Would you advise your DD to go into the trades?

[ItsFineReally]

1. University fees are now significant
2. We're always in need of plumbers, plasterers, electricians etc
3. Women often find it hard to find good flexible work while their children are young

Considering the above, why aren't there more women in the trades, and have you raised it as an option with your daughters when discussing future job roles?

I think it's a brilliant option, but I would be discussing things like whether long term she would want to be self employed or work for other people.

I would also consider her personality and whether she would be able to deal with blatant misogyny, crass and sexual humour etc.

I know a few female tradies and they have to have VERY thick skin and all of them went self employed as soon as their internships and training ended.

I would always hire a woman if possible and I know loads of others who feel the same way. It's hard having strange men in your home who are always a bit misogynistic and patronising.

It would be a great business idea, a female tradies app.

No. Unfortunately the trades are still a very sexist place. I believe it would be a daily battle with lots of harassment over the course of her career.

I've thought about this, but one thing that puts me off is unfortunately that women are vulnerable - if you call a plumber/electrician/carpenter/plasterer usually it's man, and he comes round to your house on his own and is not worried about his own safety. If my daughter were a plumber/electrician/carpenter/plasterer I'd be worried for her.

I suppose she could make sure she only worked on big sites with a whole team around her though.

Just to point out, don't assume it's flexible. Hours can be long due to pressure to get a job finished in time to keep a job on schedule. With plumbing there would be emergency call outs.

This was a topic on women’s hour yesterday. Very interesting- I would consider it a second career if this one doesn’t work out

I also find my WTF IT job much more flexible than my self employed tradie DH's. He does some pick ups but I work my pick ups around his days. His time is dictated by customers availability, needing to be available for deliveries at site, needing to be on site for other trades.

Not so much the trades but I wouldn't encourage my DS that route either but definitely things like engineering, science, cyber security. I've been looking at apprenticeships for my DC recently and there's lots of opportunities to earn a degree whilst working.

The job should be about what they enjoy/thrive at.

If its something she is interested in then she should go for it.

I don't know why it's so male dominated.

my plumber is a woman. She’s brilliant and my impression is that she’s always incredibly busy

I would consider a different path. With engineering and IT now being accessible via BTEC, T LEVELs and apprenticeships in corporates rather than university I would rather go down that path. I have had a whole career in IT, great money, flexibility and women are now more than 25%. Don’t get me wrong I see women coming off the big commercial build sites in London but they are very few.

Yes. I would encourage anyone to go in to a trade. I employ a female electrician when needed and am much happier having her in the house rather than an unknown male. She's incredibly busy.

Tradies always seem to be in huge demand and that's not going to stop is it.

If I had a daughter and she was interested in this as an alternative to Uni, then I definitely would encourage her to investigate it.

A reliable and reputable tradesperson is worth their weight in gold and will always be busy.

Yes definitely

I would definitely mention it as an option just as much as university etc. Her dad is a good example for her that it's a great job with good pay. I know someone who was a painter and decorator in a Muslim country and she was very busy because she could go in when it was just the wife home so they aren't with other men alone so it works in an advantage for things like that and maybe people who aren't comfortable with men etc.

I am pro women in trades, DH is in a trade at a more senior level now. He's come across 2 maybe 3 women in a trade and he has noticed a lot of sexist comments and sexual comments towards them - everyone is trying to get "their leg over" because she is the only women on site 🙄 . He also had a women who couldn't do her job because of the physical strength needed to lift a door with one hand whilst working on it- she got laid off because there wasn't enough work for her.

It's a tough job but does pay more than a lot of "female led" sectors. It would depend on your daughter would she be confident in a male dominated environment and be able to assert herself.

Also although there are some flexibility in his working- being part time in a trade often doesn't work, there is normally tight deadlines and people want the jobs done faster.

But I would love to see a world with more women in trades and it's going to take some determined women to make that change.

It's only a half-informed opinion but DH is in a trade. He isn't suited to an office role so it was a good route for him. I agree with the sentiment that it can be a great career and is not to be sniffed at.

Working for a company means not a great salary but home on time every day. Joining the on call rota really ups the salary but is completely inflexible and only works with having a family because I have a 'normal' job.

He has friends who have their own businesses. I imagine that's where the real money is but I doubt it's that flexible.

I don't think he works with any women other than the ones in the office.

I don't object in principle and I toyed with the idea myself many times. However, it's a complete myth that the job is flexible. It absolutely isn't. If you work for someone else, you are restricted by contracted hours. If you work for yourself, you can't just take a day off as you lose money and there is no safety net. My ex partner is a self-employed builder and he often works 6-7 days a week.
Incidentally, we did discuss whether he would employ a woman and he said only if she could perform on par with men. So see the previous posters comment about someone being let go because of lack of physical strength.

Fair point. I'm thinking of any time I've had someone doing work in my house they've always been able to dictate when they will be there.

Thank you, I'll look it up on BBC Sounds.

I wouldn’t encourage it over everything else but I would talk to her about it if that’s the sort of aptitude she showed.

Let’s not forget that she doesn’t have to work on a massive building site, she can do training with smaller businesses.

I work in construction and would encourage more women into it, there are hundreds of jobs in the industry that aren’t a trade. But the more women in other roles, the ‘better’ the industry becomes.

I do think too that things are improving, they definitely aren’t where they need to be but there are pockets of great companies and men that work in a trade that call out the shit behaviour (my DH included).

I would be picky on the trade though, electrician would be a good one, groundworker maybe not. You do have to consider how physical the job is, the reality is if you are 5ft 2 and weigh 8 stone, you’re unlikely to be strong enough to be a chippy or a scaffolder.

Yes and no- trades can earn a lot of money, but:
They do need a lot of physical strength, and a petite woman may struggle in lots of trades
They need a thick skin- building sites are known for misogyny
Building companies probably - not definitely, I haven't looked into it- don't have good woman/ family friendly policies, i.e. maternity, family leave, because of the lack of women there
Safety- can something be done to mitigate the safety aspect of going into houses alone, where a woman may be at risk of being attacked?
Job life span- the biggest barrier to being in a trade is physical health. A lot of builders, plumbers, electricians have severe back problems, and/ or need knee replacements by a young age. My builder FIL has lung damage and is about 70% deaf through working on building sites, and his hand has been severely damaged multiple times through power tools, my gas engineer partner will probably need a knee replacement by 55.

I would personally either push for a trade such as a painter/ decorator, or maybe a plasterer, rather than someone working with power tools, and promote yourself as working for women, OR I would push for her to do project management style qualifications, and aim to be leading the building site, not on it.

Yes. Just aim for domestic level, ideally self employed or with a decent company's, not working on building sites.....
Friend has recently qualified as a chimney sweep in a total career change from working in hospitality, it has one of the shortest training programs (a weekend rather than years or college/apprenticeships to be a plumber or electrician) and is going really well. As she is self employed she is able to do it on days off/weekends to build the client base while still keeping her regular job.
I was a bit concerned about the vulnerability aspect of advertising as a female sweep, but I dont think she has had any problems, although also she usually has her wife as an assistant so not alone.
As a woman living alone female trades would be a hiring point, strangers are had enough, but having the stereotypical rough as F tradesman attitude with it is really uncomfortable.
And my brother is a trade in a different field, so I'm aware they aren't ALL dicks! But my brothers company has 1 woman who's not in the office, and they do make a point of hiring and training their staff to be housebroken as they work directly in people's homes all day. Eg clean, tidy, respectful.
But that is far from the norm IME!

A friend trained as a plumber and loved it but found it too physically demanding (she's very slight). She then retrained in something associated but without lifting and has had a lot of success.

Physical strength has been mentioned a few times and may well be a constraining factor in some specific jobs, but I'd like to think not all.

Not least because I know gym-going 'strong' men who would still struggle to lift the barrels of beer as my cousin does. He can do it because he worked as a drayman and knows how to handle items and has had years of practice building up the right muscle groups.

I'm nearly 46 and have had a great career in IT as a developer, but if I had my time again, I'd like to be a tiler: it's a highly skilled trade (I once heard it described as 'somewhere between an art and a science') and as it's one of the less taken-up roles, tilers are in high demand and very well-paid (certainly where I live!).

There's also been a bit of a boom in demand recently for tilers with artisan skills on specialist jobs on period properties and so on.