Hattie Hasan, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers and the Women Installers Together Event, has been awarded an MBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List for her work supporting and promoting women in the heating and plumbing industry.
Previously a primary school teacher, Hattie decided on a career change in 1990 when she went to college to train as a plumber. Recognising that the small number of women in the industry faced similar obstacles and challenges, Hattie looked to create a support network and relaunched her Stopcocks business as a national franchise in 2017. In the same year she also launched the Women Installers Together Conference, now an annual event, for all female plumbing and heating engineers, plus supportive manufacturers and suppliers.
Hattie says she’s “chuffed to bits” with the MBE and believes it will provide an opportunity to further highlight women heating engineers and plumbers who remain seriously under-represented at around 1% of the industry and just 500 members of the Gas Safe register.
