There is a screaming need for lots more female tradespeople

I’ve been reading a book about communication. It advises that when you’re making a proposal about something you deem important, it’s best to kick off with the bottom line.

Don’t bore your audience by starting off with the details of how you came to this conclusion, or the reasoning behind it.

So here, in black and white, is my idea: We need about 50 times more female tradespeople than we currently have. By that, I mean we need way more female electricians, carpenters, plumbers, builders, roofers, tilers, etc.

I don’t mean we need a few more women in the apprenticeship sector for better gender balance/diversity optics, or for photographs for the college website, or to have a female apprentice on hand to pose with a visiting politician.

We need loads and loads more women in the trades because of a really big shift in demographics. (And because there’s fabulous money to be made these days in, for example, carpentry, electrical work, tiling and plumbing - and a girl with skilled hands could make a very good living for herself.)

Let’s jump to a salutary real-life story that speaks for itself when it comes to emphasising the sheer screaming need out there for lots more female tradespeople. 

Before I begin, let me say in all fairness that I know from personal experience and from living all my life in this country, there are huge numbers of decent, respectful, conscientious and hard-working tradesmen out there, professionals who come when they are supposed to, behave appropriately, do the job properly, and complete necessary repairs perfectly and on time.

There are legions of good tradesmen who would never dream of intimidating a female client, who wouldn’t automatically take unprofessional shortcuts because a client is female, and who also wouldn’t automatically charge a sneak premium because the client is a single woman living alone.

The story of one woman

This is only the story of one single woman. Just one.

This woman is highly educated, intelligent, urban, enjoys a good job with a good salary. She lives alone. Some time ago, she decided it was time to buy a house. She eventually found what she believed to be her forever home in Cork city. She bought it and moved in.

It was not a new build, so there were inevitably some issues but she was sanguine enough about it all. There was a major leak, which was followed by a multiplicity of small niggling problems, all requiring the expertise of qualified, experienced tradespeople; builders, roofers, electricians, plumbers, heating experts, pest contractors.

But it was all manageable, or so my poor friend believed.

My friend actually started out - as she believed - on what was a level playing field. She had a good job and could pay for the work. She knew a little bit about houses. She was optimistic that the work would be done and that she would really enjoy living in her house.

On the other hand, she was not made of money so she needed honest, reliable people who would do good work and resolve the problems.

She needed workmen who would complete everything properly on time. She consulted the experts and was told that all the problems could and would be swiftly resolved.

My friend was completely unprepared for what happened next: The tradesmen, when they came, did not resolve the problems. They did not do the work properly. Occasionally they even made things worse.

This led to further stress, because when things that should have been done were left undone, my friend contacted the tradesmen and pointed this out. She made reasonable requests for them to come back and finish the job; in other words, to do what they said they would do.

In return she was bullied. Belittled. Shouted at. Sneered at. Talked down to. Patronised. In person and over the phone. She was, she says, also over-charged.

She started to get stressed and upset. The small niggling problems - leaks, damp, infestation, electrical and heating problems – continued and got bigger. She paid out more money. The problems still were not resolved. She was bullied and talked down to some more.

Problems not resolved 

A year or two down the road, my friend has forked out thousands. She is deeply in debt for things she never dreamed she would have to deal with. If I understand the situation correctly, most if not all of the original problems have never been resolved.

Very Interesting Point: one day a member of the more obnoxious, belligerent, reluctant, incompetent, careless tradesmen she had in her employ returned to the house after being requested to finish a job that hadn’t been completed. A tall, strong male acquaintance of my friend, we will call him Mark, happened to be present. On seeing big, tall Mark standing there, my friend recalled, the tradesman instantly metamorphosed into an apparently friendly, helpful and efficient professional.

Very Interesting Fact: Out of all the tradesmen who worked at her house – and there are many - just one behaved well, my friend says. This man behaved with professionalism, did the job right, treated her with respect and courtesy, and charged fairly.

Anyway, one night my friend called me. She had become stressed to the point that she was experiencing difficulty sleeping. She revealed she was thinking seriously about moving away and putting her house back on the market. I begged her to reconsider. Surely there was something that could be done? Surely we could find a way to solve her house’s problems?

My friend was not for changing.

The reason she was thinking about selling the house was basically down to two things that she felt would not be resolved: (1) the anxiety and stress caused by the ongoing, increasing problems with the building itself which she felt were being exacerbated by poor workmanship (2) the anxiety and stress caused by the workmen called in to solve those problems but who singularly failed to do so while at the same time charging significant amounts of money, openly bullying her and then behaving as if she had mental problems.

My friend said she had complained but that she was afraid to make a really huge fuss. She felt intimidated, bullied and demeaned. It undermined her self-esteem and made her feel like a victim.

She believed that she had been routinely over-charged for work despite the fact that jobs had not been properly completed. She believed that much of this had happened purely because she was a woman who lived alone. These men, she said, thought she could be bullied and fooled because to them being female meant she didn’t have a clue about anything. She now wants to be shot of the house and of these silver-back gorilla tradesmen.

She agrees that there are legions of good, respectable, decent, respectful, honest, hard-working and conscientious male tradespeople out there – she has male relatives in the trades elsewhere in the country - but she maintains, in the period during which she was trying to make her house livable and more comfortable, she only met one tradesman who fitted these criteria.

So here’s the bottom line. How many more women out there are like her, given that the number of women living alone in their own houses in this country is on the rise? The number of potential female clients in need of good tradespeople is growing exponentially. Many of these sole female house-owners would vastly prefer not to have to deal with some silver-back gorilla who thinks a female client is someone to be intimidated, patronised, over-charged and poorly served. This could mean there is a very, very lucrative vein to be mined by a supply of skilled, honest and respectful tradeswomen.

If you are in fifth year or Leaving Cert, and believe you have the right skills, an apprenticeship could offer a very lucrative, successful and happy career dealing with an endless cascade of grateful female clients who appreciate being treated respectfully and charged fairly for good, well-completed work.

Recent figures show that the number of women apprentices in this country has grown from just 26 women in 2015 to 2,258 in January 2024, and includes 439 women training as craft apprentices. Not enough. Not nearly enough.

Of course, life being life, there will inevitably be dishonest, unpleasant and incompetent tradeswomen out there as well as men. Every barrel has its bad apples. But let me say this: if she was given the choice, my poor, harassed, disillusioned, frightened friend would have jumped at the chance to hire competent, respectful and honest tradeswomen. And maybe she wouldn’t have ended up selling her house.

Sincere apologies to the many, many decent, honest, hardworking and kind tradesmen out there, but guys, I have to say it, these silver-backs have the potential to give you all a bad name.