Gender Under Construction

By Lisa Smith, Douglas College, Department of Sociology and Menstrual Cycle Research Group 

In May 2023, Phyllis arrived at Broadway-City Hall Station--a transit hub not too far from downtown Vancouver, Canada. Phyllis is one of two tunnel-boring machines (Elsie is the other one) hard at work as ­­­part of a major public transit upgrade that will expand the existing network considerably. Tunneling under the city streets was a must; enter Phyllis and Elsie.

Many see construction in the city as a mark of progress, and yet, the disruption to daily life, closure of businesses, and displacement of long-term residents are not welcomed by all. To ease the transition and garner support, the city has undertaken considerable public relations efforts. There are interactive panels on the side of the construction sites featuring cartoon characters, activities and quiz type questions, as well as an opportunity for passersby to get a sneak peek inside the construction site.

Another main feature of the city’s efforts involves the storytelling and meaning making related to the boring machines. Phyllis and Elsie have their own dedicated web content, including a map documenting their original journey, photos, and videos and updates of their work as it goes. Their progress has been charted and reported on in major news outlets and on social media as they have captured a small but keen segment of the public imagination.

In keeping with tradition, the machines are named after significant women. Phyllis Munday, was “a passionate mountaineer best known for exploring and documenting the Coast Mountains and Mount Waddington, and nurse and founder of the Girl Guides in British Columbia.” Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill was born in B.C. and was “the world’s first female aeronautical engineer.”

Even if there is a historical precedent, when you stop and think about it, saying that a 6-meter-wide dirt and gravel munching machine is feminine or masculine doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. As a sociologist, this whole thing got me thinking about gender as a social construction in construction sites. Why do these machines have to be gendered? And perhaps more importantly what are the implications both on and off the construction site?

When sociologists say that gender is socially constructed, it means that there is nothing fixed about the meanings of gender. It is society and people that make meaning through the things we do, say, and believe about gender. We know gender is a social construction because ideas about what it means to be male and female change over time and across societies. The social construction of gender doesn’t just apply to people. As we can see with Phyllis and Elsie, it also applies to things and objects. Indeed, in North American society and many other societies, people commonly refer to cars, boats, and many other machines as her and she. But why?

In a society where women are objectified and femininity is associated with passivity and servitude, feminizing machines makes them feel familiar, unthreatening, approachable, and perhaps most importantly, not out of place. For example, the default personality of Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker is a friendly feminine helper, who gently paves the way for surveillance capitalism. How can you not give up your data to her gentle lilting voice? After all, you’re the one giving the orders, right?

Similarly, the public campaign featuring Elsie and Phyllis paints a friendly feminine face onto city-making and development. While construction of new things in cities—such as extending SkyTrain lines—is often associated with progress, it is not a neutral process and many socially disadvantaged groups are forced out to make space for “the future.”

Not everyone benefits equally when new infrastructure comes to town. Just taking the example of Vancouver, as the city expands and space is made for more people, many groups are getting pushed out. Vancouver, like other large Canadian cities, is not very affordable and many people won’t be able to take advantage of the new SkyTrain line even if their taxes are supporting the construction.

The feminization of these machines, which seemingly honors women and their contributions to society, simultaneously obscures the ongoing exclusion of women from trades and construction. Major construction projects such as SkyTrain lines create good paying jobs for some people, but not others. In venerating Elsie and Phyllis, it would seem as if a feminine presence is included on the construction site.

However, if you take a closer look at the group photo heralding Phyllis’ arrival at the aforementioned station, it is apparent that the workers on site are almost entirely men. In Canada, as in other parts of the world, occupations continue to reflect gendered patterns. Things are changing for sure; however, women in trades remain under-represented, under-paid, and cordoned off in low-level positions. Skilled tradespeople, who are increasingly in demand and well paid, are still mostly men.

Significant investments in training, education and incentives for companies, have led to small gains in the number of women in skilled trades, who now account for 7% of individuals employed in this sector. Whether women will stay in skilled trades long-term is another question. The underlying workplace culture of job sites remains a barrier to keeping women employed in this sector for the long-term, as women report lack opportunities to advance, not to mention experiences of harassment and sexism. As with many things that sociologists are interested in, this is not just about one woman entering the job site, but rather a need for deeper structural change in the industry as a whole.

Phyllis and Elsie’s job is now complete, and they are to be disassembled. The ease with which these machines are taken apart at the end of the workday belies the difficulty of undoing gender inequities and harmful stereotypes which are systemic in nature. I can’t help but wonder where they’ll go next and what kind of progress we will see in the future around occupations that are segregated along gendered lines. Phyllis and Elsie, who work hidden from view, are a powerful reminder that once we look deeper, we can see the social structures that hold up all the things on the surface. Our sociological perspective helps us to see that whether it’s transit, cities, or gender on construction sites, all of these things involve the work of people; on the upside, it means they can change. Let’s hope for real progress in the future that goes beyond a token naming of some machines, even if those women are worthy remembering.

What kinds of construction projects are underway in the city or region where you live?

When you look at the job sites what do you notice about the positions that people hold? Are there gendered differences? Have you ever considered the skilled trades as a future career pathway?

Can you think of other occupations that are dominated by one gender or the other? What are some of the stereotypes that relate to people in those careers? Why do you think that is?

How would it change people’s perceptions of Phyllis and Elsie if they were named after men?

Photos courtesy of the author

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