It’s expected in the male-dominated construction industry that doors are not just going to fling open for you, says Natasha Ferguson, owner of EthelFox Construct Group.
Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.
As a woman of colour in the construction industry, Ferguson’s mission is to break down barriers and gender biases for women who want to work in the trades and show them if she can do it, they can too.
Her Toronto-based company EthelFox Construct Group employs more than a dozen women from a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds, which account for 70 per cent of her workforce.
The company was named one of the best businesses in Canada by the Canadian Business Review Board and earlier this year, it was selected to participate in the Starter Company Plus Female Founders Program, offered through Enterprise Toronto, which helps female-led businesses with their operations and marketing initiatives.
“I know what construction has done for me in my life and my family on a physical, emotional, mental and also financial level,” said Ferguson. “It’s been really great to me but there are also some things in the industry that need to change and I am willing to lead that.
“This is my way of creating this mission and this movement so that other people that are coming into the industry are going to have a different experience than I did.”
Ferguson got started in the business with her husband who is in roofing and carpentry. When he left to go and work in the union, she kept the business running on her own.
A few years ago, she decided to rebrand the company after her mother and her youngest daughter. Her mother, who was her best friend, passed away last September after a year-long battle with cancer.
“She was helping me build this brand,” Ferguson recalled. “I designed the logos and she chose that logo. I decided to honour her and name it after her and my youngest daughter Fox.”
The company specializes in landscape, garden design, roofing systems, interior and exterior renovations and additions. She decided to employ women in her company because of the experiences she had running a construction company.
“It became apparent to me that there weren’t a lot of women in the industry mostly because I couldn’t find any of them to hire,” she said. “I’m a person of colour so I already faced discrimination…and now this gender bias narrative is being attached to me. A couple of things happened that made me think to myself, ‘wow, something really needs to change here.’”
The first was when she went into a retail store that sells work clothes and realized there was very little selection available for women. The other thing was that people on jobs or onsite would not take her seriously.
“It starts off amazing and then they want to know ‘where are you getting your work from?’ ” said Ferguson. “They see how you are working with your clients and there is ego there and all of the sudden they’re trying to mess up your job. I’ve almost been attacked on my jobsite.”
That’s why she decided to start the non-profit organization A Woman’s Work.
“I like to call it a movement because, from what I’ve done so far, I’ve gotten so much feedback and support from women and men alike,” Ferguson said. “A Woman’s Work is an organization that supports women in the trades through self-esteem programs and training sessions and career involvement for people in the trades.”
It is still early in the planning stages, but Ferguson said she hopes to launch the program in the latter part of next year. It will be open to men and women and teach basic skills in the trades like roofing, tiling, drywall, hardscape, softscape and even an introduction to plumbing and electrical with strong trainers at the helm.
“If you can imagine this, if you were to take a one- or two-month course in drywalling and you actually finished and did really well and did some amazing work this could be a freelance opportunity for you,” she said. “They’re going to get education, they are going to learn about a trade, which will allow them to get a job, hobby, teach others how to do things, do things for themselves, be more independent.”
She already has a lot great partners showing interest and she hopes other companies see it as an opportunity.
“We’re not trying to be a school at all, we’re trying to provide training.
“I don’t want to compete with any other construction companies, I would like to invite them, once people are finished with the programs, to come in and ask them to intern or if they’re really good, to hire them. That’s the kind of camaraderie and collaboration that I would like to see.”
For more information visit https://www.ethelfoxconstruct.com or on Instagram here.
Listen to more of Ferguson’s interview on The Construction Record podcast on Friday, Dec. 3.
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