When I was doing my plumbing apprenticeship, I got a lot of inspiration and encouragement from reading online articles about female plumbing apprentices. At the time I could only find one or two articles because a female plumber was so random and rare.
Fast forward to today and there are a lot more females taking on a trade and this is great because it means more companies are starting to offer equal opportunity apprenticeships.
But I have found that there is a misconception that a female plumber will be better and it’s generally portrayed through a clever marketing strategy.
Male tradies are late. Male tradies overcharge. Male tradies under deliver. Enter the female tradie and she will arrive on time, she won’t overcharge and she will go the extra mile.
Trades roles have been predominantly held by men since the industrial revolution (well actually before that if we want to get technical), so to crucify all male tradies because the minority do the wrong thing is a bad move. I support equal opportunities for both men and women when it comes to trades. The tides are slowly changing where we are seeing more women working alongside men in the trades, but to expect women to rule the trade world is naïve and as egotistic as a male tradie saying women have no place on a construction site.
I would be lost without my male tradies. Totally lost because they taught me how to be a plumber and gave me the skills I needed to be successful. And the times when I was on maternity leave or away on holidays, I would have male plumbers on call, as back up to service my existing clients. They were plumbers that I would use in my own home and trust with my work. Every single one of my clients would thank me for sending out these two particular plumbers because they were nice to deal with and did a good job.
The misconception that a female plumber will be better is false. She may be just as good as the local plumber in the area. Female plumbers are a novelty and are a great alternative if a stay at home mum feels insecure about having a male in the home while she is alone and trust me, I’ve been in this situation before so I understand this.
My advice to all female tradies is not to walk down the ‘anything he can do, I can do better’ road, but opt to provide customers with excellent service. The real reason a customer is calling a female tradie is to give them a go because they’re an alternative and not the norm.
Have you ever used a female tradie? Do you have a preference, and please don’t feel you will be judged for being discriminatory, I just like to hear healthy discussion about what I’ve discussed above.
I’m linking up with Essentially Jess for I Blog on Tuesdays.
