Female trade workers account for less than 6% of people in the industry. In the wake of several movements against sexism, this blog is a focus on women in the trade and how we can normalise their job and encourage more women to take up their tools and follow suit.
In recent years more women have been entering trade work, but the numbers are still low. When most trade workers are men, it can be intimidating for females to enter the industry, and when over half women in trade work say they have experienced some kind of sexual discrimination, the industry needs to come together to target inequality.
To begin with, industry workers of all genders, from administrative workers to trade workers themselves, need to tackle the mindset which discriminates against women. Hiring workers based on qualifications and ability should always be priority over gender identity. Skill-set should always be at the forefront of the hiring process, but when it comes to work such as construction and plumbing, which is seen as exclusively masculine, problems with sexism become difficult to battle. These industries are the domain of the male, and the manual labour and sometimes less-than pristine conditions lead to an idea that this environment is not for females. All-in-all, a borderline toxically masculine mind-set could be preventing women from being hired, even when they have the qualifications and skills to do the job competently.
But there are some women paving the way for change. Publications such as Women in Trade Magazine and Twitter pages and charities like Chicks with Bricks and Women on the Tools create safe spaces for women in trade to interact with one another, as well as normalising their work. Stopcocks, who employ only female plumbers, are helping to normalise and actively encourage women to see plumbing as an attractive career. Stopcocks’ success has made them a national name across the UK, as well as taking a stance that women can. Now the only thing left to do is encourage the leading companies to do the same – the landscape won’t change easily unless the major companies adopt an attitude which is swift to deal with discrimination and sees female workers by their ability, rather than their gender.
There are still many hurdles to overcome for women who want to become trade workers, but with the numbers expanding it’s only a matter of time before there’s an equal balance between men and women in the industry.
