In the long-awaited follow-up to her 2012 memoir, Journeywoman, Kate Braid returns with an honest and thought-provoking collection of essays reflecting on her career in a male-dominated profession and on the changes female tradespeople have witnessed. In 1977, Kate Braid began work as one of the first women to stumble (literally) into construction. Since then, feminism, the #MeToo movement, pay equity legislation and other efforts have led to more women in a wider variety of careers. Yet, the number of women in blue-collar trades has barely shifted -- from three percent to a mere four. In Journeywoman, Braid told a personal story of working almost exclusively with all-male construction crews. In Hammer & Nail: Notes of a Journeywoman, Braid returns to the trades with courage, compassion, and humour. Connecting her lifetime of experiences as a construction worker, as well as an educator and writer, Braid reflects on the culture of labour and recalls the thrill of realising her own skill and capabilities. Through stories, articles and speeches, Hammer & Nail sheds new light on our ideas of traditional gender roles -- and how those ideas change in small but profound moments of gentleness, strength, humility and clarity on the job. Hammer & Nail is a thought-provoking collection of the highs and lows, the laughs, the heartaches and some of the lessons of Braids journey.
Kate Braid worked as a receptionist, secretary, teachers aide, lumber piler, construction labourer, apprentice and journey-carpenter before finally settling down as a teacher. She has taught construction and creative writing, the latter in workshops and also at SFU, UBC and for ten years at Vancouver Island University (previously Malaspina University-College). In 2015 she was awarded the Mayor of Vancouvers Award for the Literary Arts for showing leadership and support for Vancouvers cultural community, and in 2016 she received the Pandoras Collective BC Writers Mentor Award. She lives in Victoria and on Pender Island with her partner. See www.katebraid.com for further information.