions. The major goal of the thesis is to
develop comprehension of the effects of working in the male-dominated forest industry on
female identity and femininity. I also aim to write the experiences of these women into the
history of the forest industry of British Columbia and explore how identity formation differs
depending on geographical location.
This thesis argues that women provide challenges to stereotypical femininity by
working in professions that claim to build the most masculine of men, such as those found in
the forest industry. By challenging both the ideal and stereotypical versions of femininity
predominant in Western society the participants have expanded acceptable feminine roles in
Northern British Columbia by actively proving women are not only capable of but can also
excel in employment previously reserved for male employees.
This thesis also argues that women can actively challenge the ideal and stereotypical
version of femininity offered even while accepting some traditional beliefs surrounding
femininity. The participants clearly understood the different pressures and expectations from
society at large to behave in specific ways to be considered ‘properly’ feminine. These
women have contributed to feminism by making inroads for future women to work in maledominated employment, by proving that gender has nothing to do with capability, and by
unceasingly standing their ground against those external pressures trying to turn them away
from male-dominated employment.
1

Traditionally defined in opposition to each other, femininity and masculinity are
binary constructs used to delineate which characteristics and behaviours are appropriate to
each gender. R.W. Connell points out that people become socialized through media,
educational institutions, and personal relations to understand and even conform, to a certain
extent, to the traditional expectations required to become recognizably feminine or masculine
persons. (34) Femininity has historically included domesticity, physical weakness,
emotionality, and beauty.1 Masculinity, conversely, has included work outside the home,
physical strength, rationality and intellect. In recent history, feminist movements have
encouraged an expansion of gender ideologies through anti-discriminatory legislation,
opening doors to workplaces for either sex to enter, and encouraging both sexes to participate
in domestic and public work responsibilities.
Identity formation and “proper” femininity and masculinity develop dependent on a
plethora of factors. Familial influence, religious beliefs, economic opportunities, local
culture, history, geographical area, employment, sexual orientation and ethnicity are major
defining influences in identity formation.2 For understanding the effects of male-dominated
work on female identity and femininity, I will examine the influences of living in the interior
of Northern British Columbia, (NBC), the histories associated with it, the economic
opportunities available to women in this area, dominant culture, familial influence and the
local culture of the forest industry.

1 This statement is a combination o f ideas presented by numerous authors regarding characteristics that have
traditionally been associated with femininity. Authors referenced include Claire M. Renzetti and Daniel J.
Curran, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Julie Guard, Monica B. Morris, Ruth A. Frager and Carmela Patrias, Loma
Townsend, Naomi Wolf, Estelle B. Freedman, and Carol Ireson. For specific publications, please refer to
Works Cited.
2 This statement is a combination o f ideas presented by numerous authors concerning influential factors in the
formation o f identity; the authors include Susan Hanson and Geraldine Pratt, S. Holland, Nancy Holstrom, L.A.
Kauffman, Sandra Bartky, and Matthew S. Carroll. The specific publications are listed in Works Cited.

2

The lives of working-class (blue-collar) women in the interior of NBC remain largely
unwritten. Considering that the majority of towns in NBC started as, and many continue to
be, single-industry resource-based towns, my focus is on women working in the maledominated environments of the forest industry. Employment in single-industry resourcebased towns is concentrated in the extraction of that resource, leaving few other readily
available types of employment. The few other opportunities for paid work have been limited
to either service-industry jobs (as cashiers, government agents, tellers, and waitresses) or the
nurturing segment (teaching, nursing, child minding and parenting). Considering the period
that this thesis covers, 1960s to 2000, those work sectors were not highly developed and
many of the jobs associated with those sectors were not well paid or highly respected. With
fewer opportunities for well-paid jobs in NBC in any sector and a lack of the lower-paying
service sector and pink-collar employment, women may turn to careers not immediately
thought to employ women, such as running equipment in the forest industiy. However,
women may enter male-dominated industries for reasons other than a shortage of service
jobs. The opportunity to earn a higher wage, the ability to work outdoors, and growing up
with the values of the occupational group can all contribute to a desire to work within the
forest industry. These same factors also affect female identity and femininity in the way that
the environments in which people live affect the mindset through which identity forms.
The principal goal of my project is to determine any effect caused by employment in
male-dominated environments on female identity and femininity. This topic lies in close
proximity to my own identity, since I have lived in Prince George, a community historically
heavily dependent on forest industries, nearly my whole life. My research question tries to
find answers about the identities of women in the industry and NBC: what ‘types of women’
3

work out in the ‘bush’. When I described my research to others, people responded with such
comments as “there are no women in the forest industries” and “women working in those
industries are not like real women.” One physician even insisted that if there are any women
working in the forest industries they could not be feminine because “it is not like the women
are wearing dresses, or walking down a runway,” and “those women are not feminine
because they chew, spit and swear.” Clearly, the people making such comments have a very
lucid ideal in mind of what types of behaviours and employment are acceptable in order for
any women to fit the classification of feminine.
My thesis also asked if women adopted masculine identity traits to ‘fit in’ or ‘be
considered one of the guys’ while they worked in male-oriented employment or if they
redefined ways to be feminine. Attached to this question is whether women employed in
traditional female roles such as cooking, secretarial or janitorial positions within a maledominated workplace are also adopting masculine identity traits to fit in; or do they perhaps
place a stronger emphasis on femininity because they are the only women?
I draw from feminist theory, history and human geography in order to analyze and
understand how female identity forms in NBC. All three academic fields have engaged in
the discussion of female identity creation and have differing ideology and contributions to
more fully understand what influences identity formation. Feminists developed theories to
discover and explain how the structure of society portrays certain types of womanhood as
ideal. Feminist theorists argue every aspect of society was/is used to control the identities of
women because society regards men as naturally superior to women due to physical strength,
rationality and involvement in the public realm. Sandra Bartky states,

4

Most avenues of cultural expression - high culture, pop culture, even to some extent
language - are instruments of male supremacy. Women have little control over the
cultural apparatus itself and are often entirely absent from its products; to the extent
that we are not excluded from it entirely, the images of ourselves we see reflected in
the dominant culture are often truncated or demeaning. (35)
Cultural expressions, the ability to express personal beliefs and values in society, have
historically been controlled, developed, and presented by men; when women have been
included, it has often been in the form of an object, not a fully-fledged human with the ability
to contribute to social culture.
Women are constantly measured against the images of womanhood (femininity) that
are present through male controlled media, society and social connections. The pressure to
conform can be significant and felt worldwide, though elements may vary in different
countries and cultures. Feminist theory has shown that men were able to maintain societal
values centered on masculine ideals by devaluing women’s knowledge, work and values that
do not coincide with their masculine ones.3 The feminist theories that motivate my inquiry
have brought attention to the power imbalances between the genders within society: power
imbalances that stem from control over personal identity and definition. The knowledge I
gain from these theories is that women are in a position of less power because men have
historically defined most aspects of society; therefore, when women are able to self-define,
society should be egalitarian, which changes the way men define everything and the way
gender construction occurs.
Many academics, such as Hanna Papaneck, Maxine Harris, Efrat Tseelson, Allison
Weir and Samantha Holland, have written in varying degrees on female and feminine
identity but focused on feminine identity in urban or metropolitan areas of Western society.
3 This statement is a combination o f ideas presented by Gerda Lemer and Sandra Bartky. Specific publications
are found in Works Cited.

5

I

The information presented by these academics provides insight into the ways female
identities are constructed internally and externally in Western society, but does not quite fit
with what I know and have experienced living in NBC. I have not discovered any feminist
theory regarding NBC women’s identity in particular, but feminist geographer Jo Little and
several others are theorizing female identity in rural locations of Western society.
Through my research, I have discovered that regardless of rural or metropolitan area,
women still feel pressured to conform to the female ideal, but my participants still felt
feminine even in times when they did not feel they conformed. The interviewees did not
blindly try to follow the standards set by the ideal or in the stereotype, but strongly believed
in their femininity regardless of their levels of non-conformity. These women picked which
aspects of stereotypical or ideal femininity appealed to them but did not let being “feminine”
in those terms define their life choices. It is important to note that the participants
appreciated being strong women, and working in the forest industries, and believed that
living in the area helped facilitate those realities. Living in NBC, especially in forestindustry communities, many women have had to run households while men are working long
hours, or staying in camps. When problems arose, women had to deal with the situation —
corralling stray livestock or getting a vehicle unstuck from mud and/or snow —regardless of
whether women were normally the handlers of such situations.
The population, types of employment available, and access to resources such as
medical care, government services and cultural amenities loosely define the rural areas of
NBC. Prince George is one of the cities in NBC that can provide insight as to any
differences in identity formation in urban versus rural locations. Its beginnings were rural,
but it has become increasingly urban over the years, which is not usually the case with
6

single-industry resource towns. A majority of single-industry resource towns in the interior
of NBC have become ghost towns as the industry cycled through booms and busts, became
more mechanized, and processing changed from small farm and family run mills to large
corporate mills that were centrally located. The city of Cassiar, for example, was a company
town, built by the asbestos mill owners to accommodate and keep workers. When the mill
shut down, it became a ghost town, so much so that the majority of homes and other
buildings were sold then transported to their new owners’ locations. Suzanne LeBlanc writes
that, “After Cassiar was shut down, the townsite was gated and a caretaker was employed to
live there to ensure that people did not trespass and that the few remaining structures
remained intact” (187). Even though Cassiar is not a logging mill town, the story told by its
development and ultimate demise follows essentially the same plot lines as a town entirely
dependent on logging mills. The landscape of NBC is littered with stories of towns like this,
two more examples being Sinclair Mills and Eaglet Lake. The stories of these towns are also
stories of extraction where the goal was to go in, extract the natural resource while
accumulating great financial wealth, then leave.
Women lived in these communities and, mostly through their male relatives, shared
in amassing wealth. However, the stories and histories of the forest industry do not include
stories of women’s lives, working or social. Ken Bemsohn and Ralph Andrews both give
detailed accounts of the forest industry in BC and the amount of money men were able to
make throughout the industry’s past. The working-class character of the industry combined
with the high wages of employees produced a distinct form of masculinity. Both authors also
contribute to the idea of the uber-masculine forest worker who worked hard and played
harder. There was no shortage of stories of loggers fighting, drinking, and spending both
7

large amounts of money, and the occasional night in jail. These stories served to create an
image that was not inclusive to the idea of women in the industry. Bemsohn mentions a
woman mill operator in passing, and the only other mention of women is under the defining
title of ‘wives’. Andrews, on the other hand, does mention women in working positions in
the forest industries as cooks in various camps and provides the earliest date, 1908, for a
woman working in a camp. If omission is any indication, then the majority of the literature
on the BC forest industries supports the widespread belief that women were not in the
industry while also providing one or two exceptions. It is through this literature that the
forest industry has remained defined as a male industiy.
Literature on the forest industries continues to be mostly written from a male-focused
perspective. When women do write about issues within the forest industries, the malecentered views remain intact due to the dominance of males in the industry. Women in
forest-industry towns are often described as being stay-at-home mothers who are completely
dependent on and supportive of their male relatives in the industries. When their
employment is discussed, it is in terms of traditional female work in either the services sector
(as cashiers and waitresses) or the nurturing sector (as teachers and nurses). There is very
little discussion of women working in the forest industry, which works to keep the ideology
of male dominance within the industry intact. Certain aspects are defined as masculine, such
as strength and the ability to handle danger. One male value is that boys turn into men in the
woods because it is hard, dangerous and dirty work for which only some men are suitable.
This ideology implies that masculine identity forms through the workplace. The common
perception is that forest industries employment is strictly the domain of men, as Brian Egan
and Susanne Klaussen illustrate:
8

Indeed, industrial forestry has always been commonly perceived as a male domain, as
perhaps the quintessential male occupation: the word “logger’ brings forth images of
rugged men, axes (or chainsaws) in hand, standing poised on top of massive tree
stumps somewhere in the great outdoors. Millworkers are also imagined to be men
only. Both types of work require muscle, grit, the ability to handle complex
machinery, and courage in the face of danger - characteristics popularly associated
with men. (18)
If women were to do the same forest industry work, this would directly challenge that belief.
To allow for the possibility for women to work in the forest industries meant that either these
particular women were extraordinary or the work was not as difficult as society believed it to
be. The literature on the forest industries mentions women working in office, janitorial, or
cooking positions but also counts them as uninvolved.
When Patricia Marchak wrote her book Green Gold: The Forest Industry in British
Columbia nearly thirty years ago, the only women in production jobs in the industry were in
plywood mills. Marchak also provides a table with percentages of women working
elsewhere in production4 but gives no mention of women working in the camps, which
implies that women’s camp labour is viewed as reproductive in the Marxist sense and
therefore becomes invisible. Marchak writes about the importance of women to the forest
industry because of the work they do in maintaining the home and family as well as by
working in traditional vocations for women within the communities so that men can continue
to work in the industries.5 Thus, Marchak contributes to the widespread belief in the
masculine nature of forest industry work while also presenting a partial feminist belief in the
importance of women’s traditional paid and unpaid vocations. I say partial because Marchak
clearly emphasizes the importance of traditional roles for women - homemaker and paid

4 To view the tables, see Patricia Marchak, Green Gold: The Forest Industry in British Columbia. 216.
5 Marchak’s study does include analysis o f positions in various types o f mills but excludes discussion o f women
working in traditional vocations within those settings such as clerical, administrative or janitorial positions.
This may be due to reports and records not differentiating types of work performed by women in the workplace.

9

employment for women outside the home - to the forest industry, but does not study both the
traditional (camp cook, office administration) and non-traditional roles (machine operator,
production worker) that women assumed within the forest industry. Nevertheless, the most
important contribution Marchak gives to the history of forest industries, in my opinion, is
that she provides one of very few accounts of women working in various aspects of the forest
industries of British Columbia.
Maureen Reed provides a different view on the identity of women living in the forest
industry towns of British Columbia. Reed looks at women’s support of the forest industry in
BC, specifically Coastal BC, which seems to contradict some persistent views of women as
preservers and protectors of nature. Reed draws attention to how relationships with men
within the forest industries and communities shaped women’s identities and experiences.
Even for women working directly in various jobs in the industries, their relationships with
men in the industry have been studied more than their own experiences of the industry.
Reed’s focus is on exploring women’s experiences with how environmental regulation
changes affect people living and working in forest-dependent communities. Consequently,
because Reed studies how the industry directly affects women’s lives, she also draws
attention to the importance of women’s traditional vocations for the sustainability of the
industry, which cements the idea that women, whether directly or indirectly, are involved in
the forest industry. When we count the importance of what is traditionally viewed as
women’s work, as mentioned by both Marchak and Reed, women have been involved in the
forest industry from the beginning. This involvement would have an impact on how
women’s identities and femininity in these areas developed, but the research has yet to be
done.
10

There seems to be a considerable gap in the literature regarding Northern female
identity and especially female identity in the interior of BC regardless of vocation. There is
literature that describes the activities of women in passing, but few studies have focused
entirely on women or on analyzing the power relations that develop in their lives. Indeed,
there is not much literature on working-class identities of either gender in British Columbia,
especially within the forest industries, nor is the literature dealing with aspects of the camps.
There is also a scarcity of literature on working-class female identity and/or femininity in
BC, NBC and Western society specifically related to industry or male-oriented workplaces of
the forest industry.
From the histories of NBC, BC and Canada, I draw out the different ways these
societies and cultures developed over time. This allows me to establish an understanding of
different pressures present in the formation of female identity and femininity. Theorists have
yet to research how the different living environments of Canadian women may have
contributed to or even created differing expectations women were supposed to meet. There
is nothing in the historical literature that suggests women in different parts of Canada had
different ideals to conform to, which paints women of Canada as a homogeneous group and
indicates a possible gap in the literature. It is, however, very likely that women in Western
society are supposed to conform to the same ideal shaped by varying forces including
literature and media images.
The historical development of the communities and cities in NBC was significantly
different from the development of the rest of British Columbia and Canada. Histories of
single-industry towns describe the women there as having very different experiences than
women living in towns and cities with more diversified economies. In 1977 the Northern
11

B.C. Women’s Task Force On Single Industry Resource Communities released a report that
illustrates many frustrations of women living in Kitimat, Fraser Lake and Mackenzie. Jill
Stainsby, John Hinde, Adele Perry, R.W. Sandwell, Jean Barman, David del Mar, and Brian
Egan and Susanne Klausen all discuss the hardships and disadvantages women face living in
single-industry towns and paint a fairly dismal picture with regards to isolation, lack of
community facilities, employment opportunities and the types of social activities women are
traditionally involved in. These authors describe women’s lives in those towns within the
realm of ‘traditional feminine roles’, though they mention some women working in industry.
Most authors discussing the forest industry mention, in passing, the few women here and
there who find employment in the industry but that was not the focus of their publications.
Female identities and femininity in these communities form within the ideology of
‘traditional’ female roles but also are shaped by the traditional masculine roles that define the
occupational group ideology. Although women in NBC are exposed, through the media, to
broader messages about femininity and female identity, because Northern societies develop
differently, ideals regarding masculinity and femininity are different from those in the rest of
the province and country. Therefore, stereotypes may not have the same effect or strength in
NBC due to different societal development, climate, environment and culture. The fashion
choices and trends viable in the metropolitan areas of Southern BC (SBC) do not always
translate into something that cm be worn in NBC due to the different climate and lack of
places to wear such finery. When one of the markers of proper feminine identity includes
presenting a recognizably feminine appearance, femininity must look different by default.
For example, in SBC women can wear fashion footwear in winter that does not necessarily
need to be insulated for cold weather, but in NBC outdoor footwear needs to be able to
12

withstand cold temperatures and deep snow. There is a gap in the literature concerning the
social development of women’s lives in BC particularly in relation to the differences
between development in NBC and SBC. Interviewing women in areas of NBC helps to close
the gap of recorded women’s lives in BC.
Analyzing the lives of women in the areas of NBC provides insight on how these
societies developed historically, and how women’s identities and femininities developed.
Gerda Lemer discusses how society is dominated by a masculine-based value system, and
due to that, women’s identities were shaped by male ideals. Leaving women out of history,
education and public society all worked to control female identity because women had no
choice but to live within the realms men allotted them. When women did appear in history,
it was in the form of “women worthies,” extraordinary women portrayed as assuming
masculine abilities and discarding feminine ones. Recent scholarship on both British
Columbian history and Northern British Columbian history has followed this trend. In a
collection edited by Theresa Healy the women written about by various students were
extraordinary women living outside the realm of ‘acceptable’ feminine employment. When
looking at the relatively few women working in the forest industries, it becomes very
difficult not to believe that they are extraordinary women, but what this thesis aims to
discover is whether being extraordinary is equivalent to developing different types of female
identity and femininity.
Telling the stories of extraordinary women is vital to making sure women are
included in the histories of the world. Extraordinary women may be key to proving gender
has nothing to do capabilities; however, while these stories provide insight on how these
women stepped out o f the ordinary female role, they do not analyze the impact most
13

women's lives had on the society in which they lived. Those stories also depict that women
are not all the same: that there are women, as many as we can find, who do not let social
definitions stop them from doing whatever they wanted. Karen Routledge provides an
example when writing about Phyl Munday, a female mountaineer who hiked back and forth
over the boundaries of acceptable gendered behaviour. Routledge discusses how Phyl took
on the male sport of climbing while maintaining traditional female roles on climbs by doing
the cooking and sewing. Routledge explains that Phyl was an extraordinary woman but did
not change the masculine sport of mountaineering and even upheld the belief that women in
general should not take up the sport. Routledge points out that Phyl did provide a lasting
challenge to the masculinity of mountaineering; thus, her identity was able to influence social
change within the society she lived. Routledge provides an example of how a woman can
have dual aspects of her identity working at the same time because Phyl was able to take on
the masculine role of the mountaineer and the traditional feminine role of maintaining the
‘hiking’ family on the mountain.
Most of the history available about the towns and communities of NBC portrays
women as mothers, wives, and nurturers. Reverend Francis Edwin Runnalls wrote a local
history of Prince George that describes events pertinent to the development of Prince George
but does not provide any analysis of those events. A history collection edited by David del
Mar also supplies a descriptive account of Prince George history without supplying analysis
of events. These histories, the first a local history and the second an academic, both provide
the necessary background information on how communities and towns in NBC developed
socially. Unfortunately, there is only a small amount of history available that provides
analysis on how women’s lives shaped the NBC societies they lived in.
14

I will be drawing on geographical theory to understand the importance of place and
space in identity formation and the effects on femininity and masculinity in different
locations. Human geographers theorize different ways in which place, space, and the way
people interact with them help to form their identity. Geographers also theorize about the
ways ideas and information were historically distributed, either by jumping from larger cities
to larger cities and eventually trickling down into rural areas, or developing from major cities
all over the world at the same time then trickling down into rural areas, which could lead to
variations in the social developments of different areas. Rural and/or Northern women may
be less inclined to follow the societal demands of urban areas because those demands do not
practically translate to rural areas; heels and dirt roads do not mix well and there are no
fashion runways in the ‘bush’.
Different places and different meanings ascribed to places affect social identities and
relationships, especially considering how those meanings change according to social values.
Place is significant to female identity not just because of external influence through
information but also because of internal attitudes that reflect the atmosphere in which one
lives. Doreen Massey theorizes how space and place directly affect social relations and
points out that geographical locations matter to how people construct their identity, because
people develop emotional attachment to places and associate different behaviours with
differing spaces. For specific information regarding NBC, Greg Halseth edited studies
analyzing the social structures found within Northern and rural towns. Brian Ilbery states
that rural spaces tend to have smaller populations living further apart from each other with
relatively little immediate access to retail goods, education, government and medical services
(3). While most communities in NBC certainly fit this definition, Prince George does not.
15

However, due to the time frame this project covers, Prince George was a rural community
that became increasingly urban over time through its bust and boom cycles.
To analyze femininity within the NBC forest industry, I use personal narratives of
women living in NBC. The women who participated were previously or currently employed
in different sectors of the forest industry. The participant selection criteria for the project
included women currently residing in British Columbia who worked in the resource
extraction sector of the forest industry between 1900 and 2000. The NBC area in this thesis
is defined is the area covered by four of BC’s Forest Regions, Cariboo Region, Skeena
Region, Northeast Region and Omineca Region.6 For the purposes of this thesis, types of
employment in the forest industry included any aspect of the forest industry dealing with raw
timber. Logging-truck driving and millwork were also included, and legal restrictions on
women’s employment (e.g., in licensing) were considered. Women working in clerical,
janitorial and cooking positions in the logging camps and trucking companies were also
eligible participants because all of these positions are present within the forest industry.
According to Matthew S. Carroll, “The major criterion for a man to be defined as a logger is
that he be (or have been, in the case of retired loggers) somehow involved in the process of
moving logs from the stump to the mill” (67). Even though some of the women who
participated in this research would fit this definition of logger, I am specifically not using the
term “logger” because I feel the scope of that definition is too narrow. “People working in
the forest industry” provides a more inclusive range of employment while still requiring
work dealing with raw timber. Carroll continues, explaining that

6 The Forest Region and Districts Offices map is located in Appendix A.

16

Anyone is included who builds logging roads or drives log trucks, as well as anyone
involved in cutting and moving logs from the stump to landing. Individuals whose
primary responsibility is cutting and piling brush and logging debris are not ordinarily
considered to be full-fledged loggers. Workers who plant trees after logging is
completed, and those who scale (measure) logs at the mill are not logger group
members. (67-68)
My use of the forest industry to define the terms of occupation instead of using the term
“logger” also ensures the inclusion of women working not only in the woods but also in
traditional female occupations such as secretarial or janitorial because not including those
positions would have the effect of not valuing work traditionally performed by women and
would continue to exclude them from the history of the industry itself.
The different methodologies used for this thesis necessitated understanding the use of
oral tradition and personal narratives in the collection of women’s histories. Some argue
against the use of personal narratives for the purposes of academic work, claiming that
individual bias of the narrator is prevalent, the dominant ideology of the story changes when
the individual is at different life stages, and personal narratives are not valid primary sources
for research. In contrast, Caroline Daley emphasizes that “What women remember and
retell, and how they tell it, tells us much about their individual experiences and their
understanding of their cultural place within their community” (344). I argue that personal
narratives and interviews are vital to furthering women’s understanding of how society and
its traditional networks of identification work on their ability to form their own identities.
Shema Gluck and Daphne Patai use a feminist focus when conducting interviews and are
able to articulate issues that can arise when incorporating interviews into research, such as
problems with interpretation and representations. By drawing on standpoint feminism, I
limit problems with misinterpretation and misrepresentation.

17

Chapter Layout
This thesis has five chapters. The first chapter introduced the topic, the theoretical
position used in the thesis, and background information. How this thesis fits into the growing
field of female identity studies was included here, as were any differences and similarities
arising between the thesis and the academic field.
The second chapter includes a review of the relevant literature used. I study the
history of NBC and BC from 1900 through 2000, with particular attention to the ideals
presented through the portrayals of women. I reviewed the history of the BC forest industry.
I analyze the different ways feminists have discussed the construction of female identity and
whether or not it is possible for there to be a collective identity of women. Human
geography provides theories on how identity is created through interaction with society and
how society is created by the different identities interacting with it.
The third chapter introduces the methodology used in this thesis. Postmodern theory
emphasizes the importance for people to question or employ skepticism regarding
information and recorded histories. Postmodern theory denies the existence of a singular
truth, therefore encouraging this thesis to present another truth concerning the history of the
forest industry in NBC. Postmodern theory calls into question every aspect of society,
especially focusing on beliefs and ideologies that are so ingrained that they are taken as true
without being analyzed for how they developed or whose interests in society they protect.
Feminist Standpoint theory acknowledges differences as fundamental to individual
knowledge but suggests that women do share certain social realities. Feminist Standpoint
theory acknowledges women’s unique understanding of society, framed through lived

18

experiences, and encourages women to speak from the space created by those lived
experiences. I present my own standpoint within this chapter, followed by how I recruited
participants and conducted the interview process. The chapter concludes after introducing
the participants.
Chapter Four provides the data collected and analysis of the interviews. The
participants discuss many aspects involved with their work in the forest industry. There were
several difficulties getting into the industry and once in certain barriers remained, but there
was also a degree of mobility experienced by the participants. These women were able to
prove their capacity to excel in their fields and even became accustomed to the routine
present in the work environment. Tokenism for women in forest industry presented itself in
several ways. The participants also discuss topics surrounding cleanliness, domesticity,
femininity, sexuality and sexual harassment.
The fifth chapter is the conclusion, which highlights the argument and offers
conclusions as to how the information obtained changes the field. This chapter also includes
discussion about the challenges faced throughout the thesis process along with suggestions
for areas of further study.

19

Chapter 2
Literature Review
Through the literature available, this chapter investigates the dynamics of the forest
industry, how it is credited with forming masculine identities, and the formation of an
occupational group identity. I review specific aspects of the industry with regards to hiring
practices; mobility within the various industries; how, even though the work is difficult and
dangerous, there is a large degree of routine to the employee’s workdays; how all the
workers must prove their ability to handle the work; and the degree of pride that comes from
their abilities. This is followed by an examination of femininity in terms of the ideal version
and stereotypes available in society, along with the performance of femininity as an
appearance, behaviour and identity.
BC Forest Industry History
There is a rich history of the BC forest industries especially in regards to government
policy creation and changes as well as environmental concerns and changes. There is
considerably less literature available on forest industries in NBC, which is quite surprising
given the importance of the industry to the Northern economy. I.K. Barber points out that
after 1914 in the province of BC the leading industry was forestry and a large number of
towns and cities in the interior of NBC were forest-industry dependent (14, 115). The
industries developed before environmental concerns of sustainability; the main focus was to
get in, cut as much forest as possible making as much money as possible, and get out.
Priscilla Boucher states that,
One of the most powerful stories told within western industrial culture, one of the
hardest to challenge, is the myth of material affluence as the source of wealth, well­
being, and satisfaction; this myth is reflected and reinforced within the dominant

20

story of the forest which defends both scientific forest practices and the industry as
the source of high paying jobs, materialistic lifestyles, and community affluence. (39)
The promise of fast money encouraged settlement, and the developing railroad and forest
industry promised to be economically viable and were crucial to the settlement of NBC.
Robert Neil Diaz informs readers that many settlers “set to work clearing the land and using
the wood from it to build their homes” (63). Many people also set up family sawmills to
process the wood they cleared. People “could make quite a profit by erecting a mill along
the route of the rail” (103). The forest industry was vital to the people who settled in NBC.
Though much of the sawmilling was done as part of family endeavors, it was not long before
logging and sawmilling became bigger enterprises.
In places such as the interior of NBC, the forest became a place where working men’s
culture formed, especially considering that there were not many high-paying jobs available in
any other sector. Reed states, “There, amid the trees and the technology, male identity was
forged, reinforced, despised, and celebrated” (32). Statements like these, emphasizing the
masculine nature of the forest industry, can be found in most of the literature available.
Living and working in resource-dependent communities enmeshed women in the
occupational group of the forestry industry whether women worked in the industry
themselves or not. Reed explains that in some of these communities there is a strong belief
that women’s employment was not as important as men’s. These types of attitudes translated
into sexist attitudes in the workplace and also barriers to obtaining industry work (370).
Regardless of how the history of the forest industry has been written to contribute to and
maintain the mythology as a masculine pursuit, much of the literature includes references to
women working in the industries, even if by accident.

21

Very little attention has been paid to the employment of women in BC’s forestdependent communities. However, Ken Drushka, Brian Egan and Susanne Klausen, Tema
Frank, Susan Hansen and Geraldine Pratt, Julie Guard, Joan Kotarski, Jo Little, Priscilla
Boucher, Betty Grifffin and Susan Lockhart, Patricia Marchak, and Maureen Reed have all
discussed women, to varying degrees, in the forestry industry. Drushka states that originally
the interior of NBC was dominated by “local entrepreneurs and family-owned companies”
and women participated in whatever work the family was involved in (7). This suggests that
women would have participated in the forest industry in various capacities as well, especially
if the family was running a sawmill on their land. Unfortunately, as I discovered and Reed
also noted,
Reliable, valid, current, complete, and commensurable data on gender and
employment in forestry are not readily available from government agencies or private
companies. Company records typically do not distinguish between women in nontraditional jobs (e.g. planers) and those employed in traditional jobs (e.g. secretaries)
within the firm. (376)
This may explain why there are virtually no records of women working in the forest industry.
If there is no distinction between women working in the planer mill or as secretaries, the
assumption could be made that women were only working in vocations normally occupied
by women; therefore women would not be included in the narrow definitions of who is
considered a ‘logger’ or ‘mill worker.’ Literature that was written looking specifically at
women’s experiences with the forest industry has had a tendency to focus on experiences
within the forest-based community but not within the actual industry. While these topics are
extremely important in discussing and valuing women’s experiences within the community,
my focus is on women’s experiences while working in the forest industry.

22

Despite this, however, through accounts of various authors who have included
scattered information about women working and living in the forestry-dependent
communities, readers discover that women have held many different jobs within the
industries. For example, Ken Drushka writes about the “crew of about twenty women [who]7
chopped out defects and packed the selected material in boxcars for shipment to match
companies across Canada” (82). There were women working in various non-traditional
types of employment within the forest industry. Women held a range of jobs including
working as truck drivers, scalers, front-end loaders, foresters, forestry technologists, stream
restoration workers, camp cooks and workers, box factories, shingle mills, furniture, sash and
door operations, plywood operations, pulp and sawmills, whistle punks, personnel and
enforcement officers and accountants in the industry. As Reed discovered, one
predominantly female job in the forest industry was the picking of seed cones; another type
of employment that has historically had higher numbers of women workers is tree planting
(100-101). The research shows not only that women are working in various capacities but
that there are even female enclaves within the forest industry.
Getting In
When people seek new employment, one way people find out about job opportunities
is by talking with the people they know. Hanson and Pratt explain that usually job
opportunities “flow through gender-biased networks” and therefore women usually learn
about employment opportunities through their female social networks, while men hear of job
opportunities through male networks (198). The tendency of gender networks is to reinforce
the gender division of employment. The forest industry was male-dominated; therefore the

7 Square brackets added.

23

people most likely to hear about job opportunities were males. Discussing the period
between 1960 and 1970, Marchak explains how the father’s industry was remarkably
influential to the son’s first industrial location. “Nearly half the sons of loggers became
loggers; a quarter of sawmill workers’ sons entered sawmills; two-fifths of pulpmill workers’
sons entered pulpmills; and there are similarly high proportions for the sons of miners,
construction workers, workers in manufacturing and commercial trade”, which are all maledominated industries (136). Some women may have been able to take advantage of these
male employment networks. Susan Hanson and Geraldine Pratt agree, explaining that
women working in male-dominated occupations were likely to have received help from men
(199), or to have used male connections to get into employment in those occupations, just as
men used their networks to obtain jobs in the forestry industry.
Women living within these forest-dependent communities may look to employment
within them for many reasons. Hanson and Pratt also mention, “What is judged to be
possible and what is actually available as employment depends on the local place.
Knowledge of places and opportunities is learned and understood through social
relationships” (185). With the majority of paid work in the forest dependent community
being done by men, employers themselves may be more reluctant to hire females for reasons
such as believing gender stereotypes: that women would not be capable of participating in
those types o f work; from fear that male workers would complain about having to work with
women; that they were taking jobs away from men; and that males needed to work where
they could earn a wage sufficient to support their families. There has long been a stereotype
that a woman will only work until she marries and starts having children. These sorts of
ideologies could be used to prevent women from being hired; as could the belief that once
24

she does have family responsibilities, if she continues to work it will be harder for her to put
in the long hours required. Joan Kotarski discusses how the mills would not hire women
because of the belief that “they can’t keep up” (91). These kinds of policies of not hiring
women would not be written, or in any kind of hiring practices manual; they would be an
unspoken agreement in management.
There are companies that do have written policies for hiring women, but the policies
place unrealistic restrictions on which women qualify. Some hiring practices do not seem
overtly sexist on the surface, because the restrictions also exclude a large number of males as
well. In the report by the Northern British Columbia Women’s Task Force it was noted that,
“The guidelines set for men and women are that they be 5’6”, weigh 140 pounds and have
two years previous industrial experience” (29). This type of policy makes it seem that a
company would have no problem hiring a woman who is 5’8” and weighs 150 pounds, but,
as Marchak discovered, “although the major forestry employer expressed willingness to hire
women, the report cited cases to substantiate the claim that women were not employed at that
company” (215). The point here is that even when companies had policies for hiring women,
a majority of them still did not hire women; proof of this statement can be seen in the low
numbers of women reported as working in the forest industry. Due to the smaller population
base in NBC, many companies, at different times, would find it necessary to hire women,
especially if there was a shortage of men available to do the work. Women living in these
areas may be interested in the different types of employment that are available specifically
because of their location.
Location and space are important in the development of both identity and femininity
especially because different social locations and spaces encourage different ways of being.
25

Hanson and Pratt mention that for women, “Accessibility to different traditionally male
occupations conditions the experience of being a woman, and this occurs differently in
different places” (18). All the literature about forest-based communities and Northern
communities accentuates the different lifestyles and attitudes of the residents. Part of the
difference is the relationship and bond they form with their natural surroundings, while some
comes from knowing the lifestyle is different from Southern city lifestyles. Robert Bone
emphasizes that “by living, working, and playing in a northern environment”, the people who
reside there “have developed a deep and lasting attachment to their surroundings” (3). There
is a common belief that people spend a greater majority of their time in “the bush” when they
live in smaller communities because they are surrounded by “the bush” as opposed to big
cities where there is little immediate access available. According to K. Bemsohn, “In the
north, the typical fly-fisherman works in a sawmill. About three quarters of the families in
the north own some form of recreational vehicle: boat, snowmobile, trailer, or four-wheel
drive vehicle. This time spent outdoors is another variable that affects the view of the forest”
(133). When women live right alongside male relatives and participate in the same outdoors
activities, an assumption could be made that they are developing a bond with these natural
surroundings as well.
The majority of geographers posit that every space has a history grounded in nature
and natural conditions like location and climate that help to make each space unique. Reed
notes, that human geography provides recognition that gendered identities, including
aspirations and desires, are fully embedded in place and that different identities are shaped
through different areas (368). If identities are shaped differently in different regions or

26

communities, one could anticipate that the ideals and stereotypes normally dictating
acceptable behaviours and professions would also be different.
Barriers/Mobility Once In
The women who lived in forest-dependent communities and women who entered into
forest industry employment faced many difficulties and barriers. Exclusion from the types of
work that held higher prestige, for example as supervisors or operators of certain types of
machinery; lack of promotion and recognition for the good work that women did; sexual
harassment from co-workers; and being paid lower wages than men doing the same work all
act as barriers to staying employed. The Aluminum Company of Canada talks about how
“women still face barriers to employment and to occupational mobility that are not
experienced by men with similar qualifications” (VI). Being excluded from occupational
networks and lack of mentors also made these types of work difficult to endure; women had
to make sure to play the masculine game at work, to play by “their” rules, to laugh at the
sexist jokes and not to be offended by the vulgar language used. Women who were not
tough and determined did not last; they either transferred to the female enclaves in the
industry such as janitorial or administrative services or left the industry altogether. Women
who do stay in the forest industry, according to Priscilla Boucher, are “systematically
marginalized” (34). For women in the forest industry, the ‘glass ceiling’ has remained very
low; the majority of industry women are excluded from most positions of authority. The
positions these women are left in can become very routine.
Routine of Work/Proving Oneself
Routine in the forest industry can come in different ways. First there is the routine of
the lifestyle, which was exacerbated when the workers and their families were first living in
27

the towns built by the mill at the mill site. Company towns were developed at a mill site by
the mill owners in order to house and keep workers in remote areas. They usually consisted
of a mill site, a company store, a first-aid station, a clubhouse or bunkhouse for the single
men to live in, company houses for the families to live in, a mess hall that houses the kitchen
and eating area, and the office for the mill. With few to no amenities, people in these towns
were living similar lives to each other, lives that revolved around the mill. Bev Christensen
states:
The more than 800 small lumber mills operating in the area [PG forest district] during
the early 1960s also created a problem for the school district, which had a policy of
providing school wherever there were 10 or more school-age children. To meet the
demand for small schools near sawmills, the district began constructing portable
school buildings which could be moved onto the mill sites. (113)8
With possibly more than 800 little mill towns, daily lives in these towns could look very
similar day after day.
Secondly, routine can come from doing a repetitive task for employment, performing
the task multiple times every workday. “The boredom and alienation of this kind of wage
labour is overcome by interpreting it as a test of masculinity. Workers prove worth as men
by their ability to withstand dirt, noise, danger and boredom. Working conditions are read as
a challenge to masculinity, rather than as an expression of the exploitation of capitalist
relations of production,” (97) as explained by Thomas Dunk. Even with all the hard,
dangerous work in the forest industry, it can still become repetitive, routine and dull. How
workers deal with this besides considering it a test of masculinity is through the social
networks they create in the workplace. Dunk elaborates,

8 Square brackets added in order to define the area Christensen was referencing.

28

The informal group is also the basis of the joking and bantering that fill up a large
portion of the work day. This social aspect of the job is where meaning and
satisfaction are to be found, rather than in the work itself. “It’s the people you work
with that make a job enjoyable, as long as you got a good bunch of guys to work with
that’s all that matters.” (8)
Dunk illustrates how important male bonds in the workplace are to making the routine of the
work bearable.
The history of the forest industry involves a certain amount of mythology that
romanticizes and makes legendary the men who worked within the forests. As previously
mentioned, the rural roots of the forest industries of the interior of NBC created the
environment where the logging camps and people were isolated from cities and towns. In
those logging camps, with work done for the day one of the the limited activities left for
workers to do before sleep was to socialize with one another and that is when the storytelling
could occur. The stories were all about who did what in the woods, where a man could
become legendary due to his skills or even his accidents. Ken Drushka, Jo Little, Brain Egan
and Susanne Klausen and many more all discuss the legendary aspects of the forestry
industries. In the bunkhouses where the men would lodge for the night is where the
storytelling of the logging fraternity would occur. Dunk also stresses, “The celebration of
physical strength, practical skill, the willingness to withstand discomfort stoically, and being
able to ‘drink like a man’ became important signifiers or regional identity and
distinctiveness” (56). Storytelling not only provided the social interaction that fostered a
tight knit group of co-workers, but also allowed the workers to confirm their masculinity
through retelling of their own and other people’s exploits in the workplace: their ability to
handle whichever machine they were on, that they had this massive accident or rolled this
machine and survived, and the size of the biggest tree they ever felled or the day they had

29

their best production. These stories reaffirmed their masculinity, both for themselves and
also for others, in terms of what they managed to overcome in the workplace.
The masculine identity of forest workers was partially built on the idea that all forest
jobs, from logging to transporting to milling, require hard, dangerous, physically demanding
work that took long hours and some of which was located in rowdy logging camps. Reed
explains how boys were turned into men in the woods; the sense of danger was paramount to
this ideology of the forest industry culture because “it created pride in skills necessary to
avert the dangers” and also allowed for the creation of “bonding among” all members of
forestry communities (384). Not only were the woods a place for masculinity to be fostered
in men but the forest industry communities allowed the attitudes and beliefs about hard work
to be passed down from “one generation to another” and helped to “shape the masculine”
identity within these communities (Reed, 112). Matthew S. Carroll undertook a study to
discover whether members of the forest industry develop what sociologists call occupational
identity and community; his focus was on a logging community in Northwestern United
States.
Rather than simply being a way to make a living, work in some occupations may
become a major focus of the individual’s “on” and “o ff’ duty life... with four
components: people who view themselves to be involved in the same sort of work,
whose identity is closely linked to that work, who share “values, norms and
perspectives” connected to but extending beyond, the work setting and whose
networks of social relationships “meld the realms of work and leisure. (25-26)
Carroll discovered that members of the forest industry do form an occupational group with
subgroups as well. This definition is not intended to mean that people within an occupational
group do not have social connections and interests that go beyond the forest industry, but it

30

does point to how belonging to those industries was involved in defining values and core
beliefs.
Brian Egan and Susanne Klausen point out that “women who do have the capacity to
see themselves as forest workers perceive the industry to be hostile towards them and, as a
result, tend to seek employment in other sectors” (18). For women who do get hired in the
various jobs of the forestry industry the difficulties may continue because they need to prove
they belong to the occupational group. Women had to prove that they can handle the jobs,
which they did by performing their work as well and sometimes better than their male co­
workers. The perception that the industry is hostile towards them is likely if the occupational
group is not accepting. Carroll also stresses the importance of learning the occupational
language, “As part of initiation to his job, the new choker setter is expected to very quickly
learn the language of logging” (75). If a worker cannot learn the language and displays too
many signs of difference from the occupational group the worker will not be accepted. In
order to be accepted into the group, an initiation for any worker, male or female, would
include a considerable amount of teasing and/or being the “butt” of a few jokes. Carroll
explains,
If he [or she]9 responds appropriately, he [or she] goes a long way toward acceptance
by the crew. If, on the other hand, the individual is not well liked or responds with
anger or defensiveness to the initiation process, the experience can become very
unpleasant even to the point of driving him [or her] from the crew. (75)
From this description it is easy to understand how the forest industry had the potential to
become a hostile working environment for any person, male or female, who does not get
accepted by the occupational group. Epstein emphasizes,
9 Square brackets added. Carroll notes that even though he was told o f women loggers, he was unable to find
any for his research and, “due to the empirical basis o f this study, masculine pronouns are used freely in
describing loggers” (90).

31

Workplaces are relatively closed to people who possess characteristics or beliefs
dissimilar to those in the dominant group. Professionals of any field tend towards
homogeneity and consciously or unconsciously exercise exclusionary practices which
will deter the participation of persons or groups who do not possess the appropriate
characteristics. (167 as quoted in Myers, 64)
In male-dominated workplaces, women were naturally not members of the dominant group,
but in the case of occupational groups, if acceptance rested on proving ability to handle the
workload, banter, and jokes, women may be accepted. However, women and groups of
males that do not fit the dominant group may be subject to more of such behaviour, for a
greater extent of time, and “normal” teasing may blur into harassment and/or discrimination.
Tokenism
Women have been involved in working in the forest industry since it started in NBC,
in one capacity or another. The number of women, however, has always been low relative to
the number o f men. When places such as mills or logging companies hire one woman in a
workplace in order to convince anyone who is interested that there are no exclusionary
practices in the workplace, this makes the woman a token forest industry worker. Refusal to
hire women en masse due to beliefs such as the typical woman’s inability to handle the
workload reinforces barriers for female employment and sex-typing. Linda Kealey defines
sex-typing as “the idea of differences between men and women in muscular strength, skill
levels, training, and other areas...” and using those ideas to keep women from entering fields
of employment normally male (162). If belief in sex-typing is present, one could speculate
that male co-workers regard women as extraordinary and therefore the only women able to
work there. But women too may exclude themselves. If women believe the ideologies about
their ability to perform the labour required, they would not try to be employed in that
workplace. Epstein states, “Women tended to exclude themselves from attempting to enter

32

organizations simply because they also accepted the prevalent stereotypes of the day about
their inability to perform the job and their lack of entitlement to work for the organization”
(188, as quoted in Myers, 62). If the reasonable alternative employment available is not
male-dominated, women may be more inclined to seek employment there.
The patterns of women’s employment depend on the type of local industries,
particularly with the presence or absence of the kinds of industries that provide jobs for
women. Regarding the development of British Columbia’s economy, Patricia Connelly and
Martha Macdonald, and Maureen Gail Reed all contribute to the literature available.
According to Connelly, before the 1960s, almost everyone was involved in primary
production ranging from farming to lumbering to fishing to fur trading, depending on the
locality within BC, and the majority of the population lived on farms (55). Development of
industry in NBC was based mostly on the natural resource sector; therefore the possibility for
employment in female-dominated sectors may have been scarce.
Domesticity
There is little literature available regarding women’s lives in NBC or BC, and what
there is focuses mostly on the domestic roles and duties that women perform. In more recent
years there has been an increase in authors’ taking women into consideration and writing
them into the history of the province. Still, in terms of the area this thesis is concerned with,
women’s recorded contributions have generally been relegated to private spheres of
reproduction and consumption. Kerry Kilden states that “because it is usually the husband’s
work that brought them to the town, women’s lives are seen as being structured around their
husband’s jobs” (127). Due to the higher domesticity of women in these smaller forestry-

33

industry-based towns, the women have a tendency to be more “dependent on their husbands
to an unusual degree for economic and psychological support” (127). According to histories
of the area, women’s roles were largely reproductive and nurturing in the communities.
Women’s roles within these forestry towns were reproductive (being in charge of raising the
children in the home), consumptive (taking care of buying the goods for the household), and
only marginally productive (being a reserve labour force when needed, when the industry
was in a boom part of the cycle and needed workers quickly).10 The typical expectation for
female employment in these resource-based towns and communities is that women will
perform the nurturing within the home. Women who do work outside of the home will
normally be engaged in activities that are based on the same types of duties performed within
the home, such as waitressing, and nursing, to name a few, except for the select few who will
work in the forest industry when needed.
Though the histories of women working have not been well recorded and the
assumptions were that women tended to hold jobs that were unskilled and low-paying,
women have participated in whatever work happened in the family. Cathy Converse, among
many others, describes how work done by women outside of the home was generally an
extension of the work women performed within the household. Women worked as
“domestics, servants, teachers, nurses, stenographers, garment makers, telephone operators,
waitresses, fish-plant workers, candy makers, cooks and shop assistants” (35). When a
woman does look for paid employment outside of the home, work in female-dominated
occupations is a rational choice because it involves fewer hours, less danger, is usually
located closer to home, and is work based on skills that women should either already have or
10 This is a combination o f ideas presented by Reed, Egan and Klausen. Refer to Works Cited for specific
publications.

34

would be particularly suited to. These types of work conditions allow women to be
employed and also participate in motherhood. Many still perceive the role of motherhood as
the cornerstone of adult femininity. Rosemary Gillespie states that “the notion of
motherhood as constitutive of feminine gender identity, of women’s social role, and as
desirable and fulfilling for all women remains entrenched in industrial, urban, and rural
societies” (122). Domesticity and the domestic role play a large part in female identity and
femininity.
Female Identity and Femininity
Femininity is a subjective concept that refers to a set of gendered behaviours and
practices, which is fluid and not fixed and can mean as many different things as there are
women. The appropriate performance of gender is enforced by standards everyone seems to
be aware of. Fiona Gill points out that, “normality stands for continuity, the unexceptional
and the unthreatening. It also represents something which works for particular groups and
communities, meaning that the abnormal represents the strange, threatening and uncertain”
(par. 2.1). Femininity and masculinity are not natural expressions of self; they are socially
constructed scripts that persons of each sex are supposed to follow.
Femininity and masculinity are an ideology. For Marchak, “Ideology may be defined
as a set of beliefs widely shared which provide apparently adequate explanations for the
social experiences of individuals to persuade them of the legitimacy of the social
arrangements” (269). It is through this ideology that femininity and masculinity take on the
form of being something akin to an ‘essence’, something that a person should just naturally
have, not something that has to be worked on. One of the problems with this idea of

35

femininity and masculinity is one of the same problems that arise from stereotyping: that
people become defined by these things that cannot ever give a complete picture of all of the
characteristics each person embodies. Hilde Lindemann Nelson states that it is a mistake
when anyone speculates that there is “an essence of woman because women are never only
women, but also” mothers, sisters, workers, academics, activists and inhabitants of particular
societies in time and location (29). Whenever society defines women through stereotypes or
even ‘essences’, that then becomes the new yardstick to measure women against and find
them lacking.
Stereotypes associated with femininity include how a woman should look, dress,
behave, and even present herself. These stereotypes have a great deal to do with sexual
appeal and male dominance. Damaging as it may be to people in society, stereotyping is
rampant. People who believe in the stereotypes and try to conform to those boundaries but
find they are unable to may consider themselves to be faulty or flawed; this failure will be
believed to reside in themselves instead of with the stereotype. Renee Engeln-Maddox and
Sandra Bartky both present the idea of internalization and how it refers to the extent to which
any individual consciously adopts what is socially defined and aims to produce as close an
approximation of these ideals as possible. Bartky states,
Stereotyping is morally reprehensible as well as psychologically oppressive on two
counts, at least. First, it can hardly be expected that those who hold a set of
stereotyped beliefs about the sort of person I am will understand my needs or even
respect my rights. Second, suppose that I, the object of some stereotype, believe in it
myself - for why should I not believe what everyone else believes? I may then find it
difficult to achieve what existentialists call an authentic choice of self, or what some
psychologists have regarded as a state of self-actualization. (24)
This definition allows for all the different levels of participation in conforming to the
stereotypical and ideal versions of femininity by women. There are women who try very
36

hard to accomplish the feminine ideals, while other women have no interest in fulfilling any
of the ideals, and various women pick and choose which ideals they want to emulate and in
which ways they want to participate.
Some women strive to meet the ideals of femininity and female identity in every way,
and this may be because women are aware of the benefits to being deemed properly
feminine. Kristen Dellinger and Christine L. Williams, Renee Engeln-Maddox, Kim
Johnson and Sharron J. Lennon, Lisa R. Rubin, Carol J. Nemeroff and Nancy Felipe Russso,
Gwendolyn S O’Neal, and S. Holland all speak of the varying degrees to which women
knowingly participate in conforming to the feminine ideals. Past researchers have implied
that women blindly follow the standards laid before them culturally; Dellinger and Williams
point out the importance for researchers recognize that a majority of women are
“knowledgeable agents” faced by a society in which they are mostly excluded from power
(152). Renee Engeln-Maddox recognizes while there is substantial “evidence that many
women are striving to meet a beauty ideal presented in the media, there is also evidence
women often recognize the ideal for what it is - unrealistic and largely unattainable for most
women. Many women are able to critique these images of the ideal” and have found their
own ways to express femininity even though there is a lack of social power associated with
appearances which do not conform to the rules (259). When people observe current media
representations, it is apparent the current idealized female in society is white, thin, attractive,
follows current beauty trends in regards to her clothing and make-up application and also
appears fragile/frail, denoting the potential for physical weakness. Rubin, Nemeroff and
Russo point out that “thinness and attractiveness relate to being listened to more and being
viewed as competent, likeable and dateable” (35).

There is an unspoken expectation in Western culture that women are to conform to
what is considered heterosexual attractiveness and femininity. Women display their levels of
conformity through their appearance, and this appearance is designed to promote their sexual
availability to men and the male gaze. Renee Engeln-Maddox, Sandra Bartky and E. Tseelon
and numerous others all discuss how in the current body stereotype for women thinness is
emphasized. However, Renee Engeln-Maddox emphasizes how being slender is not enough;
women must also have or appear to have “flawless skin, well styled hair, and attractive facial
features” (258). Kristen Dellinger and Christine L. Williams have produced an analysis of
women’s use of makeup in the workplace and illustrate how women act as “knowledgeable
agents” within institutional constraints. Dellinger and Williams emphasize how women are
experts in societal expectations but also that women knowingly participate in ways that will
help to further their positions in the workplace and life goals (152). The reason that
participating in these stereotypical image rites can further a woman’s position in the
workplace or life in general is because it will show degrees of conformity to those in power,
men.
The images of women in society focus on appearance and encourage females of all
ages to focus on their own appearance in order to try and comply with those idealized
images. Bartky discusses how adornment of the body was a primitive way for people to
announce their own appreciation for themselves. But I believe the ideology behind current
bodily adornment has twisted into a way to prove one’s worth to society by conforming to
the ideals presented through images of women that are found everywhere. Sandra Bartky
explores this further:

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the persistent need she has to make herself attractive, to fix her hair and put on
lipstick - is it the false need of a chauvinized woman, encouraged since infancy to
identify her human value with her attractiveness in the eyes of men, or does it express
a basic need to affirm a wholesome love for one’s body by adorning it, a behaviour
common in primitive societies, allowed us but denied men in our own still puritan
culture? (18)
The need some women have to follow these rituals comes from an external source that has
been made to seem natural. Vickie Rutledge Shields and Dawn Heinecken state that
“fulfilling the potential of ideal femininity involves a constant focusing on the body as the
site of improvement and as the object of judgment” (89). Women who have internalized the
ideals presented socially focus their attention on their bodies because that is their purpose for
the world at large, to be attractive and sexually appealing for the male gaze. Women’s levels
of conformity are judged by the male gaze. Just as the definitions are controlled by maledominated society, so too are the evaluations. Femininity is not just about presenting the
proper appearance to the social world but also about following certain ideals about
behaviour.
N. Wolf reminds us that “the beauty myth is always actually prescribing behaviour
and not appearance” (13-14). When women focus their attention on their appearance, they
are less likely to have time to focus on other matters such as the social inequality women still
face worldwide. Denise Riley asserts, “Socialist feminism has always tended to claim that
women are socially produced in the sense of being conditioned and that femininity is an
effect” (2). Women have been trained, by those images in society, by teachers, family and
friends, to understand what types of behaviour and appearance they are expected to emulate
in order to be considered ‘properly’ feminine.

39

Susan L Williams studied the effects of gender when girls in two different
communities had differential access to sports. What she discovered was that when these
types of activities are open to everyone, regardless of gender, gender itself becomes “more
subtle” because “more alternatives to stereotypical gender conventions are available” (3940). So when social constraints are not using a person’s gender to restrict what resources are
available for them to use, gender itself is less of a restriction. The gender roles will remain
intact but ultimately will be less restrictive because the focus becomes less about which
gender is performing a task and more about whether a person is performing a task well.
Unfortunately, the majority of society currently does not offer equal opportunity for persons
of female gender, whose purposes are still defined mostly through how well their
appearances and behaviours meet the prevalent stereotypes and ideals.
Objectifications/Sexual Harassment
The sexual objectification of women can be found in the images of women that are
present everywhere, and have served to provide definitions of femininity, and therefore, to
define women’s entire being as a body. Sandra Bartky defines sexual objectification as
having occurred “when a woman’s sexual parts or functions are separated out from her
person, reduced to the status of mere instruments, or else regarded as if they were capable of
representing her” (35). Lisa Adkins explains how women are still valued through their
bodies, which makes them less valuable than any other human expected to possess a mind
and personality. In normal realms of female work, attractiveness “expecting and dealing
with forms of sexual objectification from men customers and men co-workers” is a large part
of the job (145). Adkins also stresses that, by “responding to sexual innuendos and men’s
advances, by smiling, looking flattered and entering” into conversation with men, women are

40

providing a type of sexual service to men (158). Numerous researchers discuss the different
types of sexual objectification and sexual harassment that women face in the workplace.
Sexual harassment at work takes many different forms such as sexist jokes and vulgar
language and is part of the initiation of any individual who enters male-dominated working
environments. Jennifer Penny explains how women “put up with frequent and degrading
sexual comments and innuendo, derogatory sexual graffiti, or pom photos plastering the
washrooms and lunchrooms.” (15) While sexual harassment can occur in any workplace,
some theorists posit that for women entering male-dominated workplaces, sexual harassment
is more likely to occur. Claire M. Renzetti and Daniel J. Curran mention that “Some
observers claim that [sexual harassment] is especially pervasive in male-dominated jobs to
which women are new hires, since it may serve as a means for male workers to assert
dominance and control over women who otherwise would be their equals.” (190)11 Men in
these workplaces may resort to disguising their sexual harassment in the form of jokes they
tell either directly to the female co-workers, or merely when they are within earshot.
Michele Landsberg points out that,
Because they hate to seem shrill, or humourless, or bad sports, women will uneasily
co-operate with any number of demeaning feminine role requirements, ranging from
polite laughter at anti-female jokes to getting the coffee for a roomful of male
colleagues at work, something that would never be asked of a man in the same
position unless there were no female available. (7)
Disguising sexual harassment as ‘jokes’ not only makes light of the seriousness of the matter
but also puts the blame onto the women for not having enough of a sense of humour to
understand how these comments are funny. As previously mentioned, an initiation to join
the occupational group in the forest industries would involve being the “butt” of some jokes,

11 Square brackets added for clarity, the original quote says “it” referencing sexual harassment.

41

and practical jokes and failure to respond in the ‘appropriate' way would result in a
miserable workplace. Negotiating femininity in male-dominated work places can be tricky.
Kate Gillen discusses how working women have “to negotiate an image that suggested
competence while avoiding masculinity, and which preserved femininity while avoiding
overt sexual signaling” (78).
Conclusion
This chapter investigated the dynamics of the forest industry: how it helps forge the
masculine identities of its workers and an occupational group identity. This chapter
reviewed aspects of the industry regarding hiring practices, the amount of mobility
employees have once employed within forest industry, the degree of routine present in the
workday, and the importance of workers’ proving their ability to handle the workload with
pride. There was also a discussion of literature that reviewed characteristics specific to
female identity and femininity in the creation of female employment and the domestic role
within the home and family. This was followed by an examination of femininity in terms of
the ideal and stereotypical version available in society, along with the way women perform
femininity as an appearance, behavior and identity. Arguments were presented of how
sexual harassment and objectification are prevalent in any type of women’s employment
whether in traditional vocations or not. The next chapter will move into a discussion of the
underlying theories of this thesis, discuss the importance of oral history and interviewing,
and review the guiding principle of saturation for academic purposes. Chapter Three will
also describe the process of recruiting participants and the interview process, introduce the
participants to readers, and finally, discuss research limitations.

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Chapter 3
Methodologies
Discussions of femininity involve a large variety of ideologies, can contain differing
and diametrically opposing views, and can be completely contradictory at any given time.
As the previous chapters and following case study show, discussing female identity and
femininity brings a multitude of social, political and personal dynamics to light as gender
identities intersect with every aspect of social life. The sensitivity around gender dialogue
makes the application of methodological frameworks that much more important. This
research pulls from multiple methodologies and follows the theories of Postmodernism and
Feminist Standpoint theory. Along with the methodological layout, this chapter will also
describe the methods of research, theoretical developments with regard to using personal
narratives and interviewing, the sample of participants, how they were recruited, and an
explanation of the interview process. It follows the basic criteria that developed through the
debate of the academic use of interviews and oral history as a means of ensuring that those
excluded from the dominant stories participate in the historical understanding of events.
Research limitations are discussed after the introduction of the participants and conclude the
chapter.
Postmodern Theory
Postmodern theory emphasizes and embraces difference. Postmodern theory asks the
reader and theorist to question beliefs that everything is continuous and can be defined in
linear fashion. Gail Cuthbert Brandt, S. Holland, Gerda Lemer, Richard Peet, Carolyn
Sachs, Sandra Bartky and Maureen Gail Reed all contribute to the discussion of postmodern
theory. Postmodern theory rejects the linear, supposedly all-encompassing history that has
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been written. This history is rejected because it fails to recognize that there are specific
social and cultural factors that kept certain people out of written history. Postmodernism
recognizes that there are many alternative histories to the one accepted and written into
academia and therefore history could not be linear. S. Holland suggests that postmodern
arguments state that gender identity is more “fluid” than stagnant “and that sex/gender
distinction” is flawed “because biological differences are not significant in themselves”; they
are only significant if society portrays them as such (9). Postmodernist theory therefore
would argue against the viability of any type of binary way of thinking and understanding the
world. The modem Western world developed its social structure on many binary constructs
where the first term is always preferred and privileged over the second term: man/woman,
reason/emotion, and public/private. Before the postmodern period these types of binary
thinking were considered the natural order of things, but social changes brought these
assumptions into view and allowed the possibility of analysis of these views and alternatives
to them. Generalizations and universality that have previously defined history, society,
women and ethnic groups cannot be taken as valid. The differences are as important as the
similarities and there can be more than one truth about any given situation. Postmodern
theory is important to this thesis because it recognizes that gender is not a natural human
quality, but it is created and re-created in everyday interactions. Postmodernism opens
academic space for marginalized groups’ truths to exist beside non-marginalized truths
without privileging one truth over the other.
Postmodern theory is also important for this thesis because it teaches that identity is
never static but is always fluctuating, and importantly that some aspects of identity are
formed under duress from the pressures of social constraints. Bartky explains that “the
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disciplines and practices within which our identities are constructed are multifarious and
often contradictory” (25). This reiterates that identities can hold many different parts and
can include opposing aspects: for example, women who believe they possess feminine
qualities even though they work in masculine industries and have adopted some of the more
masculine traits associated with those industries. Women are able to simultaneously
challenge some aspects of stereotypical or ideal femininity while embracing the overall
concept even when they may believe many of the stereotypical or ideal aspects to be
negative. Postmodern theories also posit that all knowledge is historically situated and at
best only able to provide partial truths about the situation. Richard Peet believes that
“postmodern [theory]12 considers reason to be an historical and regional form of thought
rather than a universal potential” (73). According to postmodernism then, the knowledge
developed in the interior of NBC forestry industries and communities and lifestyles would be
different from knowledge in the rest of BC and Canada.
Specific NBC knowledge, lifestyles, even femininity and masculinity would also be
different from area to area, depending on the social and physical environment of each area.
Postmodern discourse argues that meaning is socially constructed through different power
relations in society. In contrast to believing the written account that universalizes man’s
history, postmodernism cherishes difference and different ways of knowing and being. For
Carolyn Sachs, “postmodernism is defined as philosophical skepticism, the deconstruction of
ideas concerning truth, knowledge, power, self, and language that have characterized
Western thinking since the Enlightenment” (18). Postmodernism encourages the study of
difference over the idea of generalizations and universal knowledge that has historically only

12 Square brackets added.

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involved the ideas of upper-class, privileged, white men. Postmodern theory uses
deconstruction to dislodge the “truths” presented to society and bring to light what has been
kept hidden from the official records of society and therefore removed from knowledge and
language of patriarchal society. This may seem like an inappropriate statement for a theory
that denies the existence of truth, but my understanding is that while postmodernism denies
the existence of any kind of all-encompassing, universal truth, it does allow for, and perhaps
even encourages the possibility for an infinite number of truths available in any
circumstance.
As mentioned above, one of the tools of postmodern analysis is deconstruction.
Deconstruction means to study something very closely to discover the parts that are taken to
be so obvious that it goes without saying and then analyze it to discover how it developed,
whose interests it protects, and its validity. Peter Barry explains that the theory developed by
Jacques Derrida was to take apart and closely examine language used to determine not only
the meanings of the words used but also to understand the meanings in the unspoken ways
language is being used (70-71). Feminist appropriation of deconstruction theory works to
understand the concepts, ideas, and knowledge regarding women’s roles in society and their
very nature. The ways in which women have been defined, discussed and restricted needs to
be thoroughly examined. Roberta Hamilton points out that “feminists have been drawn to
the theories of post-structuralism and deconstructionism and have turned them into powerful
ways of examining how language creates, sustains, and constrains our sense of who we are
and... how language, by its volatility and flexibility, may open up spaces for challenges to
dominant discourses” (3). The importance in this postmodern use of deconstruction lies, for
the purposes of this thesis, in the fact that women as a group have been defined by others;
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when those definitions are deconstructed, what is left is what women may actually selfidentify with as opposed to all those ideals that have defined who women are supposed to be.
This is not to suggest that if women were able to define their identity by their own terms that
this new identity would be more real than the identity provided by society, just that if there
were no pre-conceived ideals of what defines women or men, the subordination of one way
of being in favour of the other would have the potential to dissolve.
These definitions have been taken as truisms and have tried to categorize all women
in the same group while ignoring the individual experiences that contribute to and shape each
woman’s personal identity. The definitions also operate under the assumption that women
lead essentially the same lives regardless of geography, culture, ethnicity, religious beliefs,
sexuality, and class. A postmodern approach allows for the focus on individual experience
as a way to understand differing truths and realities. Everyone experiences the same event in
a different way because her/his bias has been formed through the specific lens of lived
experience. Liz Bondi states, “The essence of experience, therefore, resides not in its
authenticity but in its ability to inform our ideas and actions” (95). Female identity
definitions must be deconstructed and reconstructed in order to discover and undermine what
dominant social definitions are in place. I have used deconstruction in a limited way in this
thesis; however, as I state in my conclusion, there is much potential in a deconstruction of
forest industry language and metaphor.
Postmodern theory is about trying to understand the ways in which society has
developed and examining social definitions in order to discover where challenges to these
can be made. Judith Butler informed readers,

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That gender reality is created through sustained social performances means that the
very notions of an essential sex and a true or abiding masculinity or femininity are
also constituted as part of the strategy that conceals gender’s performative character
and the performative possibilities for proliferating gender configurations outside the
restricting frames of masculinist domination and compulsory heterosexuality. (141)
These social performances take place during all of our social interactions. Feminists adopted
the term “gender” to use as a analytical tool for discovering all the ways in which masculine
and feminine definitions are socially created. The theoretical background for the use of
gender is to gain the ability to provide new definitions to masculinity and femininity because
the theories are inadequate for explaining why the inequalities between women and men are
so persistent. The study of women’s lives needed a theory to move from describing women’s
lived experiences to explaining the reasons for the differences in women’s lives and also the
inequalities they face.
Postmodern theories emphasize how unstable, fluid, and fragmentary identities are,
especially since identity is a key element of subjective reality where each person’s
knowledge comes to be socially established as their own fluctuating and changing truths and
realities. Jo Little sees the possibilities stemming from gender and deconstruction as
providing “an opportunity for the deconstruction of gender categories and a focus on the
notion of gender identity in an acknowledgement of the differing ways in which people
experience and perform their gender identities” (35).
Feminist Standpoint Theory
Feminist standpoint theory speculates that because all women have shared
experiences, such as subordination to men, the assumption they will be responsible for
childcare, or having fewer options available for types of employment, these experiences
provide women with ways of interacting and understanding the world that are different from
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male points of view. Liz Bondi, Nancy C. M. Hartsock, Carolyn Sachs, Sandra Bartky, R.
W. Connell, and S. Holland are among the theorists who have added to the discussion of
women’s ways of knowing and how they differ from men’s ways of knowing. This different
way of knowing has been described by many as a kind of “double vision” because oppressed
people need to both understand themselves and the oppressors. The research for this thesis
uses standpoint theory because the knowledge of the forest industries as it has been written is
from the perspective of the dominant culture, the male worker. By using the perspectives
and knowledge of women in the forestry industries this thesis hopes to contribute more
significantly to the field by providing a yet unrecorded perspective. Due to the nature of this
double vision, the views of the participants are extremely important to the research because
they are the only people in this unique position of understanding. Carolyn Sachs notes that
“controversy remains concerning what exactly compose the everyday life experiences that
provide women with different ways of viewing the world” (13). Women’s standpoint comes
directly from the social experiences of their lives, from the divisions of labour, the inability
to define themselves, and their basic subordination to men in all areas.
Postmodernism, through its focus on individual knowledge, could make arguments
that there is no universal way of knowing, but what standpoint acknowledges is that while
differences are fundamental to individual knowledge, women do share certain social realities,
such as the subordination of women and the way women have been defined. The idea of
individual knowledge and truths seems at odds with the idea that women share certain social
realities. What is meant by this is that women can understand or empathize with certain
social realities like the subordination of women by society as a whole because they have
experienced their own versions of subordination, not that because someone is a woman she

has “pure” knowledge or can truly understand someone else’s experience. There is still not a
possibility of a singular truth because no one can have the same experience as anyone else.
Certain ways of knowing have been, and continue to be, privileged over other ways
of knowing: male over female, academic over non-academic, and researcher over participant.
The problem is that none of the ways of knowing should be considered more truthful than
any other ways of knowing. Added to this is that it is an impossibility to obtain objective
knowledge, for all knowledge is subjective because those who conceive and present it do so
from their own specific historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. Instead of trying to
claim that the knowledge being presented is objective, one should instead situate oneself in
the research by providing the lens through which this knowledge was obtained.
I want to be explicit about my relationship to those who participated in my research.
I was similar to them in the manner that I was raised within the occupational culture of the
forestry industries; they may have seen me as having a partial understanding of the culture. I
was familiar with the terms and had a basic understanding of what the machinery looked like
and did, the lifestyle, the boom and bust cycles. There were also many differences between
myself and the participants, which along with the similarities helped enlighten and enhance
the interviews and the research findings.
Though I never worked in the forest industry I had many non-working experiences
within it; recognized, from an early age, female involvement in numerous capacities; and had
hoped to become directly involved myself. Growing up in a family where several members
worked in the various forest industries meant that we were all affected by the forest industry
either directly or indirectly. My fascination with the machinery, the language, even the

50

lifestyle was cultivated at an early age because it was part of my lived reality. My uncles,
grandfathers, grandmother, aunt, cousins, and father all worked in varying capacities in the
forest industry. Camp life meant a large number of males in my family were in a logging
camp for weeks at a time; when they came home that time was spent in big gatherings where
the adults told stories of other workers in the bush along with stories of their own adventures.
The longest time periods spent with my father during my childhood were during spring
break-up, which seemed to be the only time he was ever home for more than a week. This
time would be filled with all sorts of different men coming over and spending hours at the
kitchen table exchanging industry stories.
When I expressed an interest in running machinery for employment, the people I
knew made enough dissuasive comments —‘you don’t want to be like those women out
there’, for example —that I did not go through with it. No one in my family or circle wanted
me working out in the bush. Considering that many people in my family were/are in the
various fields of the forest industry, their reactions to my interest in joining the forest
industry were surprising, because they understood better than many how much income could
be earned in one summer, more than enough to pay for my education each year. This denial
of my entry into the industry due to their persuasive arguments left me with a variety of
questions. My questions pertained to what it was like to work in any of the industries,
especially if you are female; whether or not working in those industries was too difficult for
women physically; and what values were expressed when stating that the forest industry is
not for women. Was it that women were not treated the same as men in the industry? The
storytelling aspect of the industry first introduced me to logging vernacular and made me
eager to know more about the forest industries. But while I grew up hearing the male stories,
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I did not have the opportunity to hear any stories directly from women until much later.
Oral History and Interviewing

Considering that storytelling is a major element in the culture of forest industries and
that I needed to generate original data for my thesis, oral accounts and interviewing willing
participants have created the source of my data. Oral history has been used by feminist
researchers as a way to uncover those histories of women that have remained hidden from
literature. Interviewing as a means to obtain data is a way to perform feminist research
methods. An important aspect of interviewing is making sure that proper saturation of the
topic is reached with the study group size.
Oral history and interviewing are vitally important to researching any topic that has
not been the focus of major academic undertaking. Certain topics and groups in society have
thus far escaped academic interest. Rural and/or northern areas, because of the smaller
population and being quite removed from any decision-making power within the provinces
and country, have remained under-researched. As a group, women have escaped notice until
relatively recent years. Oral history and interviewing are also important for trying to
understand the sense of place that first-hand accounts can provide. Jean Barman, Joanna
Bomat and Hanna Dianmond, C. Daley, Gerda Lemer, and Veronica Strong-Boag and Anita
Clair Fellman all speak to the importance of oral history and interviewing for establishing a
more accurate picture of social life. Joanna Bomat and Hanna Dianmond believe that
“personal testimony now has a central place in the creation of knowledge across numerous
disciplines and that the popularity and influence of the biographical has never been greater”
(34). As discussed above, postmodernist theory stresses that there is no single meaning to

reality and no single truth. Therefore, meanings are historically situated and constructed
through language. There is no better way to discover the meanings of femininity in maledominated working environments than through oral history and interviewing the women
within those environments when no literature on the subject is available.
The experiences of women are gendered. Therefore the content of their oral histories
will also be gendered, as were the histories that had previously been written. The most
important aspect of postmodernism and standpoint theory is not only that there are a variety
of experiences and ways to understand the world, but also that those varieties are recognized
without imposing the idea of normalcy because normalcy implies universality.
Interviewing and Saturation
One must keep in mind while conducting interviews that the work is to bring
participants’ perspectives, lives, and definitions into the academic canon. K. Anderson and
D.C. Jack, Katherine Borland, Stephen Caunce, Marie-Francoise Chanfrault-Duchet, Greg
Guest, Arwen Bunce and Laura Johnson, Emily Honing, Joseph H. Michalski, and L. Shopes
have all discussed at length the importance of ensuring that the participants are allowed to
speak for themselves and that the work done in the interviewing and interpreting process
does not in turn oppress their definitions and perspectives again. K. Anderson and D.C. Jack
explain that,
The expression of women’s unique experience as women is often muted, particularly
in any situation where women’s interests and experiences are at variance with those
of men. A women’s discussion of her life may combine two separate, often
conflicting, perspectives: one framed in concepts and values that reflect men’s
dominant position in the culture, and one informed by the more immediate realities of
a woman’s personal experience. (11)

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This is especially true in the historical telling of the forestry industries in BC. The history of
forestry practices in BC has glorified the masculinity of men, emphasizing that the work was
so hard, dirty, dangerous and isolated that only the stoutest of men could possibly undertake
it.
Thus it is important during the interview process that the participant feels comfortable
exploring the topics researchers are pursuing. Comfort can be expected when the research
values the information the participants provide, when the participants are able to explore
their feelings and behaviours, and when they are encouraged to explain what they mean in
their own terms regardless of how those concepts have been previously defined. On the
other hand, Katherine Borland reminds researchers that it is important to represent their
“work in a way that grants the speaking woman inteipretive respect without relinquishing our
responsibility to provide our own interpretation of her experience” (64). The researcher must
find balance between letting the participant’s words speak for themselves and using
secondary materials to interpret those words and try and place them within the academic
field.
When conducting interviews, researchers also need to know how many interviews
they should be conducting in order to achieve the highest level of variation on the subject at
hand. Greg Guest, Arwen Bunce, and Laura Johnson conducted a research study in order to
determine the number of interviews needed for sample continuity. Their research concluded
that six to eight interviews would render accurate information or saturation, when no new
information is being provided regardless of how many more interviews take place.
According to their study “when and how saturation is reached depends on several things: (1)
the number and complexity of data, (2) investigator experience and fatigue, and (3) the
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number of analysts reviewing the data” (77). For this thesis the data from nine interviews
have been compiled and I believe that saturation was reached within those interviews. I feel
the women who participated in this study represent a variety of different employment sectors
within the forest industries and contribute to the histories of those industries. Even though
many of the participants performed different types of work, their individual responses were
very similar and even coincide with some aspects of case studies done by other researchers.
Carroll’s study of the occupational groups of loggers and how new workers enter the group
matched responses given by the participants about proving themselves and being accepted by
their co-workers. The respondents in this study were similar in defining themselves as
feminine while knowing they reject aspects of traditional femininity. This leads me to
believe that these experiences are not entirely specific to NBC, but could share
commonalities with other geographical locations and also with women entering other maledominated fields. All together I conducted thirteen interviews and after the first nine
interviews no new information was being provided by the participants. Even though two of
the first nine interviews withdrew, the additional four interviews did not generate any new
data.
The Recruitment of Interviewees
For the research of this thesis I took a very broad view when I was searching for
participants. On the poster I placed in various locations, I requested any women who were
working or had worked in the forestry industry in NBC; for possible occupations I listed
work in logging or logging camps, on logging equipment or driving a logging truck, and mill
workers or women working in offices within mills. The posters were placed in locations
such as the marshalling point where mill workers are picked up by the mill buses; on bulletin

55

boards in mills; on bulletin boards at truck stops; on bulletin boards at community centres; on
fences during logger sports events; in malls; and at senior centres, grocery stores, and local
businesses. I contacted everyone I know within the industries to spread the word to anyone
interested and I asked the women I know personally who work within the industries if they
would like to participate. Altogether I was in contact with fifteen women to participate in the
research, though only nine continued their participation through to the end of the thesis.
Three of the women I knew personally agreed to participate (with one, our schedules
remained conflicted and the interview did not take place). Six women heard about the
project through word of mouth (all six women were interviewed, but two withdrew). Two
participants were contacted by family/friends who had seen the posters and thought they
would be interested (one interview did take place, while conflicting schedules prevented the
second from occurring). Four women responded to the posters directly, though one did not
believe she would have time for the interview (three interviews were conducted but one
participant withdrew after the interview).
During initial contact, which happened via phone, email or in person, I informed the
potential participants of my project intentions to ensure there was no deception as to what
their participation would involve. There was a pre-interview meeting in order to reiterate
what the project and their participation involved and to obtain signatures on the consent
forms. Some of the participants wanted to proceed with the interview at that point. For
others a time and place were arranged for the interview. The consent form was explained in
full detail to each participant including different options concerning anonymity and
confidentiality. Given the personal nature of the information provided by the participants,
each participant had the choice to participate anonymously; only some chose this option.
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Options offered for maintaining confidentiality included omitting names, using only initials
and changing or omitting specific identifiers such as the company name and which years the
participant was employed there. Names of people, places and even specific companies
mentioned by the participants were omitted. While anonymity is important, some
participants did not want their identity to be anonymous; those participants waived
anonymity but were informed that should they change their minds the option was still
available until the last edit of the project. In the end, anonymity was granted to participants
through the use of fabricated initials, as is discussed further in Chapter Four.
The Interview Process
The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured format in order to spend more
time with the participants and facilitate an open interviewer/interviewee relationship. They
were asked standard background questions such as their names, where they live/lived, and
their ages at the time. All nine of the interview questions [Appendix B] were extremely
open-ended in order to ensure discussion; there were subject prompts because the project
aims at gaining an understanding about personal interpretation.
Before beginning the first interview with each participant, the interviewee signed the
oral interview/transcript release form and each participant received her own copy. Any
restrictions placed on the use of the interviews were written on the release form. During the
interviewing process I used an audio digital recording device and note-taking. Before any
subsequent interviews, the previous material was reviewed by listening to the recordings on
my computer (though it was not stored there), transferring the recording to disc, and erasing
it from the audio digital device. Listening to the previous interviews allowed me to hear any

57

gaps in the information and provided insight for different questions and prompts to more
thoroughly understand what the participants were explaining. Listening to the interviews
alerted me to any definitions needed from the participants with regards to language they used
and any discrepancies in the material. Discrepancies in the material can be an indication that
the woman is dealing with conflicting ideas and views about a given subject.
There was only one participant with whom more than one interview occurred to cover
all of the questions and material. At the beginning of the subsequent interview the participant
was asked if she wished to continue with the interviewing and recording process and was
reminded of her right to withdraw from the project at any time. If, at any time during the
pre-interview, interviewing or transcribing process, or at any time before the thesis has been
successfully defended, the participants no longer wished to participate in the project, they
were offered the choice to withdraw all the information collected or to end their participation
at that point but permit any specified amount of the previously collected information to be
used in the project. If the participant wished to withdraw all the information or only parts,
she would be given all copies of said information; none of the participants chose this option.
Once the interviewing process was complete and all the interviews transcribed, each
participant received a transcribed copy of her own interview to review in order to ensure the
information was accurate and each woman was comfortable with the information there. The
women had the right to and were encouraged to edit out any parts of the transcript they were
not comfortable being used and to add any missed information or other information they felt
was relevant to the study. Participants had final control over what information they were
willing to contribute to this project and returned the edited interviews to me in the selfaddressed, stamped envelope provided. Three of the participants opted out of the study at
58

this point; two did not return the interviews, and one I lost contact with. All of the transcripts
and discs were kept by me and will remain in a secure location for a twelve-month period
following the successful defence of the thesis (June 2013), after which they will be returned
to the interviewees or destroyed by me, depending on the wishes of each interviewee. A
copy of the final thesis will be given to each of the participants.
The Participants
As discussed earlier, in my selection of participants my goal was to be as inclusive as
possible in order to get a large number of respondents. Had there been an overwhelming
number of people wanting to participate in my research, I would have, at that point,
considered narrowing my definition of forest industries. That the participants self-identify as
currently or previously being employed within forest industries was vital. Another reason for
being so inclusive is to count types of work that are involved directly with forest industries
but have not been counted historically through official sources/agencies like Statistics
Canada, local histories or even personal memoirs of working in the industries. The fact that
these participants self-identify as working in the forest industries and the pride they feel in
this employment role play important defining roles in both the participants' identities and
femininity. Due to the virtual invisibility of women working in forest industries in the
literature available, allowing my research to be as inclusive as possible challenges the
ideology that forest industries are strictly a male domain. Though arguments may be made
that professional foresters or tree planting are not a part of forest industries because they are
not directly involved in getting the wood out of the forests and processing it for profit,
without the work performed by both professional foresters or tree planting and numerous

59

other positions, the types of work normally defined as forest industries such as logging or
mill work would not happen.
For the purposes of this thesis the employment time span of the participants covers
1960 to 2000. Two participants started forest industry employment in the sixties. There
were also two participants that started in the seventies and the eighties. Three participants
started their employment in the nineties. The longest length of employment covered forty
years, while the shortest time span was equivalent to approximately one year of employment.
Out of the nine participants, only three remain employed in forest industry work at the time
of our last communication.
All the types of forest industries these women have worked in are vital to extraction.
Collectively the participants have covered numerous different types of forest-industries
employment and have worked in Cariboo Region, Skeena Region, Northeast Region and
Omineca Region, according to the boundaries set by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and
Natural Resource Operations [Appendix A]. The different positions varied greatly and more
than one participant worked certain types of forest industry positions. Three participants
worked in clean-up positions in mills. Four participants were tree planters during their forest
industry careers. Two participants cooked in forest industry camps. Two women ran a
processor in the bush. Four participants operated skidder/Cat machines. Two participants
received forklifit operating tickets and operated forklifts. Two participants worked as 7-0-4
persons, which is a checker making sure the trees are being planted and spaced correctly.
Two employees were employed doing block layout. Three employees worked as log scalers.

60

There were also several positions within the forest industry that only one of the
participants was employed doing. These positions include: fire suppression, canter machine
operation, hand falling or bucking, operating the trimmer in a mill, first aid attendance,
managing the rental and bunkhouses and lumber sales for a company town, hoe operation,
production and clerking, herbicide application, researching the effects of glyphosate (the
chemical in Roundup) on vegetation and seedlings, grading lumber, running the packing
plant, mill work, Human Resources management, filing in the office, driving logging truck,
running a grapple skidder, quad saw operation, working utility in the machine room at a mill,
being transportation foreman, being a timekeeper, boom lift operation, running the cut-off
saw, hiring for shutdowns, tree spacing with power saws, scissor lift operation, running a
Latumo loader, completing environmental assessments, running road graders, weed
whacking, working in a planer mill, working as a contractor for the Ministry of Forests doing
silviculture surveys, working as an accountant, Beaver machine operation, cone picking,
being a log yard foreman, payroll processing, managing accounts receivable and payable,
office management, stand tending, timber cruising, stream classification (which sets the
parameters of how close logging can be done to streams), pruning, and girdling weed trees,
which strips the bark off around the stem of the tree to kill it without using pesticides or
herbicides so that desirable trees planted will have the best possible growing conditions.
All of the participants were aware of other women working in the forest industry.
The participants reported seeing other women working in forestry service; as forest
technicians; in professional forestry; as forestry students; for the ministry of environment; in
hydrology; as highway persons on the civil engineering side of things; in offices as
administrators and office workers; in human resources; as bookkeepers, company owners,
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supervisors, machinery owners, bull cooks, camp cooks, and camp workers; in silviculture,
vegetation tending, cone picking, and tree planting; bucking the limbs of felled trees with a
chainsaw; as log scalers; in quality control, cut-off saw operation, and bark-saw operation;
operating button-tops and forklifts; as paper wrappers; as janitors; in bleach plant as clean-up
and labour; piling lumber; working in the packaging plant; as sawmill workers and running
mill machinery; as planer mill workers and running planer machinery; and as truck drivers.
Research Limitations
There is extensive literature available regarding BC and the logging industry, but
there is very little examining the forest industry in NBC. While many aspects of logging and
the forest industry of both North and South BC are similar, such as the equipment used or the
regulations that must be followed, there are also large differences between coastal and inland
wood harvesting. In some of the literature available I was able to find information
mentioning women involved in the forest industries, but those mentions were mostly in
passing and were not specifically looking at the work women were performing. Of the
sparse literature available, aside from a few studies that look only at the Northern Interior,
the majority focused on the southern forest industry though they indicate studying logging in
BC. Literature that was written looking specifically at women’s experiences with the forest
industry focuses on the experiences within the forest-based community but not within the
actual industry. Although these topics are extremely important at discussing and valuing
women’s experiences within the community, my focus is on women’s experiences within the
occupational community at work.

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There were some limitations with the recruitment of participants for this study;
though ethnic background was not a determining factor in the recruitment process, none of
the participants identified themselves as belonging to First Nations groups, or other ethnic
minorities. While I was quite thrilled with the number of women who chose to participate,
and the data provided by the interviewees reached saturation on our discussion topics, there
was an abundance of information provided that did not fit within the scope of the study. The
storytelling aspect of the forest industries fell beyond the scope of this thesis. In the
following case study the data presented by the participants will be discussed.
Conclusion
Developing an understanding of femininity involves interacting with a variety of
differing ideologies and opposing and sometimes contradictory outlooks. Discussing female
identity and femininity conveys a myriad of social, political and personal dynamics to light
because gender identities intersect every aspect of social life. The selection and application
of methodological frameworks are extremely important considering the sensitivity that
surrounds gender discussions. The methodologies used for this thesis include the theories of
Postmodernism and Feminist Standpoint. While the case study does not follow either one of
these theories exactly, when combined, the theories are vital to furthering the understanding
of female identity and femininity. This chapter also discussed the importance of theoretical
developments concerning the use of personal narratives and interviewing for academic study
and as a means to ensure members previously excluded from the dominant story of history
can now be included. The participants were also introduced; along with an explanation how
they were recruited and the interview process itself. The limitations of this research were
also discussed. The following chapter will provide the analysis and participants’ responses
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to the interview questions. After carefully reviewing the interviews, I looked for common
themes within the transcripts and identified seven that were shared among all of the
interviewees. Therefore, I have organized the next chapter in accordance with those themes.
The case study is divided into seven main threads of conversation: getting in, mobility,
routine of work and proving oneself, cleanliness and domesticity, tokenism, femininity, and
sexuality.

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Chapter Four
Analysis and Participants’ Responses
When considering how the female identity and femininity of women were affected by
working in the male-dominated forestry industry of the interior of NBC, new data needed to
be generated as existing literature and studies did not address these types of topics. The
following case study articulates these contexts through the individual experiences and
ideologies of nine women who self-identify as having worked or are currently working in
various forest industries. The experiences provided throughout this chapter build on the
theories in Chapter Two and further fill the gap in information regarding female identity and
femininity in NBC.
While the main purpose of my thesis was to discover what effects, if any, working in
the male-dominated forest industry had on the participants’ femininity, I realize femininity
cannot be dealt with in isolation. Femininity is always experienced relative or in relation to
the social times. With regards to interviewees’ female identity and femininity and the forest
industry, seven threads of conversation emerge. The first three topics specifically deal with
working in the forest industries. The process of getting into the different forest industry had
certain challenges for these female workers, but also followed similar patterns of male
employees’ entering the industry. All of the interviewees experienced degrees of mobility,
moving into and out of different positions once they were able to gain their initial industry
position. While discussing working in the forest industry, participants pointed out both the
routine o f the work they were doing and the importance of proving, not only to themselves,
but also to their coworkers, that they could adeptly handle the jobs. The next four threads of

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interview conversation bring in the ideology surrounding female identity and femininity
more specifically in relation to working in the forest industries. The participants explained
the different ways they had to reconcile domesticity and cleanliness with their work roles.
Tokenism due to gender was both experienced and participated in to varying degrees by the
interviewees. All of these women discussed femininity in terms of how they defined their
own and how they dealt with it in the workplaces. With female identity and femininity come
instances of objectification and even sexual harassment in the workplace. This chapter will
present and analyze what the participants said in relation to these seven topics.
Getting In
While the reasons participants cited for entering different areas of forest industry
work varied, there was discussion around different aspects of actually getting employment in
the industries. Females seeking entry into forest industry employment in many cases found
that there were difficulties getting hired. A difficulty to gaining employment was that in
many cases employers were not willing to take a chance on female employees. Another
difficulty mentioned by the participants in terms of even looking to the forest industry for
potential employment was that to their knowledge there were no female role models or
mentors in the industries. Obstacles to entrance into forest industry included that the
industry seems to present itself as almost a different world due to its male-dominated nature.
These women did point out that living in areas with an abundance of resource-driven
employment helped facilitate gaining employment in the forest industry. Many of the
participants noted that having family connections was helpful to gain entry to employment in
various forest industries. The pay grade offered by forest industry was cited as a definite
incentive for seeking employment there.
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There are several reasons why the forest industry in the interior of NBC has remained
male-dominated even though technological changes and mechanization mean that most of
the original physically demanding and dangerous aspects are no longer present. New
dangers, however, are now present due to the mechanization of forest industry processes.
AM13 gives one reason that may explain the phenomenon: “Like I was saying, personally
most of it, number one with the women is that no one will take a chance on them is the way I
look at it, no one will take a chance on them so therefore they don’t get the experience and if
they do have any it’s because they worked there, as a labourer or whatever the case may be”
(Oct 2, 2008). AM suggests that women were hired on only as labourers and are able to get
industry experience in that way, but without that people were not willing to hire women
because they were unwilling to take a chance on someone either lacking in experience or
someone that may present as being different from the dominant work group. Therefore, the
industry remains male-dominated by default; males are hired because they have experience
or because it is believed that they have had experiences that will help them to be good
employees in these working environments.
Another reason why employers may not be willing to take a chance on hiring women
could come from concern that females would not be able to adhere to the brotherhood-type
relationship that has developed between the male employees. GT’s thoughts on the
camaraderie among her co-workers give insight into how there may be outside circumstances
that reinforce these male-dominated environments.

13 Some participants requested anonymity while others did not; in order to ensure the protection o f the
anonymous participants, I use initials instead of names. For the participants who requested anonymity the
initials are fabricated, while the other participants’ initials are accurate. I give no indication as to which
participants are which in order to protect anonymity for those who requested it.

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Yeah, well let’s see, camaraderie, well you knew the guys you were working with all
the time. There was a lot of camaraderie among the men. Quite often they went to
school together, were related to one another, had worked together in other crews in
the past so they had a history of working together. (Oct 16, 2008)
GT draws attention to the length of time over which some social relationships within the
workplace have been fostered. While keeping in line with the ideology of male bonds in the
workplace, it is important to also point out that if a workplace has historically been maledominated both the employer and the employees may have no previous experience working
with women.
While talking about employment being male-oriented, PW points out that for many
women working with men is not something new or uncommon: “It was good, I think the
thing, I had no problem working with men, I’ve always worked with men, that wasn’t an
issue, it was a little different for a lot of those men to work with women” (July 3, 2009). This
idea of men being unaccustomed to working with women was further enhanced by a
description given by GT:
I was trying to think about some of the reactions of men. They were not used to
having women out working in the bush at all, there would be the odd time when they
would see this machine working in the bush they would just assume that it was my
boss, that it would be him, so they would come up to the skidder, I would stop and
open the door and it was almost like a force would hit them. They would stagger
back when they realized it was a woman sitting in the cab and I would just kill myself
laughing over the reactions [laughs]. They say, ‘well, what are you doing here?’
[laughs] then they’d get over it. (Oct 16,2008)
GT emphasizes the idea that male workers in the forest industries do not expect to have
women working out there with them and can experience shock when it happens. While
employers may not be willing to change the status quo in the forest industry by taking
chances and hiring women, this also contributes to the lack of women working in the same

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industries, meaning there were no women role models or mentors for women new to the
workplaces.
Women starting out in the forest industry may have felt that they had stepped into a
completely male workplace because of the scarcity of role models or mentors. GT states that
while feminism maintained that women could work in any field that was not always the
reality, “They were saying that in the seventies, but you didn’t see any women in the
mechanics shop, you didn’t see any women driving trucks, you didn’t see women in these
non-conventional jobs. So there weren’t any mentors, no role models for you to follow, and
you really felt like you were breaking trail” (Oct 16, 2008). Due to many employers’
unwillingness to hire women and a serious lack of women in forest industries, there must be
something appealing in order to entice any women to join this workforce.
Reasons related to why these women wanted to work in the forest industry include
having an appreciation for the forest. Several of the participants included a well-used saying
out in the bush that “people spend thousands of dollars every year to experience this view
and wilderness and forest workers play in it every day”:
I know people spend thousands and thousands of dollars to come here and to this area
just to have a short holiday and I live here. And I see wildlife all the time and have
fabulous views and sometimes I have to stop and sit and really appreciate what I’ve
got rather than thinking about what I don’t have or what I miss from my previous life
from when I lived in the city. (GT, Oct 16, 2008)
This shows a real respect for the land that GT both works and lives in. For JO this was not
just a saying but the reality of her workdays and also the reason why she keeps working in
the forest industry:
I get to look at the most beautiful scenery, like it’s unreal. Up on top a mountain, I
mean, yes we’re cutting it but right now it’s all dead anyways so that kind of, it’s got
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to go, it’s either that or it’s going to bum and that’s what we primarily log right now
is bug kill. I don’t know, you’re just out and away and every once in a while you get
this moment and it’s just like one of those beautiful moments and you’re like, oh,
that’s why I do this. (July 10,2009)
The appreciation and respect these workers have for the forest seems to be cultivated through
living in an area that is so dominated by both the forests and forest industries. The three
main ideas the women presented about the area were with regards to the physical aspects of
the working environment: working positions and opportunities available to them due to
living in the area; whether they would have access to their positions in the industry without
having lived in the northern part of British Columbia; and the opportunity for adventure and
exploration.
When discussing the working positions and opportunities available to them due to
living in the area, these interviewees mention the family connections that helped them secure
their employment. Local women with family connections may be seen differently within the
industry, or have more of an ‘in’ and credibility than a woman from a large city with a
different or no relationship to the forests. “Insider” women are somewhat familiar with the
industry already: the long hours, the types of work being done and the occupational
language. Women, or men for that matter, who come from somewhere else or through a
trades program, may not necessarily have the same advantage towards gaining employment
in the forest industry as a familial connection affords. The following quote states that
anyone, regardless of gender, needs a family connection to get employed in forest industries,
at least certain ones. Mills, for example, have been harder to get into without family
connections unless the industry is booming.
It was family members were hired. So, somebody that you were related to had to
work in the mill, although that wasn’t actually put on the resumes, it wasn’t
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acknowledged as an actual rule, but the mill did follow that outline and my father
works there, my uncle works there, two of my aunts have worked there over the years
and that’s how I got into the mill. (CG, June 24, 2009)
CG points out how unspoken, unwritten policies had a significant role in the hiring practices
at the mill where she worked. Several women, though they did not have a family connection
in terms of nepotism had similar opportunity to enter forest employment through connection
to the family’s social circle: “Well our neighbour was a trucking supervisor and he said he
was going to have some openings for summer employment as guys taking off on holidays
and whatnot, he just needed somebody to fill in for temporary, so he suggested that I get my
class 1” (GT, Oct 16, 2008). These different affiliations to the forest industry helped lead to
employment opportunities. There were also different ways in which the women were
introduced to the industry by their families:
No, it wasn’t a big deal, I was raised here and I was always involved. My father, my
family were always involved with the lumber industry as such so no, I mean as a kid I
saw women that drove truck out of here so it wasn’t something unusual for me to do.
Yeah, it was pretty common ground, there was always women in the industry when I
was a kid. (PW, July 3, 2009)
Even though to people outside the forest industry community it seemed as though there were
no women in different positions within the forest industry, growing up in the area PW saw
women working in the various sectors. Seeing the forest industry as a place where women
worked at an early age could cultivate an understanding that this type of work was open to
women, that women also were employed in these kinds of jobs.
The participants gave verbal clues referencing how living in the area affects the
ability for women to be involved in these positions and whether or not they would have been
able to gain access to work in the positions. There was mention of programs that some were
able to access that may have only been offered in certain areas of either BC or even possibly
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Canada because for a program to be offered as training for future employment, there has to
be a demand for workers with those skills.
I started, what I had gone to do was go and get funding to take a firefighting course
and I was on assistance at the time and they wouldn’t give the assistance to me right
away to take the course because of all the paperwork involved but they were putting
on a forestry crew persons course. It was sponsored by the Women’s Resource
Centre and I ended up being on this work experience forestry crew person course.
And basically we were doing tree spacing with power saws for about six months, then
they had us do some tree planting. I did that for about two weeks. I did a fire
suppression course through there and have been working in the bush ever since.
(EW, Sept 21, 2008)
References to these types of programs imply there are circumstances unique to the area that
facilitated women’s relationships with the forest industries. AM stated that she would not be
involved in the forest industry had she not lived here: “Oh, if I was still living back there, if I
hadn’t moved out here forty years ago, I don’t think I would have been involved in... I might
have been involved in Human Resources, the same type of position, but I never would have
been involved in sawmills and such” (AM, Oct 2, 2008). Similar sentiments are echoed in
statements such as, “It was the available job at the time and I liked being outdoors. There
were other jobs too but I preferred tree planting to cooking in a camp or something like that,
much preferred” (DB, July, 1 2009). One could posit that if DB lived in an area where these
types of employment were not available, she may not have considered any of those types of
employment.
This sense of the area itself influencing these women’s involvement with the forest
industries is closely linked to statements and suggestions with regards to the forest industry’s
occupational lifestyle and language. For some of the participants the ability to explore in the
bush or to have an adventure was important: “I guess I just kind of loved being out there and
I loved it. I had a boss one time who said if you see a new road, he said, ‘you go find out
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where it goes.’ Well, that’s just right up my alley. I loved that, I still, I take the grandkids
and I go for a drive and things” (SP, July 3, 2009). The women showed appreciation for and
enjoyment of being out in the bush, “And it’s, like I used to work like a mad person to get
enough time to take off so I could go stomp around in the bush. And now I get to do that
every single day. So, before I was just bitchy and miserable and now it’s so much better”
(NA, June 18, 2009). The ideas the women had with regards to the working environment
could also be directly related to women’s declarations of being “an outdoors person,” which
is discussed in greater detail in the section on femininity.
Coupled with their appreciation and respect for the forest, another aspect of the forest
industry all the participants found appealing was the rate o f pay that they were offered. One
prevailing myth that originally drew large numbers of workers into NBC forest industry was
that they could get rich quickly and then get out. Participants cited the pay rate as an
influencing factor for them to become involved in the forest industry. An occupational
component of the forest industry was a high pay grade because the work was hard and
dangerous. Work typically performed by women has lower pay rates even when women are
performing the same work as men in the workforce. The tendency is for women to be paid
less. The majority of the women interviewed, however, made no mention of being paid any
differently than the men they were working with. But for AM, one of the women
interviewed who had also worked within the office setting at mills, there was definitely
mention of being paid differently than men working in the same position. “That’s the other
thing, in the Human Resources, I had a Human Resources degree, and I would probably
make somewhere in the vicinity of between 65 and 75 thousand dollars a year and I know of
men that, that stepped into the same position that I was in and started, started at 85 to 90”

(Sept 22, 2008). AM even went so far as to ask a supervisor to explain the reasoning behind
the pay difference, “And I would sit there and look at the plant manager and I would say how
can you do this? He’d say, well what do you mean? Here I am sitting here with the same
degree and you’re paying me 20 thousand less a year than you’re paying him” (Sept 22,
2008). AM did not give any indication that she ever received a satisfactory answer to her
question or that she ever did receive equal pay.
For GT the opportunity to make the wage being offered was one that she would not
refuse: “The wage that my boss was offering me was three times, easily three times what I
was able to get with my degree. And I thought, okay, I can swallow my degree for now
[laughs]. I’m going to work and try and see if I could make some income” (Oct 16, 2008).
PW had plans for the money she would earn and looked for work that would provide a wage
to fulfill those plans. “I wanted to travel so I wanted a job that made good money, so I
applied and there was just a few women at that time starting in that industry and nobody
wanted to do the labour jobs, the cleanup jobs, so that’s how I got on” (July 3, 2009).
Even though many working people consider high-paying jobs to be good
employment, SP contradicts this by talking about her most unpleasant job also being her
best-paid position, “I think scaling was my least nice job, but it was probably the one I made
the most money at, and so that was a good reason for me working when you have five kids
and things you... money is an issue too I would think. But it was just because of the winter
conditions and it’s just a tougher job” (July 3, 2009). This exemplifies the idea surrounding
the historic justification for men’s jobs being higher paid. Jobs that aren’t ‘nice’, that are
harder and pay more, are jobs that people don’t want to do for a living. Work traditionally
considered women’s work is also considered ‘nice’ because the working conditions are
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typically thought of as less demanding physically. For EW the pay itself and outdoors
environment were incentive;
I’d say it was both, the money and being out there. I enjoy the work, instead of
working at the mill and breathing in all those chemicals and crap, be out there and
have all the fresh air that you wanted, along with the bugs and everything else, more
bug dope, that’s all. I’d say the money is a big factor because at that time, for me,
being unskilled basically for education, right, a hundred-and-fifty-dollar [a day]14job
you couldn’t get in town right. The most you’d get would be like a five-dollar-anhour job because that was the going rate that they were paying at the time, so for the
ten days in and the four days out it was worthwhile. (Sept 21, 2008)
EW presented the idea that pay for these jobs was related to working conditions and even
proximity to home. For the participants, getting into the industry posed some difficulty
because there were employers not willing to hire people without experience, and there
seemed to be no real role models or mentors to guide them through the processes of getting
into the forest industry. But living in areas where the forest industry is predominant,
cultivating an appreciation for the forests, and having family connections allowed these
women to navigate the male-dominated forest industry and earn a wage from the industry far
above the wages paid to women in most female-dominated sectors.
Mobility Once In
In the previous section the participants identified barriers that would help contribute
to the small number of women working in various aspects of the forest industry. Some of the
barriers come from social organization; others from interests and aptitudes, and some from
outside sources. Still, in the process of interviewing the participants mentioned being able to
move into various positions with fluidity or relative ease once in the industry; barriers to
employment thus became more permeable. For EW that fluidity is described best when

14 Square brackets added to clarify that EW was discussing a job that paid with a day-rate.

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talking about being given the opportunity to operate different types of machinery: “When I
hopped on the D5 Skid Cat, I always kind of wanted to run one but they always had
operators, but they didn’t have an operator. Two co-workers said, hey hop on there and give
us a hand, so I did, I didn’t mind that. I had a blast” (Sept 21,2008). In this circumstance
just being present and available provided EW with opportunities to try different types of
work and learn additional skills. Though GT describes the opportunity to run different
machines out in the bush, there are some mechanical/operational barriers to switching
machines. GT, normally a Grapple Skidder operator, says,
I tried Cat operating, but to me all the controls seemed to be backwards and I had a
lot of difficulty. With the Skidder you have a steering wheel and a gas pedal, you
push it down when you want to go and with a Cat it’s a decelerator, so you push your
foot down to slow down and it just seemed backwards. I just couldn’t seem to get my
head around it. (Oct 16, 2008)
So even though GT did not prefer the operation of a Cat she had no problems trying out
different types of machines. JO also describes transitioning through various positions with
an ease that stems from being out in the bush and having the ability and willingness to do
whatever was needed to get the job done:
A lot of road building for logging companies, that’s kind of how I went from
silviculture and I got into the more, road building aspect of it, so I was staying in the
forestry camp and helping build their roads, running equipment or helping the
surveyor or whatever and that sort of just transferred over into running grader for
logging companies on logging roads and staying in camps and doing all that. (July 10,
2009)
While each of the women worked in more than one type of position, there is also overlap as
to the types of work done by the women. One participant worked in a mill in a clean-up
position, on slash burning crews with prescribed burning, fire fighting and cleaning up the
blocks afterwards, driving machinery, and more. “No, I was bucking, conventional logging,
I was bucking in the landing, so I had my power saw and I was the first aid attendant” (EW,
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Sept 21, 2008). Another woman worked for several different mills and lumber businesses;
she held various office and administrative positions such as timekeeper, production person,
production records clerk, office manager (which included looking after rental houses and the
bunkhouses,) and selling lumber directly to clients.
More than one interviewee held a Class One licence, but GT started out driving a
logging truck after getting her Class One licence and then moved into running different types
of machinery, which included trying the operation of a Skid Cat; but she stayed on as a
grapple skidder operator. NA suggests that it was relatively easy for her to get started in the
forest industry due to an upswing in the market, “They were just hiring like crazy so they
wanted anybody with experience and, and when you first get hired at a mill you’re on clean­
up anyways and I’m sure you’ve noticed after talking to other women and so you’re just put
on clean-up and if you want a better job you decide if you want to get your first aid ticket or
a grading ticket” (NA, June 18, 2009).
CG was also put in a clean-up position when she first started in the mill. CG talks
about how some of the work from the previous shift was not being completed and how she
would do that work as well as her own.
Which includes two and a half hours up on a dryer, which is extremely hot work and
is only expected to be done for one person for two and a half hours and they weren’t
doing the second dryer on the other side which meant that I was doing four and a half
to five hours up on these hot dryers vacuuming the vents, and that’s a lot of work for
anybody [laughs] and I’m a physically fit woman, whatever, person, yes. (CG, June
24, 2009)
DB worked doing a variety of tasks including cone picking and tree planting and even block
layout: “Yes, well I didn’t do timber cruising but I guess we did laying out a block for
planting an area. You’d go out and go around the block and put it down and stuff, something
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like that, definitely outdoors” (DB, July 1, 2009). PW was put in a clean-up position in the
mill as well as other positions including running the packaging plant and describes working
at the planer mill:
The planer mill I worked in had no heat, it would get to be thirty-five, forty below,
you still had to go to work; you had to try and keep the machinery going and when it
got to thirty below then the frost would start coming out of the cement, it was a
cement floor. We worked at the end in the packaging plant. Our toilet, the women’s
toilet was always frozen and in those days they didn’t have microwaves or very nice
lunchrooms... it was pretty basic. (July 3, 2009)
SP lived and cooked in a logging camp before she started tree planting but very quickly
moved into other areas, including supervisory positions, and doing her own contract work:
“And that would be a variety of any types of jobs, from hiring our own tree planters to doing
manual weed whacking to doing silvicultural surveys to doing log scaling, like it was just a
contract that we did for years” (SP, July 3, 2009). For JO working in the forest industry
started at a young age, which she did:
Off and on for about a year, and then I took a bit of a break and went down to the
island and I did some silviculture work down there, it’s more, not like the tree
planting aspect, it was like pruning, which is sawing branches off in a planted forest,
up to certain heights so they can grow better and then like girdling and all that stuff,
to get rid of alder in all the good stands so it doesn’t have quite as much weight and
then after that I came back up here and got into running equipment on forestry roads
and working in camps and all of that and then I got into the actual processing side of
it. (JO, July 10,2009)
Though all of the women worked in more than one forest industry position, some of those
positions had two common attributes: that the work was often routine once learned, and that
in order to remain working in the forest industries, the employees needed to be able to prove
they could handle the work.

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Routine of Work/Proving Oneself
With regards to the different types of work these women were involved in there was
mention about how the work was very routine. As previously discussed in Chapter Two it
has often been typical for women’s work to be repetitive and menial, which was part of the
argument put forward for the attached low wages. Work reserved for men was supposed to
stimulate and challenge the brain; considering these are the types of arguments made to
justify female exclusion from male work, it was interesting to hear the dangerous, hard,
think-on-your-toes jobs in the forest industry being described as routine. EW talks about
how there can be routine regardless of where a person works, “You get in a routine and you
get up, you have your breakfast, you go to work, come back in, have your supper, your
shower, relax, go to bed. Then you get up and do it all over again” (Sept 21, 2008). This
routine could be describing any field of employment whether referring to male-dominated or
female-dominated types.
For PW the routine of the work was similar to the repetitive nature of factory work:
“It’s a... it’s like a factory. It’s a line of work and the lumber comes in and the lumber goes
out and your board feet and you’re trying to make more board feet everyday and they’re
pushing to get that lumber out and you’re part of that assembly line and you need to do your
work” (July 3,2009). GT concurs that working in various forest industry positions can seem
very much like factory work in the way that it can become very repetitive in nature: “That’s
one huge drawback of the job, is that okay, you get into a routine and then it becomes almost,
oh god I’ve got to do this again for the millionth time. But you just have to get into a
mindset, like almost put your mind on hold, and automatically go through everything” (Oct

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16, 2008). Regardless of being in a mill or in the bush the routine of work could become very
tiring.
All of the women interviewed had something to say with regards to being able to
prove that they could do the work. First, the participants discussed being able to prove that
they could do the job. But even before they could prove their ability to handle the work, they
had to meet their co-workers. JO mentions that it can be difficult to guess how the crew is
going to handle a woman’s being “out there”:
But running grader and running processor there was not that... not... it was like a
fleeting thought but it still was more showing up on the first day at the card lock with
all the guys or showing up on the site for my very first day and training on the
machines. And the first actual until you get your machine all figured out... it is... it’s
like what are people going to think of this... what are my... what is my crew going to
think, not so much my parents because they’re a logging family and they don’t care,
but... (July 10, 2009)
GT elaborates on this idea, “Before then I could feel that I was being stared at all the time.
They were watching every move that I was making just to see how I was handling things”
(Oct 16, 2008). EW points out,
There’s always that initial awkwardness the first couple of days until they kind of get
the drift that you can do the job, but there’s always that little tentativeness at the
beginning, where you think okay, what have I gotten myself into. But, usually you’ll
always have that little bit of resistance. (Sept 21, 2008)
EW describes how co-workers are watching her until they decide that she can handle the
work. Writing of men, Nancy Quam-Wickham states that, “Out o f the social recognition of
skill emerged a group identity defined by shared experiences, common values, and the
solidarity brought about as men labored in distinctive industries” (139). Attached to the idea
of proving oneself in the workplace is the understanding that once one has been able to prove
that one can handle the work one will be accepted by one’s co-workers as part of the team.

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Women, however, may prove their ability to handle the workload but find that some
of their co-workers may never fully accept them as part of the team. GT illustrates, “But
with women, there’s that little bit of extra edge, you’re a girl, you still have to get over that
as well as proving your competency so I think there’s still a bit of that there now” (Oct 16,
2008). For CG, not only did she feel that she was not accepted but those feelings were
enough for her to refuse future employment due to the possible repercussions from her co­
workers:
Yes, I proved myself and it took a lot of emotional and physical work to do though
because it was more enjoyable to do the hard physical work than it was to listen to
anything the guys had to say by that point. I didn’t feel welcomed, I didn’t feel that
the guys, I was very concerned that if I’d said yes and stayed I would have got a
backlash from the men that I was working with. With them going, ‘what gives you
the right to stay here and work here, you’re a summer student, go back to school
where you belong! (June 24, 2009)
JO talks about how the working environment is difficult at first because of that ‘extra edge’
and how something a woman does in the workplace is not necessarily going to be treated in
the same manner as when a man does a similar or the same thing:
And so you kind of get into that competitive thing, trying to prove yourself all the
time and then after a while you kind of morph into the, knowing that you can do it
and not pushing yourself so hard but you always know that people are looking at you,
waiting for you to fuck up, for one [laughs], always waiting for you to fuck up. And
even if it’s a screw up that is like something that someone else does, because you’re
doing it, it’s like a gender thing. If you screw up and you have tits it’s a really big
screw up as opposed to some doorknob that’s smoking a joint and smashes up a piece
of machinery, that’s almost not as bad as you doing something minor. But because
you’re a woman it’s a little more, ‘oh there, told you, see, she’s done it now’. (July
10, 2009)
For those co-workers looking for reasons to justify why women should not be doing forest
industry work, an accident allowed the perfect opportunity to provide ‘proof women cannot
handle the job, even if male co-workers had more serious incidents. AM talks about fitting
in and being accepted in relation of having to earn the respect of the co-workers as opposed
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to being respected just for being present. AM gives the example of: “And that’s where these
women fall flat, they tend to neglect, and not only women do this, men do as well, they tend
to neglect the fact that you have to earn the respect of your crew before they will respect you
and you don’t go in and just start, I call it waving your arms and that kind of thing” (Sept 22,
2008). The women AM refers to thought they would automatically be respected because
they were in a position of authority, but that was not the case. Being able to prove that they
could handle the workload of various positions in the forest industry and being accepted by
their co-workers led the women to have a certain degree of pride in their own abilities.
According to Quam-Wickham, writing of Western American extractive industries,
“Skill was the critical element in this process through which workers asserted their
masculinity” (136). While femininity has generally not been defined in terms of skills
developed by forest industry workers, masculinity has. Though some women are particularly
proud they have mastered ‘masculine’ skills, others neither consider these skills as masculine
nor could they understand any reason why women could not work in these positions.
Through the different interviews, participants often gave the impression of pride in the
different capabilities of various women within the industries and also pride in their own
physical and emotional strength, the ability to handle whatever they’re thrown into and not
take any ‘crap’.
What these women said about their own abilities included being able to do the job
just as well as, if not better than, any of the men they work with:
A lot of the guys were kind of looking at you like if you didn’t pull your weight,
you’d know about it. Basically they’d call you a whuss or whatever, or they’d tell
you to go home. If you were willing to work as hard as they were to do the job then a

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lot of them were like hey, right on, good, we’ll have her on our team [laughs].” (EW,
Sept 21, 2008)
EW points out that male co-workers could be quite welcoming to any worker that was
willing to get the job done. AM was particularly proud of her ability to run all types of
equipment, especially considering it was not always a requirement of the positions she was
working in and because many of the skills she picked up were the result of workers’ wanting
to teach her as a thank you for helping them out and as a way to show that she was accepted
and appreciated by her co-workers.
Okay, it’s a big machine that goes in and takes the whole load of logs off the truck,
kay. So I have a ticket to run, to operate one of those machines. I can run a 966,1
can drive truck ‘cause I have a class 1 licence. And I can run the skidder but I can
also be cut-off saw operator, barkers operator, quad-saw operator, beaver operator,
canter operator, trimmer operator. (AM, Oct 2, 2008)
Many interviewees mentioned the different skills that they developed in forest industries.
When it came to discussions around the capabilities of other women in the forest industry,
participants mentioned how they believed the majority of the women “out there” could do the
job just as well as the men,
So anytime we would go to the auctions I would start looking for cracks, like, okay,
this machine isn’t really all that bad or this machine has been really used, abused a lot
in the bush. You can see the different wear and tear, you get different eyes looking at
machinery and seeing, being able to see flaws and things, being able to gauge how
well they were maintained, how well they’ve been looked after, what kind of an
operator had them before. (GT, Oct 16, 2008)
One of the capabilities developed by machine operators was learning to see the state of repair
or disrepair of those machines. This ability to see flaws or potential hazards or where the
machine will need a repair next comes from knowing and understanding how the machine
works and also where the normal stresses or faults in a machine can be found. Many of the
participants believe that women are better at certain types of work in the forest industry than

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the men are and there also seems to be a common belief that women are more gentle on the
equipment they run then men because the equipment needs less repairs: “We liked having a
new truck to drive every spring and I think the women were more careful with it than the
men, but we’d like to have a new truck to drive and we would be, yeah really careful with it,
the women that I worked with” (SP, July 3, 2009). Women were careful with the equipment
they were entrusted to use. Once they proved their abilities to properly handle the equipment
there was an expectation to be left along to get the work done.
When the women mention not tolerating or taking any “crap” from co-workers or
even, to a certain extent, the employer, this stems from the idea that they were physically
able to do the job so they should not have to put up with comments about not being able to
handle any aspect of their positions. Part of this pride comes from being physically able to
master so-called ‘masculine’ skills. For CG the physical component of the work was
enjoyable, “I enjoyed the physical aspect of it. I liked the fact that I was getting an awesome
workout, I was moving around lots, whether I was sweeping or hosing the floors. The job
was very invigorating physically” (June 24, 2009). PW enjoyed her new physical ability: “I
can go back on that question, did my work have an effect on me, I was strong. I was in really
good shape and I was really strong, so that I guess it did have an effect on me, in that sense,
yes” (July 3, 2009). SP believed that even though not all women are as strong as all men
there was no physical requirement for men to be doing the job instead of women, “Yes, I
don’t know, any of the jobs I did I think could be done by men or women, I don’t see why
they couldn’t be done be men or women, maybe physically we weren’t as strong but we
could pack one box of trees, like we could” (July 3, 2009).

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As EW points out, part of the job was to be able to pull your own weight verbally as
well. “There will always be guys that are like what the hell are you doing here, you should
be in a kitchen or at home if you can’t hack it or whatever, so you give it right back to them,
I can handle the job as well as you can, maybe better [laughs]” (Sept 21, 2008). The ability
to verbally spar with male co-workers can be viewed as symbolic of the emotional strength
that was also needed in the workplace. The women pointed to their ability to not put up with
any ‘crap’ by letting me know about instances in which the men were creating a difficult
environment and they would not allow themselves to be walked on emotionally: “If
[women]15 were in any way trying to keep the peace all the time I think that they would be
emotionally trampled in a work environment like that” (CG, June 24,2009). Another
component of not putting up with any ‘crap’ is the idea that once a worker has proven she
can handle the job then she is basically left alone, not watched by co-workers or the boss, JO
explains, “I don’t really have to answer to anybody as long as my... if I do my job properly I
get left alone” (July 10, 2009). Being left alone to do the job once they have proven their
ability is an expectation also held by male co-workers. While it is common that developing
new skills and proving one’s own work ethic created a great degree of pride, a certain
amount of pride is also fostered by an ability to maintain the performance of certain feminine
roles. An interesting component that repeatedly came up during the course of the interviews
was cleanliness in regards to co-workers and the working environment.
Cleanliness and Domesticity
Cleanliness is associated with femininity as a performance both concerning
appearance and in terms of the types of activities that are socially acceptable for females to
15 Square brackets added to clarify CG was speaking about women.

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participate in. There are certain activities and appearances that any women must perform in
order to be deemed ‘properly feminine’. Women are supposed to be physically clean in
appearance and manner of dress, and in terms of activities, to participate in keeping their
environment, whether that is the home or workplace, clean and themselves clean whilst
doing this work. Male-dominated workplaces, especially in any resource extractive
industries, have historically been dirty workplaces. Construction, oil and gas, mining and
forest-industries work are a few examples where both the work and the workers are unclean.
When women work in any of these industries, because the nature of the work is dirty, their
performance of femininity with regards to maintaining a properly feminine appearance is not
a practical option. Regardless of which gender is doing whatever work, most people will
dress in a manner appropriate for the work being performed.
In terms of appearance, GT wonders if dressing appropriately for the type of work
she needs to do has any effect on her sense of femininity,
Or do I become less feminine, I become less feminine as far as dress is concerned,
you just have to dress practically for the situation, if you’re going to be greasy all day
I’m not going to wear something fancy out there. So as far as my appearance, from a
distance I probably do look like a man. Simply because of all the gear you have to
wear to try and keep warm or to protect you from whatever you are doing. (Oct 16,
2008)
GT accepts that she may appear to be less feminine in certain situations but that does not
seem to have any lasting effect on her personal sense of femininity. EW does not believe
that dressing in certain ways should have any lasting effect, “Oh, when I’m covered with
mud and I’m tired [laughs], I don’t know, it’s part of the job right. I don’t know if it really
makes you feel unfeminine, I never really thought about it that way. It’s just another day at
work, if you get covered with dirt, you get covered with dirt, I mean” (Sept 21, 2008). Still,

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cleanliness can be a means of defining socially acceptable female activities. Not only is a
female supposed to be clean in appearance but also in her daily activities.
One social definition of feminine activities revolves around the notion that women
are in charge of maintaining clean households and many of the socially accepted forms of
employment for women had to do with cleaning in the workplaces whether as cleaning ladies
or maintaining clean workplaces. Cleanliness is definitely a part of some of the participants’
definitions of femininity based on how frequently they refer to men’s being dirty, especially
in regards to the washrooms, and the way men show up to work. They revealed awareness
that the male workplace was, even historically, a dirty environment and typical female
workplaces are clean and involved in cleaning. From the references provided by these
women, consciously or not, they associate cleanliness with femininity and dirtiness with
masculinity. GT talks about how her employers believed that having a woman in the
workplace affected the cleanliness of male employees,
I wouldn’t say so but I know my supervisor, the trucking supervisor and my boss
when skidding said so, they noticed it with the men, like all of the sudden the
swearing is reduced. The guys show up a little bit cleaner and neater they’re not
quite as gross and coarse. I thought they were gross and coarse [laughs] but
according to them they were much less so [laughs]. (Oct 16, 2008)
According to GT, women were not the only ones in her workplace who associate cleanliness
with the presence of a woman. In fact, it seems that employers may consider this a positive
influence that women could have in the workplace, that having a woman present not only
made the men clean up their appearance but also speak in a “cleaner” manner.
The participants made several references to the language being used in the workplace
and how that type of language would not be considered appropriate outside of the worksite.
NA illustrates, “If I was in a different environment and I heard someone speaking like that, I
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would probably take greater offence because there’s a time and place for that kind of
language and in the mill I guess it’s okay” (June 18, 2009). With the discussion of swearing
in the workplace it became clear that the participants also view foul language as part of
masculine pursuits. GT noted that “Perhaps you might swear a bit more, occasionally it will
come out at inappropriate times [laughs]” (Oct 16, 2008). AM maintained a no swearing
regime for herself and even tried to dissuade other women from swearing in the workplace.
“Yes their language became very harsh, and I know I used to take a lot of the girls to task
about it [laughs]” (AM, Oct 2, 2008). However, other participants found themselves
adopting the relaxed attitude towards cursing in the workplace and even participated in it due
to a natural tendency to match language and because it was part of the vernacular of the
occupational group. As JO points out, “I swore like a trucker, I’m still pretty bad but at least
it’s not every third word, and I didn’t wear makeup. Even now I have a hard time being in
groups of women because I don’t know how to talk to them because I’ve been with men all
the time” (July 10, 2009). While participating in the same manner of speech as the
occupational group shows a certain degree of belonging to that group, it could cause
problems associating with other groups and society at large especially considering that
swearing is not something expected from a ‘properly feminine’ woman.
In order for a woman to be deemed feminine by Western society at large, there are
certain roles she must perform. These roles include activities women usually perform in the
domicile, such as keeping it clean, and performing nurturing tasks such as feeding the family
and taking care of children. Types of employment that are referred to as typical female jobs
include many positions where cleanliness was a priority, such as nursing, restaurant work
and child care. According to Cathy Converse, “Women working in the paid labour force, for
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the first half of the century, tended to hold jobs that were unskilled and low paying. They
were domestic servants, teachers, nurses, stenographers, garment makers, telephone
operators, waitresses, fish-plant workers, candy makers, cooks and shop assistants” (35). I
will note that while Converse lists all of these types of employment as unskilled, I would
consider several to be skilled labour. It is possible historically these types of work were all
considered unskilled because they were female-dominated. Regardless of that fact, however,
this study’s participants were made aware by family members that there were certain types of
employment deemed appropriate for women to pursue.
Definition of femininity, I know my mother would prefer if I was a teacher, if I was a
nurse, if I was all these traditional, kind-of female things. But I don’t think I’d ever
gone that route, like I’m more likely to think if this particular thing interests me then
I’m going to go for it regardless of what society happens to think about it. So I think
that’s really freed me into doing different things, like coming out North, like trying
out truck driving, like trying out machinery operating, those are things that I was not
brought up to think that I could do or would be doing. Yeah, I guess I’ve always
thought of myself as more of a, as more of a neutral figure rather than as masculine or
feminine. (GT, Oct 16, 2008)
Growing up CG was made very aware of what types of employment her parents believed
were appropriate for females and males,
Yes, office jobs, women were meant to do office jobs, were meant to take blood...
nurses. And men weren’t supposed to be nurses even though there are a lot of them
out there as nurses now very successfully and yeah, the mills were for the men. My
dad was devastated when my brother didn’t take the opportunity to go into the mill in
his late teens to early twenties and was shocked when I did do it, so the attitude of a
mill worker, which is what my father is, and that’s what you see in the mills is that
that’s where their boys are supposed to go. (CG, June 24, 2009)
Domesticity can also be linked to femininity through the female role within the home.
Related to both the idea of femininity adornment and the role in the home is the idea that
women are the ones that decorate and maintain the home. For JO,

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Not having a home was by choice but it also left me ungrounded. I had no base to
call my own, no walls to paint, no house to decorate. These two things combined
really started to drive a wedge between me and other women. I could not relate to
them and they could not relate to me. When in social gatherings it was like I was an
alien - the women would not know what to do with me and I didn’t even know how
to speak their language. I didn’t even understand their humour. (July 10, 2009)
Not being able to participate in certain female-oriented activities, such as maintaining a
household, left JO feeling disconnected from other women and possibly even from her own
female sensibilities.
The women talked about how they felt pressures to conform to proper femininity and
domesticity in relation to the female role in sustaining the home and raising children. In the
group of participants four of the women were unmarried while five were married and only
three o f the nine participants had children. Pressures came not only from the social
expectations interviewees were well versed in but also from their parents’ views on what
their roles in the families and with children should include. The participants’ discussions
about working in the forest industries suggest that there is a conflict between parenting and
working the long hours away from home that this type of employment requires. Their views
on having or not having children contributed to how they explained their own femininity and
their ability to perform the domestic role,
My lifestyle that I was living and the work I was doing, just no, not for me. I see a lot
of guys that they kick themselves in the butt that they weren’t around while their kids
were growing up ‘cause they were always in the bush working. And just, I never
really had any desire to have any kids. I got lots of friends that have kids and I can
hand the babies back and that’s even better [laughs]. (EW, Sept 21, 2008)
The employees spend the majority of their time out in the bush even when they are not doing
camp work; therefore they are unable to spend a lot of time with their families. Proper
performance of femininity in Western culture includes assuming the role of mother; there are
circumstances within forest industry employment that make it seem natural for women to
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exclude themselves from entering these workplaces. Circumstances such as the long hours
worked daily, the danger in the workplace, and for camp jobs, the long periods of time away
from home could all dissuade women from entering forest industry employment.
However, if she has any plans of raising a family, then it is not a friendly career
choice. There are very long hours, often in remote areas, long commutes and an
unforgiving work schedule that makes it extremely difficult or impossible to be a
mom and work in the bush at the same time. That is where I think a lot of women
who have an interest in logging become bookkeepers, which means they can work
their family life around their job, usually in partnership with their spouse. (GT, Oct
16, 2008).
GT explains the difficulties of being an active parent and working in the forest, but she also
points out that there are types of forest industry work that women would still be able to
participate in. Though the main focus is on femininity it is impossible to talk about
femininity and female roles without also talking about masculinity and male roles.
Masculine identity formation is partially tied to types of employment that require men
to be away from their homes for long periods of time in many cases and CG talked directly
about this,
Yes, a conventional type of masculinity, I was talking about men first, which is ironic
because I automatically, in my mind put them first for some reason there. But, I feel
that the scripted version of man is the ‘breadwinner’ still, they’re still expected to do
the hard labour, bring in more money and be expected to put out all those hours away
from home. Where women are still expected to do supplementary work to the
income of a household and are mainly involved in taking care of the household,
inside. (June 24, 2009)
Thus men miss a lot of the child rearing due to working obligations, and women get to stay
home, or closer to home, and participate more in the child rearing; femininity is tied to types
of employment that facilitate this and also uphold social ideas about roles of femininity and
masculinity. When forest-industry workers are working in camp jobs they spend even less
time with their families. While JO was growing up it seemed to her that her father was only
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a part-time parent: “Like my Dad was a logger and Mom and Dad might as well have been
divorced, I had a weekend Dad because he was in camp for years. I’d see this guy who’d
come home on weekends and try and be a Dad, it’s like, ‘who are you man?”’ (July 10,
2009). Camp life by its very nature provides a semi-home away from home where workers
spend the majority of their time. When women are working positions with the industries
where they get to stay in a camp, they can experience an escape from the standard domestic
role.
Being a woman living and working out of a forestry camp provides a unique
opportunity to experience a different type of domestic living. Living away from home
certainly had daunting aspects but there were also unexpected perks. For study participants,
No, you’re away from, you’re away from your family, you’re away from your own
routine, although the food was always superb, like when, oh man, the cooks just
always went out of their way, it was just fabulous cooking, and that was the part
where I really felt spoiled, you’d come in and it’s just a wonderful meal for at the end
of the day and it was ready and piping hot. And if you had any requests the cooks
would usually try and accommodate you too. But some of the guys were picky, man
they would [laughs], they would complain about the food and I don’t know, I really
don’t know what they had to complain about. Yeah, the food was probably about the
best part of it, but the bunkhouses themselves, they were clean, they were adequate,
but pretty basic fair and they would have separate women’s quarters and men’s
quarters. (GT, Oct 16, 2008)
GT shows a real appreciation for the food service she experienced in camps. While staying
in camps for work, women can escape performing their ‘normal’ domestic duties. One could
speculate that GT’s enjoyment comes from being able to appreciate the time and effort
exerted in the preparation of the food whereas a male may not have ever performed those
duties at home and have no prior knowledge of the work required. DB also liked being able
to escape performing domestic duties while she was staying in a logging camp: “It was great
[laughs]. That’s all you had to do, you didn’t have to cook [laughing]. I could never figure
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out why men would come and complain because they didn’t have to do anything, I mean, I
thought it was great. You know, your meals, they even fixed your bed” (July 1, 2009). The
ability to only perform one’s employment work and have no other duties or work to complete
once ‘home’ from work would extinguish the ‘double day’ that the majority of women
experience as part of their performance of ‘proper’ femininity.
In terms of cleanliness and domesticity, the information provided by the participants
points out that working in the forest industry has facilitated a degree of freedom from the
roles and behaviours expected of a feminine woman as defined by Western society. With
regards to other women’s abilities in the industry, participants also noticed male attitudes that
implied women should not be in those workplaces. In some circumstances, participants even
seemed to subscribe to those same ideas that may perpetuate tokenism of women in the forest
industry. So while these women are proud of their own abilities to do the job, they also think
that the industry is not female-friendly or that the majority of women would not be able to do
these jobs.
Tokenism
Tokenism in this thesis is being used in reference to both hiring one woman in a
male-dominated working environment as a way to show that there are no discriminatory
hiring practices and to attitudes present in the workplace. Tokenism can also indicate a
belief that aside from the occasional exceptional female, women in general do not have the
ability to perform work in these workplaces. In respect to elements of tokenism that exist in
the forest industry, the women discussed attitudes of some male co-workers, ideas held by
the interviewees about other women in the workplaces that seem to contribute to ideas of

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tokenism, and actual circumstances that lend themselves to ideas of tokenism of women in
the forest industry.
While only one woman actually mentions the word “token” in the interviews, all of
the participants allude to attitudes that come from some male co-workers with regards to
women being “out there”, which expressed ideas about tokenism. These attitudes include
certain male co-workers16 who believed women should not be filling positions in the bush.
AM points out that supervisors will often say they have no problems with women working in
any positions, but that might not be the reality of the situation: “But, even right today, like
right today our plant managers and that like to say that their opinions have changed, they’re
only saying that for somebody else’s benefit, as far as I’m concerned” (Oct 2, 2008). AM
also talks about how there was some willingness by some men to accept women working in
the forest industry only if working in certain positions was also included as attributing to
ideas of tokenism, “Most of the plant managers are in an age bracket where they prefer the
guys doing these jobs. There’s very few upper plant managers that are willing or will accept
ladies to do sawmill supervisor or plant supervisor, or anything like that” (Oct 2, 2008).
With regards to female tokenism in the forest industry, participants also pointed out that
there were men that had no problems with women in any of the positions in the forest
industry: “So, then I knew that I was, then I knew that I was accepted, as long as you’re
keeping up to the same work level as the guys then it’s not a problem” (GT, Oct 16, 2008).
This statement also ties back to the importance of proving capabilities in the forest industry.

161 would like to stress that neither the participants nor I believe or want to suggest that all males, or even the
majority, in a male-dominated workplace would entertain these types o f beliefs about female workers.

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Some of the participants presented information in their interviews that suggested that
they may also share some attitudes about women in the workplace that contribute to
tokenism, such as beliefs that most women would not be able to do this work: “I, cause a few
girls were like, ‘well you can do that, if you can do it 1 could do it,’ and I’m like, ‘I know
your personality so, no honey, no.’ I think it would have to be a very rare person that I
would meet that I would recommend it to” (JO, July 10, 2009). JO clearly believes that these
types of employment can only be performed by certain exceptional women, but with the last
sentence implies that there are also men who would not be able to handle it. Many of the
participants pointed out that there seemed to be an underlying belief that certain positions
were easily done by women but other positions were not female-friendly. Several of the
participants adhered to those beliefs as well: “In some cases I’ve been on jobs, like
firefighting and that, where the work was too strenuous for the odd girl, but other than that
most of them were just as gung-ho as the guys if not more” (EW, Sept 21, 2008).
These actual circumstances of the job requirements in the forest industry may help to
foster ideas of tokenism including that there are not a lot of women out there in comparison
to the number of men in the industry. “You know I take that back, it was unconventional but
that was the early seventies and there weren’t that many women working in that industry.
But they were starting, of course that I knew of, there’d been women working in that industry
for many, many years” (PW, July 3, 2009). The idea that there is not much opportunity for
career advancement for women in the various forest industries may also contribute to token
numbers of women in the industry regardless of whether or not the lack of advancement is
gender-related. “At the mill? There was nowhere to go. There’s nowhere to go, you’re just
a bunch of cattle and you can’t. I mean the highest-paying job was grading and I did that job
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for three years” (NA, June 18, 2009). An additional reason for tokenism in the various forest
industries is that there are not many employers willing to hire women for these positions, “It
would really, really depend on the male supervisor. If they were open to it then I think it
worked, but if they were not open to it there would be absolutely no way that they would
consider women working there” (GT, Oct 16, 2008). Some of the reasons tokenism exists
within the forest industry stem from the ideals and stereotypes that characterize femininity.
Femininity
As outlined in the first chapter, this study seeks to reveal whether female identity and
femininity are affected by working in the male-dominated forestry industry. In doing so, the
study examines how participants relate to social ideals of femininity and how they negotiate
their identity in the workplace. The fluidity of femininity comes from ‘feminine’ qualities
and characteristics being defined through a variety of different eras, social settings and
cultural backgrounds, which makes any factors considered appropriate or unique to women
completely variable. Through the interview process it became clear participants subscribed
to at least two differing definitions of femininity that were not necessarily complementary.
The first definition seemed to originate along the lines of stereotypical representations of
what was deemed to be proper and socially acceptable female behaviours and characteristics
of the past, such as the way women are expected to look and the types of employment and
activities that were deemed acceptable. The second definition originated when the women
tried to explain how, even though they might not fit the first definition they gave, they still
believed that their characteristics and behaviours fell within the range of femininity. The
participants possessed a thorough understanding of and even believed in some of the

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stereotypical ideologies around femininity and masculinity, but contested others; this
indicates the complexity of gender.
Several women shared specific moments when they were forced, though not
necessarily deliberately or by anyone in particular, into acknowledging their gendered
bodies. The commencement of her menstruation cycle was enough to remind JO of her
gendered body, “Period. Ah the fun of it all: Not the more glamorous side of being a girl in
industry, but one aspect that brings your feminine side crashing to the forefront” (July 10,
2009). CG experienced an incident in which a co-worker was able to emphasize not only her
female body but also a primary function of the female social role:
And I came back and was very mad that he’d given me a broken machine and told
him so and one of the other guys said, ‘Yeah, what if she was pregnant!’ And I
hadn’t even thought about that sort of angle on it, I was just thinking, you gave me a
broken machine. So I was very, all of a sudden I was very aware of gosh what if I
was pregnant and then I was like, well I’m not pregnant, of course I’m not pregnant,
I’m not trying to get pregnant or anything, and it struck me as bizarre in the moment.
Obviously they were focused not on my individual safety, but gender-specific safety.
(June 24, 2009)
This incident emphasizes the idea that there are certain expectations of the female gendered
body, in this particular case the expectation that the female body needs to be protected
because of the important role it should fulfill through pregnancy. Sandra Bartky provides an
example of how one of the social functions of the female body is that it is, at all times, on
display and that the image of the female form does not necessarily belong to the female.
It was a fine spring day, and with an utter lack of self-consciousness, I am bouncing
down the street. Suddenly I hear men’s voices. Catcalls and whistles fill the air.
These noises are clearly sexual in intent and they are meant for me; they come from
across the street. I freeze.... The body which only a moment before I inhabited with
such ease now floods my consciousness. I have been made into an object. While it is
true that for these men I am nothing but, let us say, a “nice piece of ass,” there is
more involved in this encounter than their mere fragmented perception of me. They
could, after all, have enjoyed me in silence. Blissfully unaware, breasts bouncing,
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eyes on the birds in the trees, I could have passed by without having been turned to
stone. But I must be made to know that I am a “nice piece of ass”: I must be made to
see myself as they see me. There is an element o f compulsion in this encounter, in
this being made-to-be-aware of one’s own flesh; like being made to apologize, it is
humiliating. (27)
These types of incidents serve to remind women not only that they must always act in
specific ways deemed appropriate by the particular society in which they live but also that to
act outside of the prescribed social norms is to invite judgment on their gendered bodies.
In relation to the moments where the women were made very aware of their gendered
bodies, interviewees stated that they mostly just felt neutral:
I don’t know, I guess in a way I’ve thought about this over the years and I don’t.
When I’m on the skidder I actually think of myself as something that’s neutral, I
really don’t think of myself as masculine, I really don’t think of myself as feminine, I
just think of myself as someone that doesn’t have, I’m just a worker, I’m an operator,
I’m someone who works on this machine. (GT, Oct 16, 2008)
GT’s focus is not that she is a woman doing these activities but that she is doing these
activities. NA pointed out that it was not just that the women felt neutral in terms of gender
but that the people they worked with mostly were not concentrating on gender either:
I’m not sure how other people would perceive it, right. To me it was just, that was
the way it was. It was, I never thought of it as being different and, like I mean I wore
a ball hat all the time so, and when I was at work with my hard hat I wore a welding
hat because I didn’t want my hair to get tangled up. And that’s just the way it was,
like I didn’t, I didn’t try to classify it as anything. (June 18, 2009)
Not only did most of the women feel either neutral or feminine no matter what they were
doing but CG also brought up the idea that other people could not affect one’s personal sense
of femininity,
For me feminine means that I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m a woman doing what
I’m doing right now. And at no point could they make me feel unfeminine. Inferior
is how I would place it. I’ve been made felt inferior, which I suppose you could say
is stripping me o f a piece o f my femininity because of, as a female I feel I’m always,
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should always feel empowered and they definitely made me feel that I wasn’t
empowered. (June 24, 2009)
Empowered can be defined as having some power or authority in society. Historically power
and authority were not associated with women. CG’s feeling that she should always feel
empowered draws attention to the contradiction between beliefs that because women are
considered equals in society they should always be empowered and the reality that women,
even though legislatively equals, often do not have much power or authority in society. As
previously discussed in Chapter 2, while women have gained power and authority through
the feminist movements social restrictions on what is deemed to be appropriate feminine
appearance have actually increased.
Attached to ideas of the gendered body with regards to femininity, and perhaps the
most easily recognizable component of femininity, is the ideal of the adorned female body.
For the first few years of her employment in forest industries JO made sure not to participate
in the socially acceptable activity of female adornment: “Yes. For years and years, it’s only
been in that last three years that I’ve actually started wearing makeup and jewelry, like and I
love it, it’s just so much fun” (July 10, 2009). Female adornment includes the application of
makeup and jewelry in order to ensure that the appearance is feminine. “The work... I didn’t
dress up at all. I didn’t wear makeup during the week and I wore coveralls a lot, so yeah I
didn’t wear nice clothes except for on the weekend. So yeah, I did feel very unfeminine”
(NA, June 18, 2009). Feminine appearance can also include the need to wear nice clothing
as a way of confirming feminine status and maintaining the standards demanded by being on
display for the male gaze. Dressing for the job she needed to perform, PW points out that:
Well, I looked pretty unfeminine at the end of the day. I always had toenail polish
and lipstick, and stuff, but yeah. I mean I had a very nice wardrobe for the weekends
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because I didn’t let it make me feel unfeminine, that’s why, but I mean, my clothes
were greasy and dirty, I worked in the packaging plant. But I probably had nicer
clothes then than I do now because I made sure that that never happened. (July 3,
2009)
Taken together, these women are pointing out that even though they may not be the ones in
control of the stereotypes that define femininity and whether or not they comply at all times;
there is still a certain level of enjoyment that they take in participating in the adornment and
appearance parts of femininity.
Femininity is stereotypically thought of with regards to behaviour and appearance.
The women talked about how their appearances, with regards to makeup, clothing hairstyles
and being clean, are often related to ideas about femininity and also about how they
sometimes felt unfeminine because of their appearance at work, “1 mean 1 didn’t put on
lipstick and fingernail polish to go to work, or wear high heels” (DB, July 1, 2009). PW
talks about how she is able to keep work and home life separate, “I’ve always had no
problems getting down and getting dirty but I always know at the end of the day when I go
home, have my shower, that I put my makeup on and whatever” (July 3, 2009). JO was able
to finally embrace dressing in a more feminine manner after trying to maintain an
androgynous appearance at work for many years,
Then there was a gradual shift in my time off to dress slightly more feminine and
want to, for the first time, look and act like a woman - this lead to a rebellious phase
of sorts. I began to wear shirts that were a little tighter with sassy sayings on them put my hair in pigtails and blow really big bubbles. (July 10, 2009)
For JO, finally dressing in a feminine way in the workplace was an act of rebellion.
Previously dressing in an androgynous manner at work was a way for JO to not only try
deflect attention away from her gender, but also as a means of minimizing obvious
differences between herself and her co-workers, to blend into the group. This rebellious
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stage for JO may have come from being in the industry and with her crew long enough that
she no longer felt that being recognized as a feminine woman would have negative
connotations for her in the workplace. EW believes that women are no longer defined solely
by their appearances because society has opened the doors for women to work in different
situations,
But I think the way that our society is now, and how women are doing such a variety
of different things it isn’t all about the make-up, the hairdo and the clothes. Now
you’ve got to be versatile, you’ve got to be able to think on your feet and handle
what’s coming at you. You can’t just run and hide and go help me, help me, help me.
(Sept 21, 2008)
EW relates feminine appearances not solely to the hair, make-up, and clothes, but also to a
woman’s thinking, acting and being able to handle situations by herself. When I first talked
to women about femininity many, myself included, knew what it was but found it difficult to
describe or define. When I presented them with the idea that a definition of femininity may
be as simple as anything and everything related to being female, the participants presented
their own ideas about what that might mean. Regardless of my presenting a different idea on
the definition of femininity, the participants’ own opinions were offered not only in direct
response to the question but also came through while they were talking about related items.
Many believed that anybody can do whatever they set their mind to do and that gender
doesn’t have to restrict that: “Yes and that’s feminine is being feminine, I always thought
that you can do anything you want if you set your mind to it, don’t let there be any
restrictions because of your gender” (EW, Sept 21, 2008). It seems interviewees believed
that being women should make everything they do feminine and that their knowledge of the
machines, the parts and even the repair process should not compromise their femininity.

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Still the participants talked about being tomboys or about being people who like to be
outdoors. Many of the women stated that they were tomboys growing up and that they even
adopted that role when they first entered the workplace and that it may have something to do
with their entering the forest industry. The participants professed to be “outdoors types:”
“Yes, and 1 liked outside work, I didn’t want to be a secretary so 1 thought why take up
typing. I wasn’t interested in that and I wanted to have a job that made good money that was
outside, it was physical and that’s how I started working in the planer” (PW, July 3, 2009).
From a young age AM showed more interest in outdoor activities:
I am more like, instead of playing with girly dolls and stuff like this, my interest was
the tractor out there or the horse. So from an early age I was more interested in what
was going on outside then I was staying in the house playing with dolls and so I think
from that, and like I know as a kid growing up my father was a heavy duty mechanic
and he used to weld and so that sort of things and I would be more at home in grease
up to my elbows then I would be sitting in the house chatting with other girls or
whatever. (Sept 22, 2008)
When women make statements about what they view as negative aspects of typical
femininity, it brings a few points up for consideration. First, they are clearly aware of what
the standards around femininity are; also, they are distancing themselves from feminine
qualities that they deem to be negative, or that they do not agree with. They are, however,
also trying to explain how they still consider themselves to be feminine even though they
may not fit the stereotypes.
For EW there are parts of female adornment with negative connotations. “But
femininity, 1 don’t know, I think the stereotypical femininity is the lady that’s all dressed up
to the nines and is afraid of dirt or she’s got a tear in her nylons or something and it’s a big

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deal, I think those days are kind of gone, maybe in some places they’re not, and [women]17
still think that way” (Sept 21, 2008). The implication here is that a woman who is solely
focused on her appearance does not have a place in modem times.
Sexuality
A large part of passing as a properly feminine woman is having one’s appearance
assessed by oneself, other women and men. In present Western society women are always
on display in ways that men are not; part of femininity is appearing to be sexually available
for men. Femininity and sexuality are virtually inseparable because part of being feminine is
to entice sexual attention from men. Sexuality can be thought of as the unspoken expression
of being open or receptive to sexual conduct. According to Bartky, “Sexual objectification
occurs when a women’s sexual parts or sexual functions are separated out from her person,
reduced to the status of mere instruments, or else regarded as if they were capable of
representing her” (35). Everywhere we look images of truncated women as sex objects can
be found, on billboards, in magazines, and advertising. Female sexuality is not just a part of
femininity through bodily functions or due to issues involving sexual harassment. Sexuality
has also been used to both define and restrict behaviours; the way a woman dresses has been
used to define her sexuality, and even used as evidence to prove promiscuity in the court of
law. Women know that female bodies are always on display and that display tends to show
small, fragile, sexualized female bodies. Every aspect of women’s physicality is supposed to
be small, weak and fragile, while the images portraying men emphasize strength, muscles
and sheer size. If a woman is strong and muscular it may be deemed that she is not a ‘real
woman’ for the same reasons that it is argued that women cannot perform the hard physical
17 Square brackets added to clarify EW was discussing women.

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tasks required in male-dominated industries: “real women” are not strong enough to handle
situations for themselves, needing men for those things and also to protect them.
Women have an uncanny knack of knowing how people expect them to appear in any
given situation. Bartky illustrates, “It is also the reflection in woman’s consciousness of the
fact that she is under surveillance in ways that he is not, that whatever else she may become,
she is importantly a body designed to please or excite” (80). With regards to sexuality the
participants talked about women’s use of female sexuality to further their forest industry
careers, anatomy-specific incidents when ‘jokes’ were made about women’s bodies, events
in which there was overt sexual harassment, other women’s being sexually harassed, how
participants tried to de-sexualize themselves, the separate areas within the workplace
environments for women and men, and the possibility of sexual exposure in the work
environment.
Women are knowledgeable agents with regards to knowing they are on display.
Some women will even use their supposed sexual availability or ‘wiles’ to gain resources for
themselves. Women know that being viewed as ‘pretty’ or ‘sexy’ has tangible advantages;
more attention is afforded to them, and they are assumed to be more interesting and even in
some cases more intelligent. While all of the participants did not directly enter into
discussing sexuality, there were, inevitably, moments when it came up. With regards to
female sexuality participants noted that even in male-dominated industries some women
were able to get certain positions by looking and acting certain ways.
Well I told one plant manager, he was going on and on about this young lady and I
said to him, ‘well, what part of her face did you look at?’ [laughs] He looked at me, ‘I
should have known better,’ he said, [laughs] Because it, the way she came across and

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that way she dressed and stuff like that, any man would be an idiot not to think ‘oh
wow’ [laughs]. (AM, Oct 2, 2008)
This shows how even women believe that sexuality can be used as a commodity in the
workplace. PW describes an incident where a woman at her workplace was being treated
differently by co-workers possibly because she was dressed in a more feminine manner,
When the mill first started hiring young women, there was a girl that came in to work
on the... she came to pile lumber and she was in her cute little top and, I mean she had
her boots and everything she had to have, and oh the guys. I mean, they were out
there trying to help her pile the lumber, they were doing their job and her job and it
was all great. (PW, July 3, 2009)
The suggestion here is that men were helping the new hire because she appeared properly
feminine, in terms of dress and assumed sexual availability. Ultimately, as discussed
previously, she would have to be able to prove she could handle the workload herself if she
wanted to continue to be employed there and be accepted as a forest industry-worker. While
perceived sexual availability is a defining feature of femininity, and has a measurable
presence in female-dominated workplaces, entering into relationships other than friendships
in any workplace is perilous. JO points to possible problems related to sexual relationships
in the workplace:
You can’t screw people at work because then you become the slut, which there are
those out there and there is that role and I hate those women because they make it
way harder for everybody else. I, I just like that one cook that was screwing
everybody, I was like whatever cause she’s sixty [laughs] so I was like, you go
ahead. You do your thing, I’ll put in ear plugs [laughs]. But, the younger women,
like especially like first aid attendants or the ones that do sleep with a lot of the guys,
I really, I would really love to take them out and give then a beating because they
have no idea what damage they do for the rest of us. Because then the next girl that
comes along to that crew instantly steps into the shoes of a tramp and that’s a hard
thing to step away from once those guys have that mindset that that girl is there for
their entertainment, not only does she do a job but she also does another job. (July 10,
2009)

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JO brings up many aspects of sexuality that warrant further discussion. Having sexual
relationships in the workplace can be damaging in more than one way and for more than just
the people directly involved. Having a sexual relationship in the workplace can change how
other women in the workplace will be treated because it opens the door for the possible
expectation that all the women could be potential sexual partners. Female sexuality already
displays women as being available sexually, and many women have fought against that
ideology in the workplace because otherwise they would not be taken seriously, which stems
from women only being able to be either a body or a mind.
Though JO is adamant that young women in the workplace refrain from sexual
relationships at work, she tolerates, and even encourages an older woman to form them.
Therefore, the older woman must not have the ability to set a precedent like younger women
could. This may be explained by looking at the way female sexuality is defined socially. In
images of sexual objectification the women are young; until very recently in the fashion
industry, most women do not model into their thirties and many of the new models are under
legal age of adulthood. Because the ideal images present in society define what is sexually
appealing, the sexual commodification of women has an expiry date. As women age there is
also the social expectation that they are no longer sexually available in ways that young,
unattached females are. While this older woman may be unmarried, the expectation of
sexual availability is no longer there according to ideals and stereotypes of female sexuality.
Another issue raised by these stories is that the women in the stories are being, at
least, partially blamed for the behaviours of their co-workers. Regardless of how a woman
looks, dresses, or behaves sexual harassment of women does not originate within the woman
being harassed. A viewpoint seems to be getting internalized, the view that if women
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somehow send any kind of signal a man could choose to perceive as sexual, and they deserve
the sexual harassment that ensues. This, in turn suggests if the women wanted to avoid any
kind of sexual harassment, they should police their behaviours accordingly. If viewpoints
like this are prevalent within the workplace it is likely that any woman would face varying
levels of sexual harassment.
All of the participants referred to sexual and gender harassment taking place in their
workplaces. Some harassment was directed specifically at the participants and some was
witnessed by participants but directed towards other women in the workplace. In some of the
workplaces, observations were made by male co-workers about female anatomy in the form
of ‘jokes’. In reference to these types of ‘jokes’ CG described, “The amount of times that
my breasts got looked at and I had to start wearing coveralls to cover them on a regular basis
and even then, I’m a fairly busty woman so a lot of attention was put on them... a lot of jokes
were made towards them, ‘do you carry your water in those?’, cause it’s a hot environment
there [laughs]” (June 24, 2009). Sexual harassment can often be disguised in the form of
‘jokes’ and women are constantly being asked where their sense of humour is as a way for
the person telling the joke to disguise the sexual harassment. Humour is used in many
situations as a way to detract and defuse the seriousness of what is being discussed. Women,
to show they do have a sense of humour, have even laughed at some of those ‘jokes’ as a
means of showing they fit into the workplace. Men can use ‘jokes’ to avoid any
ramifications from the nature of their comments being construed as sexual harassment, and
also as a way to test women and their willingness to play by the ‘rules’ the men set in the
workplace or prove why women should not be present.

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Most places of business have strict policies on sexual harassment. Where CG worked
there was a sexual harassment policy in place, and she talks about that policy:
No, that was a gender issue in the mill, because they do really promote high standards
on harassment, be it gender specific or not, harassment between workers and sexual
harassment obviously. Basically when summer students are about to be hired, I’ve
been told by the other men that I was working with, that they are told to take down all
their pornography that they have in their lockers so that they may not open the door
and accidentally show a naked woman hanging on their locker door, calendars, screen
savers, there’s a lot of computers in there, but there was still a lot of those visible and
out. (June 24, 2009)
This policy where the men have to remove their pornography from the workplace seems to
imply that sexual images of women in the workplace will only be construed as sexual
harassment if there are women present to be offended by it. This, coupled with the fact that
even once the pornography was ‘removed’ much was still visible, implies that while there
was some kind of policy on the books, it was not strictly adhered to or enforced. Women
working in this environment would have to choose if that was something that they were
willing to ignore.
One way to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace without getting anyone else
involved is to let people know immediately if their behaviour is inappropriate. PW
elaborates, “And so you need to really have your ground rules down, I mean, nobody pinched
my butt or slapped my butt or said anything to me that I didn’t like said” (July 3, 2009).
Sexual harassment was also brought up by participants in relations to themselves and in
describing the situation other women experienced. PW describes how, “One girl working
there that she got into some problems because there was a guy that was always making
passes at her or whatever and she kind of let him, not let him make passes but it kind of got
more aggressive and more aggressive where she actually had to file a complaint” (July 3,

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2009). The idea that unchecked behaviours can become more and more aggressive is also
elaborated by CG considering the more mild ‘jokes’ she had already experienced and then
the following incident,
And one time I was up on, there’s an elevator that you use to clean, and I was up
there with another man and the elevator was a little bit bouncy and he turned around
to the guys that were down below us and emphasized how my breasts were bouncing
with his hands when he thought I couldn’t see him. I was a little bit like, okay, you
guys have gone too far, so when I was walking along the side I kind of pulled him
aside and said to him, ‘I have excellent peripheral vision.’ And he’s kind of like,
‘well what do you mean?’ So I showed him with my hands what he had done and he
became very embarrassed and said sorry to me and laughed about it and went on.
(June 24, 2009)
Here even though the ‘jokes’ seemed to be evolving the male co-worker still treated the
incident as if it had only been a joke. Though she had previously allowed other ‘jokes’ to
slide and had not drawn attention to either their inappropriateness or her discomfort with
them, here she took the opportunity to draw a line.
It is sometimes difficult to pin-point exactly when a ‘joke’ becomes something more
serious. Unfortunately for JO the two incidents she describes were very serious:
I did wake up one night to find a guy standing over me in my room. He was very
drunk. Luckily, he was a good natured fellow because he was physically huge. I
basically said, “Dude, what the fuck are you doing. Get the bloody hell out”, which
thankfully he did. I started locking my doors after that. I don’t know if we talked
about this or not. I used to drink with my crews. Nothing unusual about that - still
do on occasion. I had the unfortunate experience of being “date raped” by a fellow
crew member that I had worked with for years and had felt very safe with. (July 10,
2009)
Though JO was the only participant that specifically mentioned incidents of this nature
involving her and co-workers, it is not unreasonable to expect that similar incidents did occur
for other women in the forest industries, though not necessarily with the other participants of
this research. Women have incorporated many different styles to help them deal with sexual

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harassment; they laugh along with the ‘jokes’, set ground rules, report harassment and even
try to de-sexualize themselves. These women were proud of their ability to talk to the men in
the same way that the men were talking to them as JO explains, “Like the biggest pig I ever
met, and I’ve met a lot of pigs but the biggest pig and so you had to be tough, you had to be
smart and have witty comebacks that were like almost mean, if you said them to anybody
else it would be mean but there, they appreciated that” (July 10, 2009). JO brings up an
important point, that some men, especially in certain workplaces, speak in a way that may
both seem to be and actually be misogynistic. JO does go on to explain that, in her opinion,
the ways some of her male co-workers talk, while apparently disrespectful to women, are
actually more akin to something like an accent or vernacular specific to an area,
But once you learn how to speak their language and learn that, honestly, they’re not
actually being mean when they say that stuff, they’re really not, most of the time, like
there are some people that are truly, you know, being disgusting pigs or being truly
racist or being harsh against women. But you have to learn to speak their language
and so you do fmd yourself biting your tongue a lot. (July 10, 2009)
Considering the forest industry does have occupational language, it could be that this manner
of speaking is part of the vernacular of the industry. DB suggests that the ways that some of
the men talk was more teasing, “They never ridiculed, well I mean they would kid or
something, but, I mean, it was like anything” (July 1, 2009). Collectively, what the
participants seem to be saying is that most men are just joking around and that as women in
“their” workplace, entering “their” domain, women should just play along to a certain extent.
As already pointed out by CG, there are also times where the men may have crossed lines of
appropriateness, and would need to be informed that type of behaviour will not be tolerated.
PW elaborates, “And as long as you did your job, you didn’t put up with anything and you
never had anybody say to you what you didn’t want said to you, you were okay” (July 3,

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2009). These two techniques of dealing with the language used by some of the co-workers in
the workplace - playing along with it or putting a stop to it - seem to contradict each other.
Choosing which way to deal with the situations probably depends on what each
individual woman is most comfortable with and whether she is willing to have a
confrontation with male co-workers, especially if it will affect how accepted she will be by
her co-workers. Many of the women tried to de-sexualize themselves in order to avoid any
kind of sexual attention from their co-workers, which including not flirting or trying to
ensure that no men in the workplace “got the wrong idea”. CG gives an example where she
took steps to deflect sexual attention, “And those ones that were good friends started to relax
a lot more around me and would start to make jokes. Jokes about say, maybe you should
wear those jeans again ‘cause your ass looks great in those jeans, so I never wore those jeans
again [laughs]” (June 24, 2009). For GT limiting her interactions with male co-workers after
work was done for the day was a way to signal that she had no interest in their possible
sexual attention,
Although in a way, it felt, yeah, it just felt friendlier talking to women than to men, I
guess there would always be the opportunity if the guys thought you were interested
in them, you may be looking for something else, and I thought, no I’m not, I’m not
going to put myself in that position, and I would definitely hang out with the women
more to give them the idea that no, that’s not why I’m out here, there was always that
risk. (GT, Oct 16, 2008).
GT points out that women may have more in common or similar experiences to discuss; and
forging female friendships in the workplace may be safer if one wants to avoid giving men
the wrong idea. JO describes how important it was to her to avoid bringing sexuality into her
working environment,
I did not dress like a woman, did not wear makeup, did not flirt in any way, even if
you’re having an, ‘I feel sexy today’ day. Didn’t make eye contact on those days
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because you cannot be like a real woman so to speak and express your sexuality in a
safe way because then it changes the dynamic completely. (July 10, 2009)
JO captures the idea of how it could be unsafe to bring sexuality to the forefront in the
workplace.
In many of the working environments there were separate gendered spaces either in
the washrooms or women’s quarters in the camps where the women should have been able to
avoid male contact. GT describes how some of the men were not fully aware of the
existence of female spaces in the camps, “It was always funny, if a guy walked into the
women’s quarters by mistake he might see some underthings hanging up and drying on the
shower things, and think, ‘oh, okay this is not, [laughs] I’m not supposed to be here.’” (Oct
16, 2008). The bathrooms in the mills apparently were not entirely separate spaces:
I actually did have separate bathrooms, I never used the same bathrooms as the men, I
had keys for them, but the forklift shack, we called it, where the forklift drivers went
for their lunch, there were separate bathrooms in there and apparently the guys had a
key to the women’s bathroom because it was a great nap spot. So every once and a
while when I would go to go to the bathroom there would be a man lying on the floor
in there [laughs]. So I would go to a different female bathroom, there were two
others. (CG, June 24, 2009)
When the participants were working out in the bush regardless of whether they were staying
in a camp most companies do not bring in any kind of portable toilet services because they
were not required to until January 2005.18 In these circumstances there would be no
bathrooms and privacy would be a luxury. The absence of washrooms in the workplace
could pose a problem related to sexuality due to the very nature of going to the washroom.
The potential for accidentally exposing oneself to coworkers especially when working in
close proximity is explained further by JO:

18This rule is stated in G4.85(2) o f the OHS Regulations found at www.worksafebc.com

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Going to the washroom also poses a problem as well in this instance. I have had to
hold it to the point of exploding before or time the skidders and the trucks so I could
fmd a small window of time where I could be unobserved. I have actually gotten
frostbite on my butt when I had to hurry and hide in -30 degree temps. Not fun.
Mostly the guys are good and if they look over and realize what I’m doing will look
away but a few of the truckers won’t. Dirty! (July 10, 2009)
Even when JO took specific measures to avoid accidentally exposing herself she could not
guarantee the behaviours of all her co-workers would be respectful. There were other
incidents relayed by interviewees which are directly related to the idea of sexuality through
exposure. SP talks about a different kind of possible exposure in her workplace,
When my crew would go skinny dipping they would be very nice to me, like I
wouldn’t go, I’d sit up in the crummy [the work truck used to drive the crews to and
from the worksite]19 but I’d stop and wait for them to go on the way home because
everybody was hot and sweaty. But the guys would come up, and I remember that,
come up and say, ‘we’ll stay up here if you want to go and just dip in’. And I’d say
no, by that time I was anxious to get home. (July 3, 2009)
Here, it seems that SP’s co-workers were trying to make sure she had a chance to cool down
for the trip home as well; but however noble their intentions, whether consciously aware or
not, that situation had the potential to be extremely unsafe for SP.
Summary
My participants’ discussion around difficulties gaining entry into the forest industry
echoed the experiences of men in many regards but there were additional obstacles faced by
the women due specifically to their gender and unwillingness by some employers to hire
women. Once the interviewees gained entry in forest industry employment they, like their
male co-workers, had the ability to move within the industry, in and out of different types of
jobs, but unlike some of their male counterparts, faced exclusions from management
positions. There was a surprising revelation about how routine the workday is in the forest
19 Square brackets added to explain terminology used.

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industry that I was not expecting. The sense of pride that stems from mastering new skills is
common to any workej regardless of gender. My participants definitely felt pride, especially
considering that the skills they had mastered were considered too difficult for even the
majority of men. Even though the participants excelled during the performance of their
forest industry work, there are aspects of these types of employment that are unappealing.
Forest-industry work does not seem to facilitate that work/home balance that many people
seek through employment. One participant with a family found types of forest-industry
employment that actually worked well with raising a family, but the other participants do not
believe that most of the employment in the industry worked well with raising a family for
women or men.
Participants who worked in a camp for weeks at a time found an unexpected perk of
being able to escape the ‘double day’ numerous women face and enjoyed having someone
else cook and clean their living space. The working environment, due to its very nature, was
very dirty, which led to the discovery that the participants associate men with dirtiness.
Tokenism was something both felt by and participated in by some of the interviewees. Many
of the employers wanted to be seem as equal-opportunity employers but only to the extent of
hiring a few women. The belief that most women would not be able to be successfully
employed in the forest industry was adhered to by a few participants while others do not
believe the working environment is healthy for any worker. Even though these women knew
they may not look feminine at work or be employed in female-dominated work, they felt
their femininity was intact. There were aspects of femininity that they saw as being negative,
and they did not agree with all of the ideals and stereotypes associated with femininity, but
still felt feminine. Sexual harassment in these workplaces was experienced quite frequently,
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mostly in the form of jokes, displays of pom, misogynist language, and unwanted advances,
but there were also incidents of sexual assault and rape.

Conclusion
New data needed to be generated when considering how female identity and
femininity were affected by working in the male-dominated forest industry of NBC, as
existing literature and studies did not address these topics. The preceding case study
examined the individual experiences and ideas of nine women who self-identify as having
worked or currently working in various positions within the forest industry. The experiences
discussed by the participants work to fill the gap in information regarding female identity and
femininity in NBC and the history of women employed in the forest industry. Femininity is
always experienced in relation to social times. From the case study provided, the
interviewees’ female identity and femininity intersected with different aspects of the forest
industry of NBC and seven main threads of conversation emerged. There were three themes
specifically related to the forest industry environment: first the women had to get into the
industry; once in the participants experienced degrees of mobility but also some barriers to
certain positions, and once established as forest industry workers, they pointed out that the
work was routine and they were able to prove to themselves and co-workers their ability to
adroitly handle the jobs. The following four threads of dialogue include ideology
surrounding female identity and femininity specifically in regards to working in the forest
industry. Participants discussed different ways they had to reconcile domesticity and
cleanliness with their work roles. There was consideration of the varying degrees of

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tokenism both experienced and participated in. The interviewees considered femininity with
regards to how they defined their own and how they were able to reconcile that within the
male-dominated workspaces. Sexuality, especially in terms of objectification and sexual
harassment, was the final thread of conversation involving female identity and femininity.
The following chapter provides conclusions, discusses the challenges experienced during the
course of this research, and recommends areas for future study regarding both the forest
industry and femininity and female identity.

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Chapter 5
Conclusions
This research has studied female identity and femininity among women working in
the forest industries in Northern British Columbia through the experiences and difficulties
women face in these male-dominated workplaces. Through a review of forest industry
literature it became clear that virtually all the women that had worked in the industry before
the interviewees were erased from the history. Women are mentioned, but they are few and
far between, in passing reference as an acknowledgement of their presence but rarely of their
work. Through the process o f doing this research and writing this thesis, the experiences and
stories of the participants will become part of the written history of the forest industries of
British Columbia. Within the framework of my study I have considered the relationships
between femininity as an ideal or stereotype and femininity as a lived experience, revealing
ways in which Western cultural ideals construct and manipulate the images of women to
prescribe acceptable performances of gender appearances and behaviours.
The case study demonstrates both the barriers faced associated with a male-dominated
field and cultural barriers faced by women within the role of femininity. Within this study
the participants demonstrated complete understanding of the different pressures and
expectations forced on them to behave to specific standards measured by society at large.
Though the participants may not consider themselves to be feminists or involved in feminist
movements, they have contributed to feminism by making inroads for the women following
them into male-dominated employment and by proving that women are as capable as anyone
to do the work there. These women have become the mentors and role models that were
absent when they entered the forest industry. They performed this advancement by

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persistently standing their ground against external pressures. These participants have
challenged the ideal and stereotypical version of femininity offered by, for example, dressing
the way they needed to in order to perform their work even if they still subscribed to some
traditional beliefs surrounding femininity. They challenged stereotypical femininity by
working in professions that claim to build the most masculine of men. By doing so they have
expanding their own understandings of acceptable femininity roles by proving to themselves
and others that gender has little to do with capability.
In reference to gaining an understanding of women’s experiences through working in
the forest industries I had seven key findings in the topics of Getting In, Mobility Once In,
Routine of Work, Cleanliness and Domesticity, Tokenism, Femininity, and Sexuality. In
many ways the participants followed the same process as males entering the industry.
Family connections either by family members directly or by the family’s social circle were
involved in obtaining employment. The literature available argues that people normally hear
about jobs through gender lines; men hear about jobs from men and women hear from other
women. However, the interviewees learned about employment opportunities through male
family members and friends. In many cases having these connections helped to secure
employment. Living in areas dominated by the forest industries also encouraged women to
participate in the industry because there was access to forest industry training programs
available and observing other women employed in the industry helped foster the ability for
the participants to pursue forest industry work as well.
The women experienced some barriers to forest industry employment. Barriers include
women’s taking themselves out of the game before even trying because the industry does not
appear inviting to them. The forest industry has remained male-dominated for several
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reasons. Attitudes of owners/managers who do not want women in the workplace will
usually keep women from being hired. Ideas developed from stereotypical representation of
the capabilities of women also contribute to keeping them out of the workplace, for example
ideas about their commitment levels to their work should they want to start a family, and
their ability to handle physically demanding labour. Other employers are not willing to hire
women because they do not believe that women have the skills needed to perform the work
and do not want to take the chance on hiring them and letting them develop the skills; males
are hired because they either have past experience or the employer believes they have had
past experiences that would make them good employees. Some employers just cannot
visualize women as forest industry workers and because of that are not willing to take a
chance on them.
There is also a fear that women entering the workplace would not be able to adhere to the
brotherhood-type relationship that has developed between male employees. While women
work with men all the time, it could be an entirely new experience for some men to work
with women. Because the working environment was male-dominated, there were virtually
no women role models or mentors for women entering the workplace to aspire to, but these
participants were still motivated to do forest work. The reasons given by the participants for
entering the industry include an appreciation and respect for the forest, the opportunity for
adventure and exploration, and the pay grade, reasons also cited by men in the industry.
I discovered that once in there seemed to be a lot of mobility or relative ease moving
from position to position or trying out different types of machinery. Sometimes women were
given the opportunity to try operating a different machine because they happened to be
available at the time; one participant was taught how to operate a large variety of machinery
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by co-workers as a sign of appreciation for the help she had provided for them previously.
But there was also somewhat of a glass ceiling; the participants mentioned that supervisory
positions were, for the most part, off limits, unofficially of course. But this would be the
same for the majority of male workers as well. Interviewees describe the work as very
repetitive or routine, which was surprising because one of the things used to determine
whether work should be male or female was that male work was invigorating and women’s
work repetitive.
In many instances the women were treated similarly in the workplace to any new
employee; first they had to prove they could do the job, which would earn them the respect
and acceptance of their co-workers. The participants all discussed the importance of proving
their ability to handle the work and how initially they were being watched closely for proof
of their abilities. Once the women were able to prove their capabilities, the majority of their
co-workers would accept them as members of the team. It was noted that some of the co­
workers may never be fully accepting of a female in their working environment and that
while all new workers had to prove their ability for women they may have to continually
prove their abilities for a longer timeframe. The women also pointed out that making a
mistake or having an accident was somehow viewed as a bigger mistake or worse accident
because it was a woman that did it even though worse mistakes made by male co-workers
were treated as insignificant.
By proving that they could handle the workload and being accepted by the majority of
their co-workers the participants enjoyed mastering what has been defined as masculine
skills, and even noted that there was no reason for the jobs in the forest industry to be gender
specific; they believed that the majority of the positions could be performed well by either
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gender. The interviewees were also proud of their ability to verbally spar with some co­
workers. For the co-workers that wanted women to go back to the home and kitchen,
participants would let them know they could perform their job just as well if not better. One
way the women knew they had proved themselves to their employer and co-workers was that
the constant watching would cease and they would be left alone to do their work.
I found that cleanliness and domesticity are associated with both the ideals and the
stereotypes regarding properly feminine women. Acceptable roles for women to fulfill in
order to deem properly ‘feminine’ by Western society include activities women perform in
the home, such as keeping it clean and performing the nurturing tasks such as feeding the
family and taking care of children. Employment typically reserved for women usually
occurs in a clean environment and the work being performed does not result in the worker
becoming soiled, whereas a large number of the resource industries men work in are very
dirty workplaces and the workers become dirty during the course of their workday. In terms
of appearance for the women in these forest industry positions, they realize the need to dress
for the work they are performing and because it is dirty work, often involving oils and
grease, dress in clothing that can withstand that level of dirt. The participants do not
consider it out of the ordinary to dress this way. Cleanliness is definitely a part of some
participants’ definitions of femininity based on the frequency of them referring to male co­
workers’ being dirty. But in this case dirty is not just referring to clothing but also to the
working environment and even the language men use.
The women also informed me that working in the forest industry was not compatible with
having and raising children. Though many believed there were positions within the industry
that were more family friendly and many women become the company bookkeepers, or
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office positions due to this. There were positions with degrees of flexibility, like being able
to start and end the workday earlier to get an event, which were family-friendly as long as the
work was completed. For participants who worked at jobs that involved staying in a camp
there was a unique opportunity to experience a different type of domestic living. Camp life
had the unexpected perks of removing the double day many working women face. When
working out of a camp the participants only had to go to work; all the meals were prepared
for the workers, the rooms cleaned, and the beds were even made for them.
I established that tokenism was present in the forest industry. While some employers say
they have no problems hiring women, participants felt that employers were only saying such
things for the benefits of being perceived as equal-opportunity employers because the reality
was that women were still not being hired. Many employers still refused to hire women
though but are able to make it appear to be for reasons not related to gender, such as having a
hiring policy that restricts hiring to only people with prior experience or certain physical
qualities. There were also employers and co-workers that would only let female workers
perform certain positions because they still preferred men to perform that work, or because
they felt it was too dangerous or difficult for women, or because they did not believe that
women would be capable. Some women, because they were never fully accepted by their
co-workers, moved into positions within the industry that would be considered traditional
female vocations, such as janitorial work or administration and office work. The participants
also seemed to at least partially share the view that most women could not work in the forest
industries or that women should only be in some of the positions available because the work
was too strenuous or dangerous for women to perform. This is at odds with another

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viewpoint the women had, that there was not a logical reason why the jobs in the forest
industry could not be performed by either gender.
The literature available discussing women’s relationships with ideal femininity roles
follows two main threads; one explains how and why women conform to the presented ideals
while the other maintains that women are not blindly following these standards but are
challenging them. I discovered that the participants indicated holding two differing
definitions of femininity that were not necessarily complementary. The first mirrors
stereotypical representations of femininity and female identity, such as the way women are
expected to look, act and the types of employment that were gender appropriate. The second
definition came from explaining that even though the participants might not fully fit the
stereotype or ideal they still felt feminine, which is a good indicator of the complexity of
gender or the performance of femininity. The participants mostly did not think of their
gender while performing their work and actually would consider themselves to be neutral,
but there were incidents when they were forced back into awareness of their gendered
bodies, either because a co-worker brought their attention to it or circumstances had. The
participants felt that for the most part their male counterparts were not focused on gender
either, once the women had proven themselves.
All of the participants relayed ideas about how female identity and femininity involved
body adornment, which is perhaps the most easily recognizable component of femininity.
Adornment encompasses modes of dress, wearing jewelry, and applying makeup. The
participants felt dressing appropriately for the work they were performing was more
important than dressing in a feminine manner, plus there is also a requirement to wear certain
safety gear and for the employees working outdoors there was also the necessity of dressing
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for the weather conditions. But the women did not believe that dressing in this way had any
effect on their sense of femininity. Jewelry and makeup were also minimally present in the
workplace; again the participants felt this was not part of the job and that their femininity
was not affected by it. The participants all continued to wear feminine clothing, makeup and
jewelry outside of the workplace when it suited them.
All the participants took measures to reduce or avoid sexual attention in the workplace.
Participants also believed that there were some women in the workplace who used their
sexuality or female wiles to advance their careers. Concern was expressed about women
who have sexual relationships with co-workers, because it can be damaging to the way all
women are perceived in the workplace. Participants feared that some men might think that
the women out there are not just to perform forest industry work but also to perform sexual
work. It is important to note that in the mill setting, two participants mentioned how women
that made sexual harassment complaints were relocated to different mills. The relocation of
the women and not the male harassers suggests that management, not unlike the participants,
are at least partially holding women responsible for the harassment faced in the workplace.
The idea that women must behave in ways not to illicit sexual attention perpetuates women
being blamed for the behaviours of men, instead of educating men that it is inappropriate to
behave in such a manner towards a woman regardless of how she is dressed or behaving.
No matter how capable a woman was some male co-workers would never be fully
accepting of women or other groups of people observed to be different. Sexual harassment
and objectification made this clear. All of the participants referred to sexual and gender
harassment in the workplaces. Some harassment was directed specifically at the participants
and some was directed towards other women. The most common form of harassment
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presented itself in the form of teasing and ‘jokes’ to try and disguise the violation of human
rights. Sometimes, laying out ground mles was not enough and serious or even criminal
incidents did occur.
The information and examples provided through the case study were related to the
theoretical discussion in ways that addressed many of the questions and goals formed at the
beginning of this research. What I realize now, in retrospect, is that my belief in a stereotype
that I failed to recognize as a stereotype is really where the motivation for my research
began. The stereotype was that Northern women are a different type of women who did not
fit the ideal version of femininity offered by Western society. I believed that people in the
North are different and hardier because the lifestyle is portrayed as more difficult, and the
women are less restricted by gender roles out of the necessity of needing to handle situations
on their own because men were often away working. Rosemary Neering pontificates, “They
are a different breed of women who often made their lives out beyond the cities.
Adventuresome and rebellious, they strayed outside the permitted and undertook the
unexpected” (9-10). The argument made here is that to choose to live outside cities takes a
different type of person in the first place. Women who have lived in forest based and/or
Northern communities will also be ‘a different breed of women.’ I have heard this stereotype
many times and never thought to question it or thought of it being a stereotype. And to GT,
this stereotype was a reality she experienced.
That’s one thing that I found out about women in this area, that was one thing that really
impressed me, my first impression of women that I met around NBC, was that they were
very, very strong women. And it took me a while to realize why that was, and I think it’s
because their men always had to go away and work so they were in charge of the farm,
they were in charge of the household, they were in charge of the kids by themselves for
weeks at a time and when you have that kind of responsibility you have to be tough.
Since then I’ve found some women who are just as ditsy and crazy as the ones on the
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coast, in urban areas [laughs] who are fashion hounds and whatnot and real girly girls,
but for the most part women up here are much more, are much stronger, much more
independent, and I think in a lot of ways a lot smarter because they’re self-reliant and I
respect those qualities in women who can do that and I’ve become very good friends with
all of them, a lot of them around here. (Oct 16, 2008)
What this tells me is that while some women in the North may behave in certain ways that
could be considered different from the stereotypical feminine behaviour, other aspects are the
unchanged. But while I continue to like the idea that Northern women and men are
considered different or tougher because they live in a climate that can be taxing, I also
recognize that women living in the South are different or tougher in other ways and for other
geographically, historical and social ways. Everyone wants to be extraordinary, so when
there is a stereotype available that paints people in ways they consider positive it becomes
less likely they would view it as a stereotype and more likely to be taken as a truth.
Along with the belief in this stereotype I believed there was a distinct essence of
Northem-ness and a Northerner could pick out Northern qualities, such as the flannel shirt or
Sorels. But by the conclusion of this study I find myself believing there is not an essence of
Northem-ness and that by trying to find and define this essence I could have easily fallen into
the same trap of stereotyping and setting ideals for people in the North. Originally what
subconsciously motivated my research was my belief that if I could ‘prove’ or show that
Northern women did not succumb to the stereotypes defining womanhood and femininity it
would provide an argument for Northern BC being more egalitarian in terms of gendered
power divisions, which would provide the basis for a new model of society that would
actually promote equality. I had secretly hoped that women in NBC had created an entirely
new form of feminine identity, or that with taking on parts of masculine identity they had
created a hybrid version, but what I discovered matches more with the theoretical

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understanding that gender is not a system of opposites but more a sliding scale that allows for
variation to every ideal. Thus, grand delusions of a feminist manifesto had to be shelved as it
rested on far too many assumptions developed out of unquestioned stereotypes and biases.
Originally why I turned to women in the forest industries was because I was raised in a large
family full of strong women: strong emotionally, physically and mentally. Because my
family was involved in the forest industry I suspected that some of that strength came from
that involvement. Considering most of the women in my family were not employed in the
industry, I speculated that there would be a substantial effect on femininity for the women
who did work in the industry.
The women in this study adopted an identity that incorporates both feminine and
masculine qualities as defined through stereotypes. Many of the participants denied parts of
femininity that they found outdated and unattractive, like being afraid to get your hands dirty
or to participate in difficult, dangerous work. This does not mean that those aspects of
femininity did not inform and influence their lives as forest-industry workers. In fact, my
participants seemed even more aware of the aspects they resisted. This thesis asked what
effects, if any, working in the male-dominated forest industry had on femininity and female
identity. For the participants the biggest change was that they were stronger and for all but
one, their language involved more swearing then it had previously. These women were
stronger physically due to the intense work they were performing; many even commented on
how much they enjoyed their new stronger physique and the physical component of their
employment. Interviewees also seemed stronger mentally through their ability to not only
learn all the variety of positions they worked at in the forest industry, but also their ability to
excel in mastering these supposed “masculine” skills. The participants wielded emotional
127

strength that came from working in an environment that was not always welcoming, standing
their ground verbally with co-workers trying to convince them to leave, and not letting the
views of the outside world change their desires or their femininity.
My participants were/are successful forest industry workers. They made it, they know of
other women who were successful, and they believe that there is no reason why women
cannot be triumphant forest industry workers; but they mostly would not recommend other
women to work in the industry and even sometimes would not recommend the work to men
either. Jo helps to illustrate,
I think it would be a very rare person that I would meet that I would recommend it to.
It’s not the running of the machine that is hard, but it’s everything else that goes with it.
And you have to be kind of crazy, you can’t be scared driving to work, you’ve got to get
to work so you’re pinning it down icy roads, dusty roads, zero visibility, dodging things,
you’ve got to be kind of crazy, you’ve got to be a workaholic, you’ve got to have the
thickest skin, you’ve got to have a good sense of humour and you’ve got to want it. And
honestly, people look at the pay, people think, ‘I’m a chick, I can do that too.’ Well, I
don’t know, can you? I doubt it. Like there’s a lot of girls, they might say they want to
but whether they can actually hack it in the long run, I don’t know. I wouldn’t, it’s a
shitty lifestyle, yeah. (July 10, 2009)
Here JO is clear that it would be a rare “person”, and looking at the quote as a whole one
could assume she does mean woman or man. There are several reasons why the participants
would not recommend forest industry work. The dangerous aspects of the work along with
the strenuous hours and amount of time spent away from family and friends would all qualify
as deterrents. There was a time when I considered working in the industry myself, especially
for the pay grade that was available, but I had an awareness of what those occupations
consisted of, of the danger and hard physical labour, of the attitudes some males in the
industry held about female workers, and the need to develop thick skin and a ‘masculine’
sense of humour. Had my parents discouraged my entering the field but encouraged my

128

brother to enter it, the probability of my securing forest industry employment would have
been inevitable. The fact they did not want either of us to enter the industry, was the most
persuasive argument against it because it allowed me to believe it was for reasons other than
my gender. There is no one I currently know in the forest industry who recommends other
people joining it as a career. The reasons they do not it that it is becoming harder to make
the high wages that were once so enticing, it is harder to support a family, at least year round,
and the industry was in a down cycle. From the optimistic forest industry workers I am in
contact with, they say an upswing is starting slowly, but only time will tell for sure.
Challenges
The two biggest challenges at the onset of my research were trying to find women in the
forest-industry literature and trying to get my schedule to mesh with those of potential and
actual participants. Other challenges include my own delusional understanding of the ease
with which interviews are transcribed, but by the last one I was getting substantially better at
it. Redefining some of the terms of my research posed some difficulty; originally I had
envisioned my research spanning the time frame of 1930 to the present day, but the
participants actually covered the time span from 1960 to the present day. Originally,
partially due to the time frames changing, I was defining the communities as rural because of
the population density in the 1930s and knowledge that much of the sawmilling was first
done by families on their farmlands. Looking instead at the communities in terms of
resources did not limit my study to any span of time and was more sensible considering that
the industries being studied were resource industries.

129

Future Studies
There are still considerable gaps in the research of forest industries that I hope future
researchers and studies will address. Studies looking at the treatment, respect and reputation
that forest industry workers have in society as well as how the workers perceive themselves
to be regarded by society as a whole would be valuable especially in consideration of how
the media represent conflicts between environmentalists and resource-based employees.
As mentioned earlier, none of the participants for my research identified themselves
as belonging to any First Nations group or any other ethnic minorities. The literature
available did not identify or address these groups for the most part either. Some of the
participants did give mention of members from these groups and other ethnicities being
present where they were employed, whether male or female. Future studies should
investigate ethnic variation among forest-industry women and men. Additional studies of
women and their experiences in all resource-based employment and male-dominated
employment would be a great undertaking, as would asking whether women working in any
male-dominated industry believe they are making changes to it for future women. Even
though the literature available references the industry to be extremely masculine, I found
only one study, Quam-Wickham’s, that actually did study the creation of masculine identity
in Western extractive industries or that interviewed men in reference to it. Critical studies of
masculinity in the forest industry, other male-dominated industries and other resource-based
industries are therefore needed just as are further studies of femininity.
Certain subdivisions within the forest industry did not respond to my recruitment
process and it would be prudent to research the experiences of people working in those fields

130

as well, for example government workers and registered forest technicians. I wish I had
more time, resources and space to explore the male storytelling aspect of the industry with
my participants. Their stories would be extremely beneficial to the history of the industry,
for it is built as much on actual events as the retelling of those events. Deconstruction of the
language and metaphors of the forest industries would also be an area of future study I am
personally interested in for the future and would strongly recommend. Studies that include
both genders would also be valuable because people are never masculine and feminine in
isolation; it is the interaction between the two that influences binary definitions of gender. It
would be interesting to find out how women’s entering ‘their’ employment domain affected
men’s masculine identity. Another vital area of study would be accidents, injuries and deaths
within the forest industiy. References made by my participants also indicate a problem with
addictions and the use of drugs and alcohol in the forest industry, which would be another
potential area for study.
I hope these previously mentioned studies are taken up because women and ethnic
minority groups are marginalized not only within the industries but also outside the
industries. The attitudes that marginalize women in the forest-dependent communities are
also present among those who have studied the industries and by the people who make policy
changes, which contribute to and can even reproduce the gender ordering of those
communities.

131

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Peet, Richard. “Social Theory, Postmodernism, and the Critique of Development.”
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Perry, Adele. ‘“Oh I’m Just Sick of the Faces of Men’: Gender Imbalance, Race,
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Appendix A

Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural R asoum Operations

Region and District Offices

0 n k N Q i i t o |l D i |N i M t M f 4
- F O rtS t JMMHtOtortCtfMK.JMMe|

* S m m M w O b m I OWrtot (Mm i w«e(}

- S c u tl tatand CtoMc ty s r f

iaal)

Fig. 1. Forest Region and District Offices Map, Ministry of Forests. Lands and Natural
Resource Operations. (British Columbia, 2011) 13, May 2013
<http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/mof/maps/regdismap.pdf>

Appendix B
Interview Questions/Prompts

Note: Because the project aims at gaining an understanding about personal interpretation, the
questions will be open-ended in order to ensure discussion and subject prompts may also be
used. The following questions and prompts will serve as guidelines for the interviews.

1. Background information: What is your name? Where do you currently live? When
did you live in Northern British Columbia? Were you bom and raised there? Where
did you attend elementary and secondary school? Do you have any post-secondary
education? Are you married? Do you have children? When did you work in
Northern British Columbia? Where did you work?
2. Can you describe how you came to be working at_____________ ? (Prompts: How
did you enter into that field o f employment? Did you think thatfield was a regular
occupation fo r women? Were you trained for that employment before you entered it?
Vocational training?)
3. Why did you choose to work there? (Prompts: Was it the type o f job you wanted?
Was it ever a concern your employment choice was/was not a conventional
employment/workplace choice? Did you ever wonder ‘what will people/my parents/
my friends think? Were conventional roles o f males andfemales in mind when you
were picking your employment? Do you think people do take it into consideration
when they apply fo r a job?)
4. Was the place where you were employed a mostly male environment? Could you tell
me what that was like? (Prompts: Were there other women in that working
environment? Did those women hold similar positions to yours? What other types o f
positions were open to women in that environment? Were some positions ‘o ff limits ’
to women?)
5. What was it like to work in a mostly male environment? (Prompts: Did you feel that
you fit in ’? Were you treatedjust like everyone else? Were you ever treated
differently because you are a woman? Do you feel that being a woman made a
difference in the workplace? Did you ever feel that you should not be there?)
6. Did your work ever make you feel unfeminine? (Prompts: Do you think there is a
conventional [normal/standard] type of femininity/masculinity? What do you think
creates these types? [Political motivation, pressures from both familial andfriend
142

associations? Different classes? Employment? Appearance? Media Influence?
Society?])
7. Does how feminine you feel change in different places? (Prompts: According to
different situations, like at a baby shower vs. at a sporting event? Are there different
ways you experience and/or display femininity depending on where you are? What
type o f situation you are in? Home? Restaurants? Job? In different social settings,
with friends, strangers, co-workers? Where do you feel most feminine? Did you
dress differently to enhance how feminine you felt in different situations/places?)
8. Did your job have any effect on your life outside the workplace? (Prompts: What
type o f role did you fill outside the workplace? In the family? Do you think it matters
if the role is unconventional? Does it matter to you? Do you think it mattered to the
people you worked with ? Do you think it mattered to your family or the people you
knew? Was there pressure to stay/leave the job coming from outside forces? Hyper­
feminine when not at work or completely unfeminine?)
9. If you consider your choice to be unconventional, could you talk about why you think
it is? Do you consider the position to be conventional for women or men? Why and
why not? (Prompts: How would you define conventional and unconventional roles
fo r women and men? Do you think they are changing? Necessary?)

143

Appendix C
Research Ethics Board Approval Letter

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
RESEARCH ETHICS BOARD
MEMORANDUM
To:
CC:

Kathryn Doucette
lA c q u e lre Hoi lor

From:

Greg Hafseth, Acting Chair
Research Ethics Board

Date:

July 2 f, 2008

Re:

E2008.0708.127
RuraJ Feminine Identity i.i Northern EC frcm 1930 l« 2000

Thank you for submitting the above-noted research proposal and requested
amendments (o the Research Ethics Board. Your proposal has been approved.
W e ara pfeasod tc issue approval for the above n a n a d study for a pcrod o( 12 months
from the date of this letter. Continuation beyond that 'dale will require further review and
rc-mwa! of REB approval, Any changes or amendments to the protocol or consent farm
m ust be approved by the Research Ethics Board.
Good luck with your research.
Sincerely,

Appendix D
Oral Interview/Transcript Release Form

Researcher: Kathryn Doucette

Supervisor: Dr. Jacqueline Holler

C/O Gender Studies Program

UNBC at: University Way

University Way, Prince George, B.C. V2N 4Z9

Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9

Email: doucette@unbc.ca

Email: holler@unbc.ca

Oral Interview/Transcript Release Form

Date of Interview:

Title of Project: Rural Feminine Identity In Northern British Columbia From 1930 To
Present Day
hereby consent to the recording
I (print)
and preservation of interviews of myself by Kathryn Doucette working under the supervision
of Dr. Jacqueline Holler, Associate Professor, at the University of Northern British
Columbia.
I understand that my participation in this project is voluntary and that I have the right to
withdraw from the project at any time and that corresponding information will be withdrawn
and destroyed as well. I understand that I have the right to place restrictions upon the use of
this material as detailed below. Any complaints about this project may be directed to the
Office of Research at UNBC, 960-5820 or by email: reb@unbc.ca

I understand that I have the option of participating in this project anonymously; my
preference for participation is indicated below. I understand that the potential benefits of this
project include the preservation of my experiences and knowledge about the different ways
in which female identity and femininity are affected by employment in male-dominated
environments and will also contribute to the history of women and Northern BC. I
understand that the personal information collected through the interview process will be
published in the Thesis of the researcher and through the thesis will be available for future
researchers though they will not have access to the electronic or transcribed interviews. I
understand that should I chose to participate anonymously there is still the remote possibility
that someone may be able to use the information to discover my identity even though
necessary precautions have been made. I understand that I will be referred to appropriate
resources should I experience emotional pain brought about through the interviewing process
145

about past experiences. The only persons who will have access to the interviews will be the
researcher, Kathryn Doucette, and the supervisor Dr. Jacqueline Holler.

I understand that I will receive a copy of the transcribed interviews before the project is
completed. I understand that I have the right to remove any information contained in the
transcribed interviews that I do not wish to be used in the project. I understand that all of the
information collected through the interviewing process, whether used or not, will be held in
strict confidence. I understand that a copy of the Master’s Thesis will be given to me once it
has been defended. I understand that the electronic and transcribed interviews will be stored
for one year after the defense of the thesis in a locked filing cabinet at the residence/office of
the researcher. At the end of that year, the information will then be returned to me or
destroyed by the researcher. Should I have any questions I will contact the researcher,
Kathryn Doucette, directly by the information provided at the top o f this page. In case the
researcher cannot answer those questions, I can contact the Supervisor, Dr. Holler also by the
information given at the top of this page.

I hereby waive any claim against UNBC and its agents with respect to the use of this
information, provided it is used in accordance with this agreement. I do this freely and with
full knowledge of the legal consequences of this consent.

Signed: (interviewee)
Date:

I hereby give my further consent to the use of my name, and/or details about my life that
directly or indirectly reveal my identity.

Signed: (interviewee)________________________________
Date:______________________
Address:________________________________________________
_________________________________________________ Phone
No:

I hereby wish to express my desire for anonymity in this project.

146

Signed: (interviewee)______________________
Date:___________________________

Any Restrictions/Conditions: None:________or:

At the end of the year of storage I would like the information to: be returned to
me:________or:
Destroyed by the researcher:__________________ .

147

Appendix E
Informed Consent
Your participation has been requested as part of a thesis project that is trying to
determine any effect of employment in male-dominated working environments on female
identity. The project is focusing on working environments attached to the logging industry
because of the prevalence of the forestry industry on Northern British Columbia. The
participants will be chosen due to their employment in the industrial sector of the forestry
industry between 1930 and 2000.
Kathryn Doucette, a Gender Studies graduate student will be conducting the research
through a series of interviews. The interviews will be semi-structured in order to facilitate
conversation and allowing the participants to talk at great length on experiences that they feel
were significant.

Do you understand that you have been asked to participate in a research study?
Yes

No

Have you read and received a copy of the attached oral interview/transcript
release form?
Yes
No

Do you understand that the research interviews will be recorded?
Yes
No

Do you understand the benefits and risks involved in participating in the
study?
Yes
No

Have you had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss this study?
Yes
No

Do you understand that you are free to refuse to participate or to withdraw

148

from the study at any time?
Yes
No

You understand that you do not have to give a reason for withdrawing?
Yes
No

Has the issue of confidentiality been explained to you?
Yes
No

Do you understand who will have access to the information you provide?
Yes
No

Do you understand who will store the information, how the information
will be stored, for how long and what will happen to the information when
that time period has ended?
Yes
No

This study was explained to me
by_____________________________________________

I agree to take part in this study:
__________________________

Date:

Signature of Research Participant

Printed Name of Research Participant

I believe that the person signing this form understands what is involved in the study and
voluntarily agrees to participate.
149

Date
Signature of Researcher