Despite facing discouragement and discrimination in a male-dominated field, Kate Braid pursued the path to become a carpenter.
She worked her way to journeywoman and became one of the first qualified women carpenters in B.C. and the first to join the Vancouver local of the Carpenter’s Union and to teach construction full-time at the B.C. Institute of Technology.
Braid’s struggles are contained in her memoir Journeywoman: Swinging a Hammer in a Man’s World. She reads alongside Marilyn Bowering who is also launching her poetry book, Soul Mouth. The reading is at the Nanaimo Museum, 1 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 17).