As SAIT celebrates its 100th birthday this month, one aspect of the school’s history that is often overlooked is that of its female students.
From its humble inception as the Provincial Institute of Art and Technology (PITA), in 1916, to the present day Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, the status of women at the school has been varied, with patterns of both acceptance and discrimination throughout the years.
Susie Fjellstad, who attended SAIT from 1968 to 1971, was one of only two women in the General Drafting diploma program at that time.
“It didn’t feel odd or anything, but I remember we had to get special permission to wear slacks or jeans, and only on the days we had shop class,” said Fjellstad.
“Otherwise we were required to wear a skirt or dress to class.”
For Fjellstad, due to the nature of the program, it wasn’t unusual to be in a class full of men, but she remembers feeling singled out by her instructors based on her experience.
“I actually thought the instructors went out of their way to help us, because they probably felt we had never been around building materials because of school,” said Fjellstad.
“In those days, you couldn’t take shop if you were a woman.”
The sentiment is echoed 40 years later by former SAIT student Alicia Roberts, who completed her second year of the Electrical Trade program last year.
While her experiences with instructors at SAIT were generally positive, the gender bias of her male classmates was more apparent.
Roberts said that her instructors, all of whom were male, were genuinely curious about her experience as a female student, and wouldn’t assume she needed any extra attention because of her gender.
However, she was the only female in her first-year classes, and one of only three in her second year. Roberts’ male classmates “would always offer help, assuming that I would need it because I am a woman.”
Roberts, who also identifies as a lesbian, said the undertone of discrimination at SAIT, because of gender or sexuality, was always there, and recalls being confronted by a male classmate during one of her classes, who demanded to know about her sexual preferences.
Roberts said she was able to turn the conversation around, but the other men in her class seemed more curious about her answer than they were willing to point out the inappropriateness of the question.
Dakota Davis, a first-year student in SAIT’s Environmental Technology program, said that many of her instructors, nearly all of whom were men, expressed surprise at the number of female students in her class this year.
Davis said that in her experience at SAIT so far, the undertone of gender-based discrimination is more prevalent than direct conflict.
“It’s subtle, but rampant,” said Davis.
Despite SAIT’s attempts to engage more women in the trades and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, there hasn’t been a huge increase in female enrolment.
In fact, according to SAIT’s 2013 internal Situation Assessment, males have comprised 96 per cent of SAIT’s apprenticeship program enrolment, consistently since 2008.
While some programs are starting to reach gender parity, the school is still predominantly male, with some programs, such as the corporate training courses, even seeing an increase in male students attending over the past decade.
The student experience, however, seems to be determined primarily by whether the field was, or is, traditionally considered to be for men or women.
Paula McPhee, who graduated from the Print Journalism program in 1986, said her class was almost evenly divided, with slightly more men in attendance, but she doesn’t remember anyone telling her, “’Hey little girl, let me show you the way,’ as if I didn’t know what I was doing there.”
In fact, McPhee said her one female instructor seemed more concerned about the female students maintaining their traditional gender roles than her male instructors.
SAIT’s, and society’s, treatment of women seems to have fluctuated throughout the past century, and contrary to popular opinion, the progression hasn’t always been positive.
While the inaugural SAIT student associations of the 1920s included women in leadership roles, in the ‘40s and ‘50s, it was determined that women could not hold the position of president or external vice-president.
It wasn’t until 1970 that those positions, as well as that of club council chairman, were re-opened for female students.
Just five years later, many of SAIT’s female graduates wore pins on their convocation gowns, protesting the wage gap of 19 per cent between male and female university graduates.
Forty years later, that gap has increased to 32 per cent.
Despite SAIT’s best efforts, some things never change.
While the male students of the 1935-36 motor shop class received yearbook captions recognizing their skills, both as mechanics, and with the ladies, one of the program’s pioneering female students, Vi Morrow, was patronizingly described as “Motor shop’s pluckiest little mechanic!”
Forty-five years later, in 1982, Robin Slater, one of two female electrical apprentices at SAIT, was the subject of a cruel caricature, after speaking out about images of nude women being used by an instructor “to get the apprentices’ attention” in class.
We’re living in a time where we should be able to recognize those differences, and move forward to make them work for everyone. – Alicia Roberts
While strides have been made over the past century, including the recent launch of a mentoring program for women in STEM fields at the school, recent students such as Davis and Roberts believe it shouldn’t be left solely to women to support one another at SAIT.
“Make it an educational topic to all students, as to what women can provide, and do provide, to the trades,” said Roberts.
“We’re living in a time where we should be able to recognize those differences, and move forward to make them work for everyone.”