Would you advise your DD to go into the trades?

I would (and did) encourage DD to do an apprenticeship rather than go to university.
Two years after her friends have finished their degrees she’s earning the same, or more than them, with no loan to pay back, a good reputation established at work and her feet a couple of rungs up the ladder.

Because it isn't flexible. You base your opinion on the fact that traders tell you they can be there on Tuesday at 10am and think they spend their mornings in PJs or drop their kids off to school. In the actual fact, my partner's morning usually looks like this: drive to trade store for 7am to pick up supplies for project 1. Drove to project 2 to open the doors for a sub-contractor to install windows, brief them and leave them to it. Drive to project 3 and drop labourers off, make sure they know what to do. Then drive to you for 10am to do whatever you need doing. Nip out at lunch to drive to project 2 to check on window installation and pay sub contractors. Check on the labourers, possibly run to get more supplies. Go back to yours to finish the job. Drive to meet a new client to discuss a project. Go pick up labourers. Finally get home at 7pm and spend the evening doing quotes (for free). Cross the fingers and hope that your partner is not too mad at you for being an absent patent/husband and made you some dinner.

Dd is 18 months into a 3 yr mechanics apprenticeship.
The first company she worked for were lax, didn't keep on top of her training, preferred her to sweep the floor and make the coffee. Workshop manager didn't like apprentices- he saw red with a female apprentice.
She took her issues higher a few times but it didn't really stop him. While she worked there however 13 staff left so it wasn't just an apprentice issue.

The company she works for now are brilliant. The odd friendly jibe, but she gives it back. Workshop manager is on the ball with her training.
As a previous poster said mens/ communal toilets are gross. She works with another female mechanic, they are OK to use the beautifully clean showroom toilets if they want. At the minute the floors being resurfaced, after three trips to the loo yesterday having to walk round the outside of the building to use the nice loo- dd had had enough. She went to have a word with her boss- she said he looked a bit panicked- and explained she was happy to use the gross loo but for God's sake she needed a sanitary bin in there. Boss breathed a sigh of relief and it's arriving next week.
Work clothes are not designed for females. They do not fit. Dd has done serious research to find women's trousers. Work very happy to reimburse.

I think you need to be a little bit bolshy to be a woman in a perceived male trade, you need to completely know your stuff and sometimes be one step ahead.

Dd is as happy as a pig in mud, and she's difficult to please!

Not a trade as such, but my daughter is a Postie…she loves it! She successfully completed an apprenticeship and now earns a decent salary. Although there are a few women (and interestingly often in senior positions) it is extremely male dominated. She has found the men very supportive.

If it was what she wanted to do. I think having your own business is definitely the way to go. I think there could be a good market especially with older people.

however there are so many other routes into careers that don’t need university

My DD is keen on university but if she wasn't then I would encourage her. There are plenty of women in trades in my country so it's not so unusual. I recently retrained as an aircraft mechanic and there were 4 other women on my course, all of whom have gone on to get jobs in the trade whereas not all the men on my course found jobs. It's particularly suited for smaller framed people with smaller hands as you often need to get into small spaces - as the only female mechanic in my workplace I am always called for when it's a small space!

I've been musing over this recently and wondering what's the "equivalent" of the trades that isn't male dominated - ie. a good solid job option (and relatively lucrative) but not requiring a degree or academic qualifications?

What's the traditionally female equivalent?
Things like hairdressing and childcare are much less well paid I think.

I was a mechanic for a few years. My family were worried about sexism and men being rude to me. I had a few comments and I just told them immediately with venom that I am not one to be messed with and after a few weeks the dust settled and the men were actually very respectful of me, we had a friendly relationship and to be honest the lads were over accommodating once they realised I new what I was doing.

I'm not a trade, but work onsite in a more neiche role with joiners, plumbers etc. most sites are fine, I do have a male co worker which might help how I'm treated. Some guys are loud and swearing when working, can be drama queens if they can't get stuff done, the are laughed at by everyone when they leave the site. Trades are huge gossips/bitchy about lazy, dodgy workers. You can pick up other jobs on site, if you do your work well, which we do. Toilets are always manky, guys love to use ladies toilets? If you turn up at agreed time, do your job without drama it's noticed. Aggressive angry men are still around but most tradies are not like it, i can laugh a lot on site with strangers i just met.

Subject to finding the right apprenticeship I think it’s a great idea.

i currently use a female electrician, gas engineer and chimney sweep as they’ve all been recommended and are great.

Interestingly they all have kids and it’s a really flexible for them from that perspective too as they are self employed.

I work in the trades I’m the in house maintenance manager for a medium building but have looked after estates with almost 100 sites. There is some level of flexibility but there can also be late nights and weekends. I would love to see more woman on my team and on the outside contractors I bring in.

I left school with no qualifications and now earn not far off a six figure salary.

I'd ask her where her interests lie. Also I'd think about pay expectations. And both of those things need to be thought about in terms of her whole-life career, and what motivates her.

With my job it required a degree, paid poorly initially but the pay ramped up as I got experience, overtaking the level of pay that a tradesperson would get. I'm late 50s and can happily work flexibly from my home. I wouldn't want to be doing a very physical job now. I would have been bored without the significant intellectual challenge I have in my role.

I've changed jobs several times over my lifetime, but my educational choices kept my options open.

I would. However it’s still very sexist, not only within the business, but also customers.

the mentality that women aren’t as good as men in physical jobs still persists. yes some women prefer to employ women from a safety aspect, but many more would prefer a man because they perceive men to do a better job

You only have to look at local FB pages to see people asking for recomendations. “Man with van”. “Lad wanted for x job” “anyone know a man who can plumb in my dishwasher” etc etc.

it would take a woman se a lot longer to get established as it would need word of mouth for people to believe her abilities are equal to a man.

Plumbing is still very heavy- you need to be able to lift up a toilet, or put a bath in place.

I would love it - she does DT but is not taking it for GCSE. She's very logical in doing flat-pack but I don't think the DT lessons are doing anything much to talk about trades - more engineering and product design. She's far better at coding to be honest, so not sure she is physical enough which is a shame. Would love a carpenter!

I work in construction (large sites) and no the trades aren’t particularly flexible they need to be on site early, often there late and occasional weekends. Often dependent on sharing lifts as not everyone gets a company van.

It’s also my experience that self employed domestic trades often work long hours.

However the construction industry is moving to be much more inclusive and flexible, I work for a main contractor as a quantity surveyor on multi million pound projects and I have the flexibility to work around school runs and work from home. I did a degree full time but there are so many routes these days such as t levels b Tecs and I’m finding that most people are doing a degree whilst employed so part time. Universities have seen this trend and now offer accelerated degrees where you can get you degree in 3 years doing 1 day a week and working the other 4.

Lots of other opportunities as well such as planning and design management.

However, we all know its hard to get trades in. They very much dictate their own time, we only think we dictate it

There was an interesting feature on R4 Women's Hour yesterday about a couple who are renovating their house using all female construction workers. They can't find female roofers anywhere and have had to bring in scaffolders from Bradford despite the project being in the south. The issue seems to be in finding businesses willing to train women, as there are a lot of opportunities once they are skilled.

Well I wouldn’t be advising my daughter that she needed to be the one to flex when kids were young, I’d be teaching her to find a partner who did his 50 percent. Terrible advice there OP.

I’m more interested in pointing DD in the direction of work that doesn’t tie her to a single place, particularly if that place is very expensive, i.e. London, which is what’s happened to DH and me, whether that’s to be an accountant or a hairdresser.

Also good to look at things where you can’t be replaced by AI.

Agree with tiling, so much work about and could pick and choose! Could specialise in high end kitchen tiling or similar and build up good relationships with interior designers, many of whom are women too.

In fact, being a small jobs expert good at dealing with high end clients would also be a good option.

No. Dd is a small, very slight, very academically bright girl with teeny little hands!

I would say though if you want to make money in the trades it's not flexible and the starts are early

Two women I grew up with went on to be electricians both now work in maintenance/maintenance management in London with 6 figure salaries. I've worked in the canary wharf area and the other specialises in maintenance in storage for dinner if the big museums/galleries.
I wouldn't discourage it!
Having said that my brother is a plumber again London non domestic and earns very well, but self employed and that comes with risks, he also says he can't see working largely on his knees until retirement age.
I also have an aunt who became an electronic engineer later in life via the on job qualification route and she knows had a consultant role in the field and earns well.
None of the above went to uni