Is The Industry Doing Enough To Encourage Women?

Although there has been much progress in recent years with more women entering the trades, it has been claimed that there is still a noticeable gender divide in the industry and that more needs to be done about it. Women need more help and encouragement if they are going to succeed in these male-dominated environments.

There has been a great period of change in the heating industry due to the government proposing new policies and the development of new technologies such as renewables. This period of change is bringing with it a requirement to build upon its work force by adding new and additional skills. The opportunity now is greater than ever before for women to be trained across a wide variety of roles within the industry.

Preventing gender divides in the industry

Although much evidence indicates a high improvement in women entering the industry now, many critics have argued that there are still gender divides in play which is preventing women from catching up with men’s pay. According to The Women and Work Commission (WWC), the gender pay gap has actually widened to 22.6% from 21.9% in 2007.

Adult apprenticeships are a good and important way to get young women to enter this career path. The government has come up with a number of initiatives, one of them being spending over 1 billion on apprenticeships. The public reaction to this development has been mostly positive.

However, although the government has been working hard in developing strategies in order to get more women into the industry, some organizations claim that there is still a long way to go and not enough is being done. For example the WWC are still sceptical about the level of progress made and state that there is still a gender divide in the work place.

Employers taking initiative to improve things

These gender stereotypes are being challenged by some of the employers out there who are taking some initiative in order to prevent this gender divide. For example, Construction Skills ran a national advertising campaign to promote the construction industry as an attractive and lucrative career option for women.

Furthermore, British Gas have also taken action in challenging this gender stereotype. This was reflected in them trebling the number of women starting an apprenticeship in order to redress the balance.

Are women themselves not that keen?

Quite a few of the UK construction and engineering companies argue that despite plans put forward to encourage more women to get into the industry, the job applications from women themselves are quite low. This comes after it was found that although 80% of women have stated that they would be interested in considering a non-traditional career path, the applications coming in are still relatively low.

Many of the critics argue that the gender stereotypes begin at school where not enough is done to promote non-traditional careers for girls. On the plus side, there are some organisations that are set up for the purpose of encouraging these women to enter non-traditional career paths. For instance, the Women in Science & Construction (WISE) is set up to encourage young girls up to the age of 19 to pursue careers in science, engineering and construction.

Tal Potishman, editor of Heating Central, writes articles about combi boiler, central heating, plumber Cambridge, underfloor heating and solar thermal. He specializes in helping save money by advising on efficient heating.

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