What if Women Built the World They Want to See? | Emily Pilloton-Lam | TED

Only four percent of construction workers are female -- that's totally unacceptable, but it's also a huge opportunity both for women and for the trades, says youth educator and builder Emily Pilloton-Lam. She makes the case for putting power (and power tools) into the hands of young women and gender-expansive youth, dreaming of inclusive construction sites and daring to ask: What if women built the world they want to see? (Plus, Pilloton-Lam dazzles with a live demo of her own woodworking skills ... while giving the talk.)

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[karenjoy]

I have built, by myself and as a single mom, patio covers, sheds, chicken coops, benches, raised garden beds, shelves, and many more things that very few men I know could build themselves. My daughter grew up watching me build, and knows that it is just as much something a woman can do as a man (and she now does not hesitate to take on her own small building projects). Sometimes all it takes to empower someone is to show them it can be done. I'm so proud of you and the work you're doing. Thank you!

[chrisp]

She has the right idea. One of the biggest criticisms of feminism is that they're only pushing for more women in comfortable jobs and not mining or construction.
The problems are that you can't make women do things they don't want to do and that men are not only seen as the providers but expected to be the one to sacrifice for the good of women. So not only are they not going to choose these jobs but if the husband or the wife has to sacrifice and start digging ditches for the good of the family it's not going to be the woman doing it. It's socially acceptable for women to dislike dirt and hate sweat. If you're a man you will be shamed.
Ultimately for this woman's vision to come to reality we have to start seeing men and women as equally disposable

[seniorsuperhombre]

Construction is much more than the positive points she made. Construction is also physically demanding, dangerous, not family friendly and exposed to the elements.
Construction is very open to women in the job. In my experience all predominantly male jobs are very welcoming as long as you work hard.
Women are not in construction because they don't choose to be. And why would they? To die early? To be away from their families for long times at a time? To freeze on a cold day? If people had a choice i don't think many would choose construction. Men do the job because it pays well and it is expected from them. Also with ever growing automation and declining need for construction workers, it may not be the job with the brightest future.

[matthewepler]

Have you ever felt the pride of seeing someone use something you built? And gotten paid for it? That is what she is encouraging by teaching young women these skills. That is a universal feeling.

To anyone making the “what about heavy lifting” argument…I kn9w plenty of men who can’t lift anything heavy and plenty of women who can.

When a culture and industry demand a man “do it himself, ” it’s no wonder their bodies are broken after years of work. If you lift something together, design the good being lifted in a different way, and/or create a culture of safety over pride…then you have something better. That is feminism. And I’m all for it.

Great talk. I hear you.

[TillPrapor]

Perhaps because sometimes you have to lift the weight of a little more than 1 board, for example, take a 100 kilogram bathroom to the 2nd floor, or a 50 kilogram refrigerator.

[lxc]

Love the fact that she predrilled all those holes and planned the cuts for the tool box. She definitely knows her tools and materials. Very well done.

[Zzajjeff]

Im a bricklayer. There is a reason that 99.98% of bricklayers are men. And the 1/5000 who is a woman is either hearty and stubborn enough to survive the trade or shoehorned as fast as possible into office work when they start holding back the crew. "Heavy machinery" certainly helps, but it cant replace actual, honest to god, gruntwork necessary. Blistering heat, freezing cold, trunching through foot deep mud, hauling 80lbs cement bags or 120lbs stones, shoveling gravel or sand, 40ft up in the air off scaffolding or 10ft underground down a trench. Its honest work, but hard. I understood immediately when she said "design". Not looking down on engineers or architects and the work they do, but she doent look like she has EVER really worked the grind on a worksite. Everyone, including men, have to prove their ability to remain on the job in construction positions.

[quintonsmith]

Try hanging drywall or installing shingles then tell me how much fun it is to be in construction

[mysterbear]

My landlord hired an all-woman crew to repair some walls in my college apartment. They showed up on time, were efficient, polite, fast, highly skilled, careful, organized and they cleaned up after themselves when the job was done. It was extraordinary in every way, and, mind you, I’d had had some experience on construction crews, myself, before, during and after college. I’d never seen their like. Now, this was in the 80s, and I had imagined that by 2021, or so, we’d have done a heck of a lot better than a little bitty 11%. Come on people. Thanks for the wonderful lecture.

[shellystrawberry]

I honestly LOVED it when my stepdad got me a drill for christmas this year and it was the best present he could have thought of after hearing me wanting to get a good one but finding them a bit expensive for my current situation. He and my mom keep giving me small tool sets because I really want to have a few to be able to do what he does and my dad used to do. They are great rolemodels who threw the gender standart straight out of the window <3

[GainsGoblin]

If this talk gets even one woman away from massive debt for a useless university degree then I am ok with this.

[gwapojudkoalangan]

So go get the job? Why need a ted talk for this?

[imputinandihaveasmallpeepe]

@Ted she messed up in the first 20 seconds, it’s measure twice cut once not the other way around.

[mattchannel]

These TED talks became real life satire: a woman giving a 3 minute talk on middle school level, stretching it to 10 minutes by demonstrating she can handle tools without hurting herself. You can’t make this up.

[Jmin]

I believe that this idea is unrealistic. Sure if women want to do this kind of job, let them do it. But I don't believe there are many women who are interested in this kind of job.

[NOVACOTTON]

...okay you know what, get a crew of pure women to do construction jobs for women and that way you guys can live in those homes O_O, Make it so that you proudly live stream it or do channel updates of the progress and Truly do it! stop talking about it! shouldn't be that hard if other men can do it.🤷

[jakehart]

Try being a mason working in chicgao from December to end of feb.

It’s okay that men and women are different. It’s okay!

[alexbeltran]

how funny would it be if a guy made a Ted talk about how more men should become pre school teachers

[ghevisartor]

Younger men wont be doing those job either, they barely pick jobs in restaurants and bars anymore because of the greater number of days you have to work.
Eventually most people in trade will be immigrants, for example in Italy it's mostly people from the eastern europe. Same for working in the fields, getting hired from the italian boomers who have made a fortune in those markets.
I've worked for 5 years after high school in my dad activity, we made and repaired windows and other wooden stuff that i dont know the word for in english. While it was a good experience, i must admit the phisical demand paired with the fact that i'm allergic to dust and my passion for computer science, made me switch to a programming job and it is much more comfortable even if the mental work is kind of equally exausting. But there is no way i would ever ended up working in the common construction and heavy factory jobs.
My less fortunate male friends prefer to work at amazon and part time jobs in shops for corporations then learn a trade. And women go to university doing whatever in the meanwhile. We will see how it will be in some years.

[keithmorgan]

Then it would be the opposite of whatever they wanted