When Sara Burtch was in elementary school, she remembers filling out a career aptitude test giving students a list of jobs their personality and interests most align with.
“I got plumber – and everybody made fun of me for it. So, I never really looked into it the way I should or took it seriously,” Burtch said.
Now, years later, she’s enjoying a fulfilling career working with G.J. Burtch Construction. Four years into her foray in the trades, Burtch tells The Highlander it’s the best decision she’s ever made.
“It’s funny, because now I can do a lot of the things a plumber does. I can change filters and swap out toilets. It’s made me wonder how, if everyone hadn’t laughed at me, would I have gone down this path years ago? I have a daughter who is interested in construction. I don’t want women growing up today going through the things I did, thinking ‘I can’t do that because that’s a man’s job’.”
With that in mind, Burtch is one of the driving forces behind the Haliburton County Home Builders Association’s (HCHBA) new ‘women in construction’ group. She and Aggie Tose, HCHBA’s executive officer, got the idea after attending a Canadian home builders national conference last fall and hearing from other regional entities how successful they’d been developing women-only meets.
An inaugural gathering is being held at The Link in Haliburton March 6 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
“We’re hoping to get more women out to volunteer and start having more of a presence in the community. Our long-term plan is to have our own board for women in the trades,” Burtch said.
Over the past few months, Burtch said she’s been developing her own inventory of women that she knows are working in the industry – noting, after talking with her husband, Andrew, and father-in-law, Gary, that numbers are way up from even 10 years ago.
“There have always been a few around Haliburton, but it was not really talked about. Even for me – a lot of people know my husband, but I’m often the one carrying the extra load that he can’t get to. I’m hoping to reach a lot of these women in the background that perhaps we don’t know about who might be willing to come forward and start to get more involved,” Burtch said, noting the group is open to anyone – not just HCHBA members.
Burtch will be at Hal High next month for HCHBA’s annual job fair. While she’ll be actively promoting opportunities at her firm, she’s also willing to discuss all potential career paths in the trades for young women. Through this new group, she’s hoping to develop a pool of workers willing to go into the high school to talk about how they broke in.
“Something where we can bring a female plumber or electrician in to speak to kids about their journey, because we all have a story,” Burtch said.
She noted HCHBA routinely assists young professionals – men and women – starting on their path to purchase tools and get help with training.
Burtch believes encouraging more women to pursue careers in the trades would benefit the industry.
“And not just in terms of numbers, but in perspective too,” Burtch said. “Don’t be put off by failing or feeling like you don’t know enough. When I first went out working with my husband, I thought it was a huge mistake. Then the more he talked about things, the more I learned. Before long, I was making suggestions to him about how to try something a different way.
“Men and women look at things differently, so to have both perspectives, I find, it really helps to see things a little clearer and get more of a full picture,” she added.
