GBVH Roundtable: Creating Safe Jobsites for Women in Construction

On November 6, 2023, Jennifer Fritzel, Regional Outreach Coordinator, Engie Mota, San Diego District Office Director, and Megan Gutierrez, San Diego District Assistant Director, partnered with Kelly Jenkins-Pultz, Regional Administrator, Women's Bureau, and attended a gender-based violence and harassment roundtable discussion. There were 61 individuals invited to participate and join the conversation, and approximately 45 individuals participated. The roundtable discussion was held at the IBEW Local 569 Union Hall. Opening remarks were shared by Jeremy Abrams, IBEW Local 569's Business Manager, and Kelly Jenkins-Pultz welcomed the participants with the program's introduction. The panelists were Robin Runge, Consultant, Women's Bureau, Engie Mota, San Diego District Director-OFCCP, Cori Schumacher, IBEW Political Director, Dr. Monica Casper, Special Assistant to the President and Chair of SDSU Blue Ribbon Taskforce on Gender-Based Violence and Professor of Sociology, and Tifani Bartow, Deputy Director of Operations, California Commission the Status of Women and Girls. Panelists spoke to their agencies and what Convention 190 (C190) meant in relation to their projects and efforts. C190 is an International Labour Organization's initiative to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence and harassment. This initiative is the first binding global labor standard to prevent and address all forms of violence and harassment in the world of work and 187 governments and their employers' and workers' organizations have adopted the practice. The significance of C190 recognizes the right to a world of work free of harassment, defines violence and harassment, and defines gender-based violence. Additionally, the initiative recognizes the need to address the root causes of gender-based harassment, to include stereotypes and norms. Participants of the roundtable broke out into six small group discussions to address the following questions: 1) what does GBVH look like in your industry? 2) what impacts does it have? 3) what are its root causes? After the breakout, participants regrouped and shared responses as a larger group. The responses for what GBVH looks like in your industry included: women having to work harder than their male counterpart, pay inequalities, lack of proper bathroom facilities, pressure around childcare, pressure around pregnancy, comments towards women about not belonging in the construction industry, derogatory comments in the bathroom facilities, inappropriate images of women, jokes made about women in the kitchen, comments about what women wear, comments about women having lack of a work ethic compared to their male counterparts, men conducting Internet searches of the women and shaming them amongst their colleagues, women not feeling welcomed at the jobsite, and men afraid to speak up and stand up for women on the jobsite due to retaliation of their peers. In response to what impact GBVH plays in the world of work: loss of wages, loss of profits, people's emotional well-being suffers, lack of resources, systems in place crash, comments about the missing and murdered indigenous people, Black people, genocide, other races impacted, family-based communities suffer, ignorance and lack of attention to laws in place made to protect workers, loss of diversity, culture reinforces gender inequalities and rewards people who continue with the harassment. In response to what are the root causes of GBVH: ignorance, financial insecurity, culture, examples of friends/families, social norms, environmental norms, religion, lack of education, feelings of women before violence, lack of empathy/respect, how people were taught, childhood abuse, mental health, fear, denial/not belonging, video games, social media influence, history, laws, lack of women in leadership roles, and the various 'isms.' After the breakout discussion, the group reconvened to wrap up how people go from here. Folks summarized efforts to eradicate GBVH in the world of work requires a collective action of the community, which will help with accountability and track efforts to create safe jobsites.