Shocking reason why a high-paying FIFO tradie was forced to ditch her career
A young Australian woman tells how the ‘sexist’ culture in the craft sector forced her to give up her six-figure job.
Brooke McIntosh was only 22 when she started working as a trading assistant in the mines of Western Australia.
She rose through the ranks to become a truck driver, earning more than $100,000 a year when she decided to quit her five-year career.
Ms McIntosh became disillusioned with the male-dominated FIFO industry, where the barrage of sexist comments about her ability to do her job and even her body eventually took their toll.
She discovered that the sexist culture in the industry still persists, even after she took a pay cut to move into construction.
Looking back on her experiences, Ms McIntosh, now 28, said it was a “walking on eggshells” for women to work in a trade, as conversations on the shop floor quickly turned sour.
“You could have a good joke, and then someone says something inappropriate. If you wouldn’t say it to your sister, daughter, or mother. Don’t say it to me,” she said. news.com.au.
Former FIFO worker Brooke McIntosh (pictured) has revealed the appalling sexist culture that seeps through all industries and led her to leave a six-figure job
Ms. McIntosh was either the only woman on a team or the only woman. Wherever she went, she was in the minority.
She said her time in the industry left her feeling like “a piece of meat.”
“If your pants were too tight, people would say, ‘Oh, those pants look good on you,’” she said.
As she tried to break the “back to the kitchen” mentality of her male employees, life at work only became more difficult for Mrs. McIntosh.
She recalls lecturing employees when she made unprofessional comments, making them “quiet and uncomfortable,” and others saying, “Don’t say too much in front of her.”
Although she genuinely enjoyed the purposeful, well-paid work, Ms McIntosh left the industry after her mental health hit rock bottom.
Ms McIntosh called on men in the workplace to help end toxic behaviour, saying: ‘You need to hold your colleagues in the workplace accountable for this.’
Ms Mcintosh said her mental health was at an all-time low when she was a woman working in a mine, adding that the jokes in the workplace would quickly turn sour
The former FIFO employee has since turned business coach and founded casastayz, a company that helps Australians get the most out of their AirBnBs.
Ms McIntosh has also become an advocate for mental health awareness, running from the Pilbara to Perth to raise $42,000 for her 20Talk and Blue Tree Project.
She is now training to become the youngest and fastest woman to ever run across Australia, covering 80km of a 14,000km route.
Her goal is to get Australians to join her in completing sections of the route, raising another $1 million for the Blue Tree Project.
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