Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Women and Manual Trades (WAMT)

Introduction

1. WAMT is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. It was set up in 1975 to support women training and working in manual trades in construction and the built environment.

2. We are a membership organisation based in central London but with a UK wide remit. Our current membership is 730 of whom around 75% are tradeswomen or women training for a trade. Trades represented include Bricklaying, Electrical, Carpentry, Plastering and Painting and Decorating. Many of our members are “job changers” who have chosen to enter the trades at a later age.

3. WAMT has four part-time staff (FTE of 3.5 days pw) and our current activities are the provision of a monthly e-bulletin to a readership of over 1100, networking events for members, a job brokerage programme, DIY workshops for women and partnership working with sector skills bodies, colleges and employers.

4. As WAMT is a niche organisation focused specifically on addressing the under-representation of women in manual trades we have limited our response to Question 4 of the Call for Evidence:

How should the gender stereotyping prevalent in particular occupations, for example in engineering, banking, construction, and the beauty industry, be tackled?

5. Robust data on the representation of women in manual trades is limited as industry data tends to be headline rather than disaggregated to specific trades. Also many women are self-employed and therefore do not feature in industry equality statistics. However, our anecdotal understanding is that less than 1% of the construction “on the tools” workforce is female.

6. Given WAMT’s limited resources we have been unable to provide a detailed response within the timescale of the Call for Evidence. However, what follows is a snapshot of the views of some of our members based on their direct experience of entering and sustaining a career in the manual trades. These views provide an insight into some of the barriers faced by young girls and women wishing to work within “non-traditional areas”.

7. We would be happy to provide further information or oral evidence to the Committee should this be thought helpful.

A Snapshot of Member’s Views

8. This is a summary of points made by Tradeswomen who attended a recent focus group meeting organised by WAMT. The group were asked to respond to the following questions:

(a)Do you think that there are any barriers to women entering, working and progressing in the manual trades?

(b)If yes, what are the main barriers for women wishing to train for and progress in the manual trades?

(c)What actions should be taken (and by whom) to address these barriers?

9. The group felt that there is still a pressure on tradeswomen to be better than their male work colleagues, and to continue to blaze a trail as there are still so few who have trodden the path previously. They felt the need to carry the responsibility of representing all women in the trades. There was also general agreement that little would change without the active promotion of the possibility of careers for women in “the trades”.

10. Points the group felt were important in this area included:

10.1Working in manual trades is rarely promoted as a career option for young women.

10.2Few role models exist amongst friends and family.

10.3There is a lack of information on the manual trades available to girls in school.

11. The women noted that while opportunities to take formal training courses have increased, the opportunities for apprenticeships and longer term employment have and continue to be challenging.

12. Perceived barriers to long term employment opportunities included:

12.1Working environment:

12.1.1All members of the group mentioned that they were often the only female trades-person on site. Lack of peer support can sap confidence and lead to feelings of being perceived as “the outsider”.

12.1.2Many tradeswomen feel a pressure to work harder and be better than the average male in order to compete.

12.2Inflexible hours:

12.2.1Women who have caring responsibilities can struggle with on-site working hours. Such lack of flexibility can present a barrier to entry.

12.2.2Lack of flexible working and affordable childcare remain barriers to many women wishing to enter the trades.

12.3Limited work opportunities from employers:

12.3.1Expectations and toleration levels can be subtly different for tradesmen and tradeswomen. For example, if an employer has one bad experience they are less likely to give another female an opportunity, they do not respond to males in the same manner 3 December 2012

12.3.2The weight of responsibility on the few women in the trades as having to act as a representative for “all women”.

13. All the participants in the focus group were women who had changed career and re-trained to gain the skills needed to work in the construction industry. It was felt that some of the reasons why the women had not considered a trade earlier in their careers and working life was simply that it had never been promoted to them as a viable option. There was a strong feeling that action is needed to increase the visibility of manual trades as a career much earlier in the development and socialisation of young girls. This can only be done through educating parents, increasing the profile of tradeswomen in the work place and in the domestic trade maintenance environment.

14. Suggested ways of achieving this include:

14.1For schools and colleges to make it policy in commissioning maintenance and building work to give some tender analysis/weighting benefits to contractors able to deliver an actual work force with women “on the tools”.

14.2Run a gender education campaign promoting women in non-traditional roles, to help promote awareness amongst teachers and pupils of the trades being something that women do.

14.3Introduce the trades to parents and encourage them to promote opportunities for their children and not to push stereotypical gender biased career roles.

14.4Make the trades visible, ensure that women are seen working in the trades. For example asking all public bodies to commission maintenance, repair and building work with an expectation that women can do the work as well as men.

14.5Introduce tradeswomen to children at early stages in their development to expose and promote skilled labour as a viable career and employment option for women and men.

14.6Promote more positive images of women working in non-traditional roles.

14.7Provide more information on how to enter the trades. This will help raise address a lack of confidence amongst those women who want to do something different but don’t know where to start.

15. Finally, with the rise in the number of women working in professional roles in construction (including architects, surveyors and project managers) the hope is that these senior women will be seen as potential role models too, helping to change the public perception of construction as a wholly male working environment.

20 December 2012