Girls in trades: tokenism and sexual harassment inside the VET classroom

When women enter occupations that have historically and traditionally been the realm of men, they face a multitude of barriers that make their experience difficult and that contribute to a gender-segregated workforce. Vocational Education and Training (VET) is the entryway to employment in the skill...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of vocational education & training 2024-08, Vol.76 (4), p.757-775
Main Authors: Bridges, Donna, Wulff, Elizabeth, Krivokapic-Skoko, Branka, Bamberry, Larissa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apprentices
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeships
Classroom environment
Classrooms
Employment
Gender
Gender and learning
Gender inequality
Gender segregation
male-dominated industries
Occupations
Professional identity
Professionalism
Qualitative research
Sexual harassment
skilled trades
Tokenism
Vocational education
vocational education and training
Women
Workforce
Workplaces
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:When women enter occupations that have historically and traditionally been the realm of men, they face a multitude of barriers that make their experience difficult and that contribute to a gender-segregated workforce. Vocational Education and Training (VET) is the entryway to employment in the skilled trades, and VET providers have a role in introducing students to the industry, in the formation of occupational identity and occupational behaviours, establishing workplace cultures and standards of professionalism. Furthermore, VET has a moral and legal obligation to provide a safe classroom for all students. This paper reflects on the role of VET in perpetuating gender segregation in the skilled trades in Australia. We report on a qualitative research project with tradeswomen, apprentices, industry and government representatives that found that significant barriers confront tradeswomen apprentices in VET institutions. The study found that VET has the capacity to normalise the tokenism of women and contribute to gender harassment. We argue that a VET classroom environment where gender inequalities and harassment are normalised, and a gender biased apprenticeship system, contribute to gender segregation in the skilled trades.
ISSN:1363-6820
1747-5090
DOI:10.1080/13636820.2022.2084768