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Canada prides itself on being a leader in workplace safety and gender equality. But for women and gender-diverse people working in science, engineering, trades and technology (SETT), the reality often tells a different story — one marked by discrimination, unsafe conditions and inadequate protections. These gaps are real, and they have real and sometimes fatal consequences.

When 20-year-old welder Amber Czech was murdered by a co-worker who said he “didn’t like her” in 2025, it was a reality check for the industry on an international scale. While the incident occurred in the U.S., it exposed vulnerabilities that exist across male-dominated industries everywhere. Yet, after an initial surge of outrage, attention faded and the systemic conditions that put workers at risk remain largely unchanged.

Across Canada, we continue to hear the tired argument that the struggle to recruit and retain women in SETT jobs is a matter of “lack of talent” or “lack of interest.”

The reality is simpler, and far more uncomfortable: women and gender-diverse people face ongoing discrimination, bias and a lack of basic accommodation. They work within systems that still disproportionately favour and protect men.

Canada’s federal government over $650 million in new funding for the department of Women and Gender Equality over the next five years. While this announcement is a much-needed stabilization of funding, it is an overall reduction in funding compared to previous years.

Nearly $1 billion is invested into apprenticeship supports every year, which is supposed to include support for women apprentices, but this funding fails to address the retention and safety issues that exist. With massive infrastructure project announcements across the country, it’s been said that now is a great time to be in skilled trades, but who is it really great for?

What’s not being acknowledged is that gender-based violence isn’t a “women’s issue” — it’s an industry one and it affects all of us.

In a 2022 Canadian survey on awareness and views about women in construction, 64 per cent of respondents agreed women face discrimination from employers and colleagues because construction is still viewed as a “man’s job” built on a “macho” culture. Nationally, by one in four women, roughly double the rate for men.

We tend to imagine discrimination as explicit: sexist comments, “locker room talk” or the man being promoted over the woman. But discrimination also appears in the refusal to acknowledge that women simply have different working needs.

In a of more than 3,000 Canadian women who rely on personal protective equipment (PPE) for their jobs, over 80 per cent reported at least one problem with their equipment, from improper fit to lack of appropriate sizes. Even more alarming, 40 per cent reported injuries or incidents linked directly to ill-fitting PPE. These aren’t preferences. These are things people need to work safely, yet they aren’t prioritized by workplaces or protected by policies.

Family-care and parental-leave policies also . These fields typically require long periods of education, training and credentialing. As a result, many women enter the workforce later and or are required to care for aging relatives at the point when they are least likely to meet minimum eligibility thresholds for job-protected or paid leave. Add to this the increase in care required for aging parents. The system penalizes them for the very structure of their professions.

The Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT) recently released its , grading every province and territory on the state of gender equality in SETT.

The findings were staggering.

More than half of jurisdictions received an overall grade of D, including Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. Nunavut ranked lowest with two Fs and a D, with Saskatchewan following close behind with one F and two Ds. It was also deflating to see that only one jurisdiction scored better than a C in the section on occupational health and safety, which includes how sexual harassment, bullying, psychological safety, violence and complaints processes are embedded in legislation.

The report highlights the persistent pipeline failure: although 34 per cent of STEM-educated workers in Canada are women, only 21 per cent work in STEM jobs. And nowhere in the country do women and gender-diverse people make up even 30 per cent of the trades and engineering workforce.

We need to see action from the organizations that are making their workplaces unsafe and unsustainable for women and gender-diverse people. The government continues to invest in large projects in an effort to boost the Canadian economy, but continuing to ignore gender-based violence will also have an economic impact.

shows diverse workplaces are more innovative, more productive and more profitable. Canada cannot afford to sideline entire groups of skilled workers just because they are women. If they can’t work, then this whole system doesn’t work.

Yes, Canada has made progress. But if we let these milestones distract us from the daily realities women and gender-diverse people face in male-dominated fields — from harassment to unsafe equipment to structural barriers baked into workplace policies — then we’re building something we can’t sustain and risking people’s lives in the process.

In addition to putting a spotlight on the problem, CCWESTT’s Report Card also proposes solutions. Change is possible, but it needs to be practical and systemic with the full support of industry and government. We cannot wait for more tragedies like Amber Czech’s. We need action now. We need systems in SETT that finally work for everyone.

Bonnie Douglas is executive director and senior project manager of the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology. Send Industry Perspectives Op-Ed comments and column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.