Like most little girls, Karen Skjei loved dolls, make-believe tea parties and . . . browsing through blueprints.

As a youngster, she clipped house plans from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix homes section every week. She read them and saved them. Still has them, in fact.

“I’ve always liked reading house plans,” grinned Skjei (pronounced Shay), a 30- year-old civil engineer who managed her first commercial construction project at 23.

One of seven female project managers employed by Calgary-based Cana Construction, Skjei will join six other women – including one land developer, one master electrician and a cabinetmaker apprentice – to speak at a Calgary Construction Association dinner called Women in Construction, at the Round-Up Centre on May 12.

Mike Sturk photo, Business Edge
Cana Construction project manager Karen Skjei has turned a youthful hobby into a rewarding career choice.

It’s both a celebration of women within the industry and an intelligent exercise in proactive recruiting. The CCA is hoping to pique the interest of 300 female high-school students and their career counsellors who’ve been invited to break bread with the members.

“We want to say to them, ‘Look, you can do these jobs. You can build hospitals and retail stores,’ ” said the CCA’s Dave Smith, who added that fresh recruits of both genders are badly needed in one of Alberta’s – and Canada’s – hottest industries.

At the moment, women represent 46 per cent of the national labour force. Yet they hold down only 9.8 per cent of existing jobs in the residential, industrial and commercial construction business.

Among the trades, the percentage is lower still. Smith would like to see the numbers climb to 20 per cent and beyond.

“We’re hoping young women attending the dinner will act as ambassadors,” he said. “We want them to take the word back to their schools.”

Plenty of qualified women have already broken down the walls of one of the last hoary male bastions. But the CCA is the first regional organization in Canada to issue an all-points bulletin in the hopes of attracting more.

“Everybody in the industry, from one coast to the other, is reporting a healthy construction community. Everyone is looking for help. But where will we find the people?” Smith wondered.

According to the CCA, construction projects worth $61 billion are now in the works for Northern Alberta alone.

“With all that activity comes a need for new hospitals, new schools and new malls. The commercial sector of our industry is very healthy at this time,” said Smith.

It comes as no surprise to learn that female construction managers, engineers, estimators and welders are supremely proficient at their jobs.

A more pertinent question might be to ask why they were drawn to the field in the first place.

Why muck around in a dusty, noisy realm of plaster-coated work boots, baggy red-strap denims and overloaded toolbelts when there are plenty of nice, clean desk jobs out there?

One obvious answer is money. Experienced estimators and project managers can earn as much as $70,000 a year, while a good tradesperson can pull down $30-plus an hour, with plenty of OT on the table, as the Alberta market remains on a rolling boil.

Smith says women have already made a significant impact on project management across the province. Many of the big companies seem to agree. Cana remains a prime example. Another is the Calgary office of PCL, which employs five female project managers, up from only one five years ago.

“Women have proven they perform superbly in organizational tasks. I’m sensing a dramatic shift (toward more women) in the area of project management,” Smith said.

Her career choice has certainly worked out well for Skjei, who earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Calgary.

Originally mentored by Kay Harrison, Cana’s female construction manager, Skjei was recruited right off campus. She started her job the day after she wrote her last exam.

As an intern, she spent 16 months preparing estimates, which turned out to be excellent preparation for her current job as project boss. From there she went to work on major projects, including the MacEwan Hall expansion at U of C and the Calgary International Airport parkade.

As for the perceived perils of crashing the Old Boys’ Club, Skjei was pleased to find out the myths are overrated.

In fact, youth and inexperience may pose a more formidable obstacle than gender.

“You need a sense of humour,” she advised. “You can’t be overly sensitive. And until you know what you’re talking about, you shouldn’t be spouting off at the mouth – men or women, it doesn’t matter.”