The building trades need to recruit more women as infrastructure investment rises
Recruiting women into the plumbing, electrical, and building industries is just as economically important as encouraging more women to join FTSE 100 boards, a new report said.
The building trades are a leading source of employment in the UK, but a stereotypes and lack of promotion to girls making career choices leave the field dominated by men, a report by AXA Business Insurance said.
“The government pledged a million new homes and £500bn investment in infrastructure projects by 2020 – that’s a huge part of our economic life for women to miss out on,” said Darrell Sansom, managing director of AXA.
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According to the insurance company’s customer data, just 5.2 per cent of those employed by the sector are women. The five jobs that AXA said need the most female recruits are stonemasons, heating engineers, plasterers, electricians and plumbers.
Average take-home pay for a tradeswoman is higher than that of professional, retail and service sectors working the same hours, and nine in ten rated their business a success, AXA found.
Sansom said getting more women into the sector is "every bit as important as getting more women onto FTSE 100 boards."
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