What would you do to pass the time in forty below freezing temperatures during the winter in Winnipeg, Canada? “You don’t hang outside with friends”, jokes Kahla Lichti, a journey status electrician, and author of Shop Talk Trade Comics.
Back in 2009, “I had a lot of spare time, a desire to leave my job in-home care and I wanted to learn about electricity,” she explains. A librarian friend helped her to navigate print sources to research this uncharted territory, but she quickly realized the need for hands-on training.
With perseverance, she found Northern Sun Farm, a local off-grid farm whose engineer designed their electrical power set up. He offered for her to live and work there in exchange for an apprenticeship. “We were building solar dehydrators”, Kahla reminisces, “and it was kind of my foot in the door, and the first time I had ever worked construction.”
Her time on the farm solidified her interest in electrical work. She moved to Vancouver to pursue opportunities to further her knowledge in the field. The local Electricians Union offered training which could provide her with the well-rounded education she needed. But additionally, classes from a local Community College were necessary and came at a price. “It’s expensive”, says Kahla, “I was looking at over ten thousand dollars in school loans that would have taken forever to pay back.” Fortunately, she found a federal scholarship for minorities that could help pay her tuition, but getting the scholarship was not a simple task. “They want to know you are serious about it”, she recalls. Kahla was required to prove that she was struggling to find work, so she approached several businesses that, as she predicted, weren’t interested in hiring anyone without more experience in the trade. On the job training was a scarce commodity, usually limited to those who had connections in the field. However, her determination helped earn her the scholarship so she could complete her education at college.
As for her Union education, Kahla jumped in ready to absorb the training and guidance it had to offer. Additionally, it would later prove to be the connection Kahla was looking for as a woman trying to find work in a male-dominated field. By the time she completed her apprenticeship, she had valuable experience in both commercial and residential electrical work. She describes the advantages of the Union, “you don’t have to negotiate your pay and you’re somewhat protected from discrimination. If they have a problem with women doing this type of work, they have to take it up with the Union.” The flipside, however, is that you don’t learn how to negotiate pay or benefits for yourself, and while the Union is helpful overcoming some obstacles, nothing removes the uncertainty of acceptance on site. “You're nervous,” she recalls, “you hear rumors about construction workers, and you don’t know how it’ll be.” Collectively, Kahla has navigated the difficulties and even admits that “nothing’s gonna come easy that’s worth it anyway”.
Learning a new trade and managing the inherent challenges of being a woman on the job site, inspired a new project that combined both her sense of humor and her love for visual storytelling, resulting in the birth of Kahla’s comic book. “You've gotta have a positive attitude,” Kahla says, and she chose to respond creatively to challenges fitting in with her male counterparts. Initially, when uncomfortable situations with men arose on site, Kahla felt limited in how she could respond. Either to aggressively stand up for herself and risk being misunderstood or uncomfortably laugh along, ignoring their comments. Neither of these options appealed to Kahla, who instead called out negative behaviors and broached awkward conversations with levity and humor. This approach created a fun environment on-site regardless of their differences, and their collective banter became the content for her comics. “I’d come home from work and write the comics as a way to process a lot of what would happen that day.”
A year later, Kahla had the makings of an entire book full of comics illustrating hilarities on the job site along with tips and tricks about tools. “It’s educational too,” Kahla laughs.
Shop Talk Trade Comics celebrates the challenges of what it means to bring diversity to the job site. “I want everyone to relate to my comics,” says Kahla, “I decided to draw my character’s body shape triangular. They are there to do their job and they can be male, female, or transgender so anyone can identify.”
After her first comic was released in 2016, Kahla decided to take some extra time during the COVID-19 pandemic to launch a second edition which includes a new cover and some additional comics. She’s also taken to her growing network of tradeswomen on Instagram to expand her comic index to include their stories as well. “I remember desperately trying to find stories of women to relate to when I was interested in entering the trades. Just to see them and know they exist, “It’s life-changing to know, if she can do it, I can too.”
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