Canadian Association of Women in Construction celebrates 10 th anniversary However, even after the chapter launched, membership proved dif- ficult to sustain and grow. “For a long time we were lucky if we had 35 active members.” Johnston says the Toronto chap- ter's early goals were simple: gain acceptance and change men’s at- titudes toward women in the in- dustry; and recognize and support women who wanted to be what they wanted to be. She says she took on a lot of public speaking and worked closely with George Brown Col- lege to introduce a course called Introduction to Construction (with a reference book developed and published by NAWIC in the United States) for women or men plan- ning to pursue construction em- ployment. Toronto chapter members taught the course. The chapter also worked with the Ontario Women’s Direc- torate, developing a blueprint for women in the construction industry, including guidelines for women and employers. It also introduced employment equity measures, intended to improve the economic status and representation of women in the workforce. A second publication, issued jointly with the Industrial Ac- cident Prevention Association, addressed the need for per- sonal protective equipment specifically for women. “Those were the pioneering times for women entering into the fields which were up to that time consider strictly-male domain.” Over time and through initiatives like these, the Toronto chapter gained industry confidence and support, and grew its membership base, as well as its outreach. Then the founding members decided, with NAWIC's sup- port, to launch a wholly Canadian association, focused more squarely on the needs of women in the Canadian construction industry. The path to acceptance and raising awareness had 26 – April-May 2015 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report been built. ESTABLISHING CAWIC Colleen Sheridan-Shannon is one of CAWIC’s founding members who had originally been involved with the Toronto NAWIC's former Toronto chapter. “NAWIC is about providing support and a voice to women in the industry,” she said. “We didn’t want to change that but wanted to have autonomy and do things more suited to the Canadian environment.” She calls the formation of CAWIC a labour of love on the part of its founders, adding that sorting out and finalizing all of the details of the new association was both challenging and time consuming. “It was something we all really believed in so we worked hard to make it a reality.” Even in 2005, she says women were a definite minority in the industry. While it wasn’t hard to get women to join, finding these women still proved a challenge. “By this time there was great support from the men in the industry and from employ- ers so women didn’t fear joining.” CAWIC founding president Angela Wilson calls the associ- ation's founding a “bold step by its then board, president and the membership who voted to create it.” She says with the blessing of NAWIC, along with seed money from the many chapters throughout the U.S., CAWIC was created. Founding member Mira Fabian agrees that growth in the early days came easily, saying membership just seemed to evolve and grow naturally. “It was hard to pinpoint but the at- mosphere was always enthusiastic and welcoming, we en- couraged guests, they experienced the camaraderie and friendship CAWIC offered and our numbers grew.” She says what also grew to be enormous was the mailing list of both members and non-members interested in CAWIC. “It probably also helped that our membership (fee) has always been deliberately low compared with other professional as- sociations. That has always been a conscious decision and we were always very proud to be able to offer such a low fee.” She indicates that networking – specifically meeting with other women experiencing similar challenges working in a male-dominated industry -- has always been the greatest membership benefit.