Job Search
1. Search for a role, such as "tax accountant"
2. Choose your State
3. Click Search
Off On Tour To Sell The Trades
26 August 1994
PARENTS may be discouraging their daughters from entering trades, according to the Tradeswomen On The Move (TWOM) co-ordinator, Barbara Lara.
TWOM, organised by the NSW Department of Industrial Relations, Employment, Training and Further Education, is a team of tradeswomen touring country NSW with the aim of encouraging young women to consider careers in non-traditional areas of work such as trades.
The TWOM team left Sydney in July and over eight weeks it is speaking to more than 5,000 female junior high school students in more than 60 rural centres including Grafton, Walgett, Moree, Tottenham, Peak Hill, Tamworth, Narromine and Gilgandra.
Ms Lara, an architect, said that about half the schoolgirls whom the TWOM team had met said their parents would not like them to become tradespeople. There seemed to be a perception that trades were not feminine.
"Parents or friends of a lot of girls who want to do a trade say, 'Erk, a dirty builder with stubbies and thongs'," said Ms Lara. "That's not the way it is. It's all stereotypes and preconceived ideas."
This is the third annual TWOM tour. Representing occupations including painting and decorating, carpentry, building, plumbing, horticulture, printing, motor mechanics, food and electrical trades, the tradeswomen are travelling around NSW in a mini-bus crammed with tools, toolboxes, hardhats, overalls, information kits and posters.
The Minister for Industrial Relations and Employment, Mrs Chikarovski, said she was concerned that female students were cutting off a whole range of job opportunities by not considering a trade as a career.
Women comprised 12.6 of all apprentices in training in NSW.
"It is a very disappointing fact that across a total of 351 trades there are only 5,464 female apprentices in training in NSW, compared with 37,882 male apprentices," said Mrs Chikarovski, who is also the Minister for the Status of Women.
"If we exclude hairdressing and food, the proportion of women in apprenticeships falls to 1.4 per cent, or about 600 women in trades such as metals, building, vehicle, painting, electrical and furnishing."
Tradeswomen On The Move was the first opportunity for many young women to meet female role models who had established successful careers in trade and technical occupations.
"There is no doubt that women who take on the challenges of a skilled trade perform extremely well in training, both on the job and in their studies," she said.
"This is reflected in their TAFE results, and NSW's premier training awards, where women, despite their low representation in trades, are always highly placed."
Ms Lara said that from speaking to the schoolgirls she got the impression that many parents would prefer their daughter to enter a profession, become a nurse, or become a secretary and work in "a nice, clean office". The schoolgirls themselves also had stereotyped views of trades. Most saw trades as something their brothers could go into.
"The tradeswomen I have spoken to - they love their work and would not swap it for anything," said Ms Lara. "Some have done clerical work or nursing and say trade work is more satisfying and creative. It's more satisfying than the pile of paperwork they used to have."
Ms Lara got involved with the project because she'd noticed how rare tradeswomen were at work sites. When working for the Department of Public Works between 1986 and 1991 she encountered only two tradeswomen - an apprentice tiler and an apprentice painter and decorator. She said sexism at work sites was still an issue. Women were not treated with as much respect as men until they showed they could do "whatever a man can do".
"People may have done it before you but that does not make a difference,"she said. Although things had improved a little there needed to be more women entering trades and more support networks between tradeswomen.
According to the Federal Department of Employment, Education and Training, the occupations with highest growth in advertised vacancies from June 1989 to June 1994 included chefs/cooks, metal fitters and machinists, hairdressers, bakers and pastrycooks, and automotive electricians.
The department has published a list of 20 occupations with the highest projected employment growth up to the year 2001. Trade groups in the top 20 included hairdressers, bricklayers, plumbers, cooks, carpenters and joiners, cabinetmakers, panel beaters, painters and decorators, and electrical mechanics.
However, a department spokesman said that such projections had limitations and were only as sound as the assumptions underlying the model which generated them.
