Dealing With Toxic Masculinity as a Female Contractor

You have to hit them where it hurts, their ego.

I made the news! Scanned photo of the Peak newspaper in Powell River.

I owned my own house painting company for many years on the West Coast of Canada. I was mostly a one-woman show, only hiring out sub-contractors when I had tight deadlines and needed to finish jobs quickly. I did this because I knew that I could rely on my attention to detail, and I didn’t want to have to babysit or clean up after others.

I did indoor and outdoor painting. Of course, the outdoor jobs could only be done in the summer, and the timeline was short. Those were the hardest jobs physically, but the pay was really good. Much of my money was made in those months.

I painted many houses in my time and even did some businesses, but I’ll never forget my very last contract before we left Canada to travel in 2017. It was a housing complex that had nine duplexes. I only had to paint the trim on each house, as the siding was vinyl.

The president of the housing strata was named Frank. Frank contacted me by phone one day and said that the local paint shop had recommended me.

Now, I had Frank pegged from the beginning. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn’t sure about this arrangement. During our initial conversation, he told me that he wanted to see a job that I…