Yahoo Finance Female tradies reveal highs and lows of high-paid industry: ‘Smacked my bum’
For International Women’s Day, a carpenter, electrician and mechanic have broken down how they entered the male-dominated industry,
From deeply rewarding with great pay and supportive coworkers, to accusations of lying about being “smacked on the bum” and having mud thrown at them; the experiences of female tradies in Australia span a wide spectrum. Three women have candidly revealed to Yahoo Finance their realities working in a male-dominated industry and they've called for more ladies to pick up the tools.
More women than ever are tackling apprenticeships in Australia, yet they still make up just 3 per cent of all qualified trade workers. A lack of female representation has been described as a “serious economic issue” that plays into our housing crisis, and research has shown the low numbers - at a time when the industry faces a critical shortage - are in part due to culture and the idea these jobs are for men.
Here, Ashley, Felicity and Sarah open up about how they pushed through hundreds of rejections, $12-an-hour wages ballooning to “mind boggling” sums, the physical toll of the job, and blokes they love to work beside.
Do you have a story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com
‘Didn’t want to hire a girl’: Year-long fights to land apprenticeship
Felicity Pettiford decided she wanted to become a carpenter when she was in high school, after blazing a trail as the first female at her school to take on construction and timber as an elective.
She “absolutely loved” doing something using her hands and ended up leaving school after completing Year 10 to look for an apprenticeship in Sydney. But, as a then-petite 16-year-old female, getting a foot in the door was “very challenging”.
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“A lot of people didn’t want to hire a girl, a lot of people didn’t want to hire someone that was unlicensed and didn’t have their Ps, and a lot of people didn’t want to hire me because of how skinny and petite I was,” she said.
Felicity - now 21 - said she “had over 200 knock backs” for jobs and it ended up taking her a year and a half to find her first apprenticeship.
Electrician Sarah Brunton has been a sparky for 25 years and said she also struggled to find an apprenticeship as a young female starting out. It took her roughly a year to land one after finishing school.
“It was significantly difficult, whereas I’d noticed with my school friends that were boys, everyone who wanted an apprenticeship got one straight away. So, it was a massive effort,” Sarah said.
While both women’s determination eventually paid off, their journeys weren’t without their obstacles.
Being the only female on site
During her time in the industry, Felicity said she'd faced bullying, sexual harassment and assault from male co-workers as the only female on site.
“They’d say things like, ‘Your ass looks great in those shorts’ … they’d occasionally smack me on the bum or some days, if I wasn’t letting them do that, then they’d throw mud at me and call me names or say, ‘You’re a bitch’,” Felicity told Yahoo Finance.
“Being so young, I didn’t want to speak up about it and also I wanted to tolerate it because I needed the on-site experience.”
At the time, Felicity said she would come home upset every day. When she eventually brought it up with her boss, she was accused of “lying”.
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Sarah said she’d had experiences where male colleagues yelled at her in the workplace and she'd felt like she needed to work harder to prove herself as a woman.
“You feel like you have to do everything 150 per cent because you always know everyone is watching what you are doing,” Sarah said.
Female representation in trades is only 3 per cent, according to Empowered Women In Trades, with some trades like plumbing and welding having only 1 per cent representation.
Like Felicity and Sarah, many female tradies have faced a lack of respect or harassment in the workplace, with 47 per cent quitting or thinking of leaving the industry.
But Sarah said she’d felt the culture “changing slowly” during her career because more women were on sites.
Culture is changing: Blokes get behind female co-workers
Heavy-diesel mechanic Ashley Belteky said her experience in the industry had been a positive one. She was able to secure an apprenticeship while she was completing Grade 12, where she got a 95 ATAR result.
“There was only me and one other female in my team when I started my apprenticeship but all the men were very supportive,” Ashley said.
“I was treated like any person and treated based on my individual merits, rather than my gender. All that I needed to bring to the table as a first-year apprentice was a great attitude and a willingness to learn.”
Trades are known to take a physical toll - with long days and heavy lifting. Ashley said she was supported to find a "new way" to get the job done.
"Not necessarily just because I am a woman but because I am on the smaller side ... I didn't have the same body weight to lift the same heavy components as other people in my team," she said.
Felicity and Sarah both had great experiences with supportive male bosses and co-workers during their careers.
“I got diagnosed with endometriosis when I was 14 so having a [male] boss that understood took a weight off my shoulders,” Felicity said.
“Having that condition does make your daily life sometimes so bloody hard because you’re in intensive pain and you’ve got a 20kg tool bag on your hips, walking up and down stairs and running around. It makes it so hard some days.”
How much do tradies earn? $12 an hour to ‘mind-boggling’ salaries
Tradies can log long hours, in risky environments, with overtime or fly-in-fly-out benefits like free accommodation and food offering great opportunities to boost their wealth.
The government says trades offer “employment stability and economic security” but the money isn’t great to start with.
While some Australians going down the path of university education have questioned if getting in HECS debt for an entry-level job years later of $50,000 is worth it, tradies have to endure a low-paying apprenticeship before their potential earnings skyrocket.
Felicity said she initially earned $13 per hour as a first-year apprentice, while Ashley said she got $12 an hour.
As an apprentice, Ashley noted she was “getting paid to learn” and said her pay became more competitive by the time she gained her qualification.
“I went into mining freshly after qualifying and I was earning $140,000 as a 21-year-old freshly qualified mechanic, which is mind-boggling,” Ashley said.
“It is a sacrifice on lifestyle and you do work a lot of hours and that’s why that paycheque is so generous. But there is so much potential to make money as a tradesperson and it’s definitely competitive with university pathways.”
As a qualified carpenter and builder, Felicity said she was currently earning $35 an hour and worked 30 to 40 hours a week. She also gets free fuel and a Bunnings card for any materials or tools she needs.
The average wage for a tradie is $73,072, or $37.47 an hour, ranging from $61,000 at entry level to more than $101,000 for experienced workers, according to Talent. This doesn’t include overtime opportunities or, as one expert put it, that you can start your own business and potentially “retire by 50”.
The government says women are “vital to addressing trade skill shortages”, while industry leaders have said schools need to improve pathways to encourage more women to pick up the tools, with grants and programs designed to help females pursue careers in trades available nationwide.
“We historically have only attracted 50 per [cent] of the population – males – as such, we need to be more focused on female participation,” Master Builders Australia’s Denita Wawn told a senate inquiry into the cost of living last month.
Ashley, Felicity and Sarah broke through stigma to pursue their roles and are proof women can thrive in the industry. A key piece of advice they all wanted to share for other aspiring female tradies was: “Don’t give up."
“It can be really difficult to get started but don’t give up,” Sarah said. "Even though you will definitely find some hurdles along the way, don’t give up when stuff gets tough but find someone to talk to."
Felicity added: “Don’t give up on your dream. The only person who is going to tell you can or can’t do something is yourself.”
