The Story
It started with a portrait.
It became a movement.
The Tradeswomen Exhibit & National Calendar Initiative is the work of two women — a Red Seal electrician and a photographer — convinced that a country's idea of who builds it should match who actually does.
November 2024
One photoshoot.
Carly Steiman — Red Seal electrician, 18 years in the trade — and photographer Millissa Martin set out to make portraits of the women who build, wire, weld, and finish this country. No styling. No softening. Just the work and the people who do it.
October 2025
Gallery 881, Vancouver.
The exhibit opens. Over 600 visitors pass through. 88% describe it as empowering, inspiring, or emotional. 72% say it made them consider a career in the trades. 100% say it should tour.
October 2025
National press.
CBC's The Early Edition with Stephen Quinn. Global News' This is BC. The story of visibility — and what it does to a young person's sense of what's possible — moves out of the gallery and onto the airwaves.
2025
YWCABC Women of Distinction.
Carly is nominated for a YWCABC Women of Distinction Award for her work expanding the pipeline of women into the skilled trades.
2026
2,000 schools.
The 2026 Tradeswomen Calendar lands in high schools across Canada. The faces and hands of working women on classroom walls in every province and territory.
2027
5,000 schools.
The goal: every high school in Canada. Every student who's ever been told what they can't do, looking at someone who already did it.
Exhibit Highlights
The room, the visitors, the work.
Founder
Carly Steiman
Red Seal electrician. 18 years in the trade. Founder of the Tradeswomen Exhibit & National Calendar Initiative.
"Every girl deserves to see a woman doing the job before she's told she can't."
Photographer
Millissa Martin
Every portrait, every detail, every hand on this site is the work of Millissa Martin. The exhibit exists because she saw what others walked past.
