In anticipation of the second Women Installers Together conference coming in July, Hattie Hasan, the founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers, and Vicky Wood, Gas Training and Development Manager for Kier Services Ltd, have a conversation about the state of women in the trade and how to encourage more into the trade.
Hattie Hasan is the driving force behind the Women Installers Together conference, and Kier Services is one of many sponsors of the event. To register for a free ticket to the conference being held in London on 4 July, 2018, just click here.
Hattie: According to Gas Safe, there’s an estimated 500 women on the Register. In light of that, what would you say are the issues for women coming into industry?
Vicky: Traditionally men went to work and women stayed at home. In the past, apprenticeships offered by companies like British Gas were for men in the role of the ‘beadwinner’. But a lot of those men are now retiring, which is creating a gap. There’s no reason this can’t be filled by women.
Also I see a massive shortage of awareness about the industry in schools – especially for bright sparks who’d usually be pushed towards university. We at Kier talk a lot in schools and to girls about opportunities across construction, especially in plumbing and gas, and girls are surprised how intelligent you have to be to become a gas engineer!
H: You’ve read my mind. I’ve just written an article in which I mentioned one girl being told by her careers advisor she was ‘too good to be a plumber’!
V: You do have to be intelligent – it’s science!
H: What do you think the industry has to offer women?
V: If women are looking for flexible role in a company, we have family friendly policies at Kier, or working for yourself as a plumber, it’s very flexible. You’re able to work around responsibilities. Working flexibly is something the industry really has to offer. People need their boilers fixing at all times of day, not just traditional office hours. This flexibility suits women.
H: So what do women bring to the industry?
V: In my opinion it’s the soft skills. Once you’re qualified as a gas engineer or plumber, you’re technically competent. You’re then equal to any male counterpart. Because women are so used to multi-tasking and managing our time, we’re able to get a lot done. We are good communicators, friendly, and able to explain things in a way people can understand.
I think the soft skills women bring to the industry are very much valued by customers and employers, and they’re perhaps overlooked as an asset by industry as a whole.
H: Interesting that you say they’re overlooked, and important. At the end of the day, people deal with people
V: Absolutely! Plus, there are times it’s essential to have female engineers. Sometimes male engineers aren’t allowed in for religious reasons, so gas servicing and repairs can’t be done. Female engineers would mean those properties would get seen regularly, and elderly or vulnerable tenants just seem more comfortable.
H: It’s not just vulnerable people: most people want a good job and to feel they’ve been cared about. I think we’re seeing a sea change with companies like Kier wanting to sponsor the WIT Conference this year. Can you elaborate why Kier supports the conference?
V: I wanted to get the message out we’re a female friendly company. It’s OK to come to us – there’s no need to be intimidated. We train female gas engineers, and compared to the number of males its really small – there’s no real reason for that. Women are equally capable of doing the programme.
With the wider Kier Group we’re an exceptionally family friendly organisation with a lot of women but it’s been recognised we need to address the number of women in trades.
That’s where Shaping Your World (virtual reality environment about working in construction) comes in. Across the country we aim to reach young people to explain about careers in construction and at Kier.
H: I love that of the eight case studies in it, five are with young women.
V: And it lets customers know we’re supportive of what they need, sometimes that’s a tradeswoman. But the conference is really exciting to us at Kier.
H: Lets talk about the future – do you see a future where we can ever be 50/50?
V: YES! I think if you’d have asked that about doctors, or lawyers, people would have said no, you wouldn’t get female doctors, lawyers, as widespread as they are now.
It’ll be in a few generations time… Women are getting into the industry if they know somebody in it. I think the more female role models we have, women like you leading the way, the more it’s promoted and becomes ‘normal’. Yes I think we will get there.
H: Wow, that’s a lofty goal 50/50 that would be amazing wouldn’t it?
One of our aims for the WIT conference was to stop banging on about how difficult it is and just celebrate how many women there are. This year we’re inviting trainees. Last year we were blown away with WIT’s success. It’s going to be bigger this year.
Can you see a future where we’re creating a team where we can make that a reality?
V: Absolutely! And I think it needs not just you and Kier but Housing Associations, but local authorities taking the lead for women to become just the ‘norm’ in the industry.
Targeting recruitment and investment and taking the best person for the job. I don’t think any woman would want to be given a job because they’re female, but pro-actively looking at the right ways to advertise to attract women.
H: Over the years, equal opportunities has meant that we want the right person for the job, and because the numbers of women in the industry haven’t increased, it’s been possible to say women don’t want to work here, but that’s how it really works.
I think we hit on it earlier when we said that schools need to be encouraging people into the industry. Do you think they need to be encouraging just girls? In the normalisation process, do we need everybody to see it as an industry to aspire to work in?
V: Yes, we do. I asked what should we do to encourage women to enter the industry, and somebody said ‘Pink boilers!’ I just went ‘really?!’
Some of the attitudes are very ingrained, it’s so unusual for women to be here, that somebody who’s a bit prejudiced or from the old school. But that wave is on its way out and the new generation is coming in. It would be more attractive if people knew you’re not going to go home filthy at the end of every day – which they think puts women off as well.
H: Its funny! I’ve heard somebody say ‘aren’t you frightened of the dirt?’ Like we’ve never changed a nappy!
V: Nurses lift grown adults, and change them and female surgeons have to saw through bones – it’s not hard work women are frightened of, it’s not dirty work women are frightened of, it’s old fashioned attitudes that can make it difficult.
H: Do you have any last words for us?
V: There needs to be a lot more awareness, across schools, colleges. I think there needs to be awareness that this is a valid career choice, it’s a really flexible career choice, it’s got fantastic earning potential and we need to be promoting the pioneering women like you who are doing it now as good examples of what will become the norm eventually.
H: Thank you Vicky. Ours is to encourage all women plumbers, gas engineers and women plumbers in training to join us at WIT this year on 4th July, it’s going to be an excellent event!
Tickets for WIT Conference: https://2018witconference.eventbrite.co.uk
Shaping Your World: https://shapingyourworld.co.uk
