International Women’s Day: How can we stop gender discrimination?

Off the back of International Women’s Day 2022, which took place on Tuesday March 8, PIT analyses the findings from find-a-tradesperson platform, Rated People, about what it’s like to work as a tradeswoman in the UK.

Rated People’s Home Improvement Trends Report has shed light on the biggest challenges faced by women who work in the trades industry, inclusive of all who identify as women, as well as the trades which have the lowest representation of women and the biggest gender pay gaps. 

The study discovered well over a third of tradeswomen (39%) aren’t taken seriously because of their gender. One in seven (15%) have had personal safety concerns when working, and almost one in 10 (9%) say they’ve had customers who won’t let them work on a job when they see they’re a woman.

It’s time for change in 2022

As part of the study, researchers spoke to more than 600 tradespeople across the UK about working in the industry, and over 2,000 homeowners about their attitudes to hiring tradeswomen. 

Positively, there’s growing demand from UK homeowners – nearly half (46%) say they’d definitely hire a tradeswoman, 43% have no preference and only 11% of UK homeowners say they’d prefer a tradesman.

Almost one in three (29%) women in the UK also say they would feel safer hiring a tradeswoman to do a home improvement or maintenance job in their home.  

But the research highlights just how out of balance the industry is. Over half (11) of the 20 professions with the worst levels of representation of women in the UK are within the trades industry. 

Women make up less than 1% (0.99%) of carpenters and joiners in the UK, and less than 4% of electricians, plumbers, floorers and tilers are women. Across the 10 trades with the lowest representation of women, none of them have more than 5% of women in the workforce.  

The 10 trades with the lowest representation of women:

Mind the gender gap

Similar to what we touched on in our last instalment, women earn just  72% of what men do across 15 key trades in the industry on average. But for floorers and wall tilers, this drops to a staggeringly low 41%. 

The few women who are carpenters earn just shy of £17,000 a year on average, but men in the same trade earn over £31,000 – a difference of almost £15,000 a year, or put another way, an annual carpenter’s salary for a woman is just 53% of a man’s.  

Women electricians earn 54% of what men do. Meanwhile, women in construction and building trades only earn the equivalent of 57% of a man’s salary, and women plumbers would take home just 61% of what a man would in the same trade.  

The 10 trades with the biggest gender pay gaps:

Opportunities for tradeswomen in the UK

Despite the findings, there are good indicators that change is starting to happen. Some 32% of women in the UK now say they’d consider working in the trades industry. 

This could be a knock-on effect of the pandemic – people re-evaluating their jobs for example, or perhaps from increasing awareness of the opportunities that are available. According to Access Training, admissions of women on trade courses increased by 27% in 2021.  

Google data also shows many homeowners are actively trying to find tradeswomen across a variety of trades. People searched for women painters the most in 2021, pulling in 27,500 Google searches over 12 months, and women builders, gardeners, plumbers and electricians also saw between 5,000 – 10,000 Google searches in 2021. 

When speaking to tradeswomen about the biggest benefits of working in the industry, flexibility is key, with the top three advantages all about having increased autonomy. Almost one in four (22%) said ‘being their own boss’ was one of the biggest benefits for them – 18% said it was the flexible working hours, and 15% said they loved being able to choose how much work they took on.  

Helping women homeowners feel safe was also a plus-point, with almost one in 10 (8%) tradeswomen saying they valued getting to help women who don’t feel comfortable or safe having a tradesman come into their home. 

Adrienne Minster, chief executive officer of Rated People, states: “We’ve long valued individuality, diversity and inclusion at Rated People. Empowering more women and people across the gender spectrum to build successful careers in trades services is a priority for us. There’s still a lot to be done, but it’s a challenge we’re embracing.”

With 14 of the 15 top trades recruiting significantly fewer women than men, Minster says getting more women into trades services can also play a huge role in helping to address the industry’s workforce shortage. 

“At Rated People, we’re making a pledge to feature more tradeswomen role models and we want to promote the incredible work being done by tradeswomen in the industry. We also want to make it easier for more women to get into the business, so we’ve launched a new programme that’s packed with benefits, help and advice.”

She concludes: “No matter your background or career, we invite you to stand with us as we help strive towards a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce.” 

Following the research, Rated People has launched a new Empowering Tradeswomen Programme to help more women get into the trades industry and build successful careers.

The programme includes discounted skills training with Access Training, discounted business advice and coaching with business trades Coach, Alison Warner, and free exposure and discounted job leads on Rated People. For more details, click here.

To view part one of the IWD series, featuring words from female trailblazers in the property industry, click here.