How to Encourage Women to Enter Trades
According to National Public Radio (NPR), women are underrepresented in the trades industry, with them making up just 3% of the workforce in the United States. Knowing that women can have rewarding and fulfilling careers in building, plumbing, engineering, and other trades jobs, it’s unusual to think that the percentage isn’t higher. However, that’s not to say it never could be. Here are some of the many things trades business owners and industry leaders could be doing to encourage more women to enter trades.
Marketing Equipment and Workwear Toward Women
Women are the minority in trades, which means workwear suppliers don’t always stock women’s lines. While that’s starting to change, especially when you see the vast range of Womens Workwear by Workwearhub, marketing efforts are still often targeted toward men.
If women were to open their social media platforms and local media outlets to see ads explicitly targeting them, they might be more likely to start exploring their options around jobs in carpentry, plumbing, electrical engineering, masonry, and others.
Supporting the Transition to More Female Trade Workers
Integral to seeing more women in trades are businesses and industry leaders supporting the transition. If women seeking career changes do not feel supported in their decision to enter currently male-dominated industries, they might be less likely to do so.
However, many business owners simply don’t know how to support females into these roles. Ongoing mentoring, creating supportive environments, and promoting their businesses as female-friendly is an excellent place to begin.
Starting In Secondary Schooling
While employers can begin encouraging women to join the trades, it’s not always possible to attract a female workforce if females aren’t interested in entering the trades. Sometimes, a lack of interest comes down to not knowing about the jobs available and what they entail.
Fostering a passion for the trades might come down to making sure they’re aware of the various options during their secondary schooling years when many students are starting to think about what they would like to do for a living. Rather than simply pointing them toward secretarial work, nursing, and largely female-dominated industries, educational bodies can make information on more male-dominated fields available to all genders.
Removing Barriers
According to the Western Resources Center for Women in Apprenticeship, several barriers can prevent women from entering trades industries. By removing these barriers, increased numbers of women might start to explore trades apprenticeships. Some of the more common barriers include:
● Being less prepared for entry-level trade jobs
● Societal stereotypes
● A lack of information given to women about trades jobs and apprenticeship opportunities
● A lack of marketing for trades jobs toward women
● A lack of transparency in apprenticeship program requirements
● Female communication styles being less valued by apprenticeship applicant evaluators.
When we can identify the possible barriers, we can potentially allow women to feel more confident in their abilities to buck the trend and enter male-dominated fields, possibly tipping the male-to-female balance in the future.
Encouraging women to enter traditionally male-dominated industries is never easy, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. By using appropriate marketing techniques, advertising equipment and workwear for women, and removing barriers that stand in their way, there’s every reason to believe we can pave the way for women to succeed.