Advocating for women

Women in Trades (WIT) is a not-for-profit that promotes trades for women and plays a crucial advocating role as it seeks to close the gap between genders in the industry

In the year ended December 2022, Stats NZ reported that women made up over 50% of New Zealand’s population – yet less than 12% of trades jobs are occupied by women.

WIT provides spaces for women to find out more about trades training and careers, as well as opportunities to explore their options in a supportive environment.

To enable this, WIT holds events to connect women interested in trades training with those already working in the sector. It also provides information about trades careers, potential employers and training providers, alongside services and organisations established to help women succeed in the industry. 

“These events are a great opportunity for women to connect with a range of industry organisations,” said WIT co-chair Kylie Taffard.

“We want to present women with educational opportunities – whether that’s through public or private training enterprises. At our event last year, we also had exhibitions from PlaceMakers and Fletcher Building, which helped attendees see that there are businesses in the industry who want to employ women and have interesting opportunities for them.”

You can’t be what you can’t see

“We like to show women that there are heaps of ways to get into trades,” continued Taffard. 

“Trades isn’t just about plumbing or carpentry, there’s also HVAC or electric supply. No trade is off limits to women, they just need to know about it.”

To promote a wider understanding of the opportunities available and whether they are a suitable fit, WIT also encourages exhibitors to facilitate ‘give it a go’ sessions for women in attendance to try something they’ve never done before in a safe environment. 

Keynote speakers are also invited to pass on their experiences of being a woman working in a trade.

“We always ask them to speak about the good and bad days onsite and when things can get a little ugly as a woman,” said Taffard. “We want women to be aware of things that might happen, such as overt sexism, and what happens when you’re on your period and there’s only a portaloo onsite.

“For us, offering someone the chance to be a keynote speaker is also an opportunity for them, as it helps support existing tradeswomen to find their voice, and we provide them with public speaking training as part of it.”

The address is complemented by a panel discussion, which allows attendees to investigate a broad range of opinions from women who have been there and done it.

Connected effort

While WIT is primarily focused on Kiwi women, it has collaborated with other international organisations and some a little closer to home. 

“We try to connect with the likes of Tradeswomen Australia and similar organisations in Ireland and Canada. Closer to home, we like to work with other advocacy groups rather than compete with them for space. For example, there’s a successful Girls in Trades event in Invercargill every year that we try to promote.”

Solutions to common problems

WIT is keen to introduce practical measures to help mitigate perceived obstacles to hiring women.

“We don’t want to present problems to employers, we want to present a range of solutions to businesses, which have perceived barriers around hiring women – although our advocacy work in this space is new and this is a work in progress for us.”

However, Taffard points out that it shouldn’t only be down to women to ‘fix’ accessibility issues that prevent more women from working in the trades.

“Women are not here to solve problems. A lot of women find they have to solve all the problems onsite, such as working out how to obtain the correct PPE, or where the closest toilet is.

“It can become hard for them, but we believe issues such as these can easily be overcome if employers work together with their women employees.” 

WIT co-chair Whitney Murrie says that creating visibility, alongside other efforts, is an important part of the work the organisation does.

“We want women to see trades as a viable option and we want trades to see women as capable workers in their own right,” said Murrie.

“We might also look at product innovations to help women into trades, as well as working with suppliers to see what works and what doesn’t – and that all contributes towards the culture shift that’s slowly happening.”

As a volunteer-run entity, WIT relies entirely on the generosity of its sponsors. Any businesses that wish to contribute to the cause can do so by emailing contact@womenintradesnz.com