What it’s like to be female and working near Fort McMurray

Journalist Lindsay Bird writes about working in the camps near Fort McMurray, and comes away unimpressed:

Here, being female is akin to having a giant pair of antlers on your head and wearing neon clothing adorned with flashing, beeping lights — all the time. In my camp, perhaps 30 or 40 of the 1400 people were women. The first time I attended meal hall, I made the mistake of wearing a mid-length skirt and, while trying to swallow incredibly inedible “food,” I overheard several conversations about the possible colour of my underwear.

Some of the commentators below Bird’s article push back against her impressions:

I am a woman, trying to find a job in a work camp in Fort McMurray and your pessimistic views of camp living sound pretty rude. I have plenty of relatives and friends in camps over there, all men yes, but they assure me it’s not as bad as you make it sound.

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The oil and gas industry still needs workers and has to fill 9,500 positions by 2015.