Speakers

Hilary wears glasses and has shoulder length grey-brown hair.

Photo by Mark Mushet

Hilary Peach,
Keynote Speaker

Boiler Inspector, Welder, Boilermakers Lodge 359
Author, Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood

Hilary Peach is a writer, recording artist, and producer of unusual art projects. For twenty years she also worked as a transient welder, travelling across Canada and the United States, working in pulp mills, chemical plants, refineries, and generating stations.

In 2022 she released a memoir about this time, Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood (Anvil Press 2022). She has a collection of poetry, BOLT (Anvil Press 2019), and has released three audio-poetry projects, Poems Only Dogs Can Hear, Suitcase Local, and Dictionary of Snakes. Hilary Peach is now a CWB Level 2 Welding Inspector, a Boiler Inspector, and is writing a sequel to Thick Skin.

Thick Skin covers travel jobs across the continent, and is a relatable, first-hand account by a woman working in the field. The book has been embraced by Women in Trades communities, and has received regional and national attention.

The focus of Peach’s message is the power of storytelling, and how telling our stories – to each other, our allies, and ourselves - can keep us from becoming invisible, a workplace hazard for tradeswomen. She also offers survival tips, and discusses the importance of allyship, and how finding connections and common ground leads to success.

About Thick Skin

Thick Skin: Field Notes From A Sister In The Brotherhood is a deep dive into the secret language and hidden culture of one of the most esoteric heavy construction trades: Boilermaking. For more than two decades, Hilary Peach worked as a transient welder – and one of the only women - in the Boilermakers’ Union. Distilled from a vast cache of journals, notes, and keen observations, Thick Skin follows Peach from the West Coast shipyards and pulp mills of British Columbia, through the Alberta oil sands and the Ontario steel belt, to the colossal power generating stations of the eastern seaboard of the United States. At times edging up to the surreal, Thick Skin is a collection of strange stories carefully told, in tenderness and ferocity, for anyone who has spent time in a trade, or is curious about the unseen world of industrial construction.

Speakers & Panelists

We’re grateful to the following individuals for sharing their knowledge, expertise, and perspectives at the 2024 Enlighten Women’s Forum. Click an image or name to learn more about these incredible people!