“To the ones who think we’re not good enough or can’t do the job, well, you’re wrong, for a start. We can do it just as well as you,” says Jess Ryder, a third-year apprentice electrician.

Just three per cent of the Australian skilled trades sector are women, and Jess is proud to be adding her name to the growing list of trailblazing female tradies.    

Comprising such a small percentage, visibility for women who work in the trades is low, although there has been significant improvement over the past 30 years.  

At 39 years old, Jess is set to become a fully qualified electrician after completing one more year of study.

To shed a light on female trade workers, Jess shared with Canberra Daily her journey entering the trades sector, her experiences working on job sites, and her support for other women looking to enter a trade.  

Throwing her hat in the ring to become an electrical apprentice happened by pure chance, explains Jess.

She was working as a dental assistant in 2010 when she heard an ad on the radio from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) that they were looking for apprentices.

After initially being rejected on her first application, Jess was hired in an alternative role within the ACT, and hasn’t looked back.

“I like it. I know a lot of women have issues and harassment and all that kind of jazz, but I haven’t actually experienced anything like that, and I get on really well with all the guys that I’ve worked with … even when I was a vegetation inspector,” Jess says.

Although, she does admit there are times she feels she has to tell the men on her site they’ve taken a joke too far.

“For the most part with the men, it’s relaxed, joking… unless things aren’t going well, then everyone’s tense. I guess sometimes they’re jokes can be a bi t… saucy? But I’m not easily offended,” she says.

“You just got to let them go unless it’s seriously bad. I have said ‘guys, nup, too far’. I have said that, but generally they’re not too bad.”

Jess is one of about eight females in her particular cohort in Canberra and the only female in her class at Global Energy Training Solutions.

“I’m the oldest and the only female in my class – the first day I was looking around like, ‘I could have given birth to all of you’,” Jess smiles.

Seemingly unfazed by being so outnumbered, she says her female coworkers have found ways to stay connected with one another, with the support of their supervisors.

“We’re all scattered off in different sections, so we don’t actually get to see each other very often. So, we’ve started up this thing where we meet up on work time, with permission, and just catch up and get to know each other,” she says.

“A lot of us don’t have friends who work in the trade, so they don’t get what we’re talking about, and they can’t really relate as well as someone else. So, we just do this girls’ catch-up as a support group.”

The initiative was founded by one of the older women in the field when Jess was beginning her own career, and once she left the business, it fizzled out.

When two new female apprentices started working this year, Jess asked her general manager to reinstate it, so the older women can help guide the younger women through their apprenticeships.

“I thought we should probably get to know them and introduce ourselves to them so they know we’re there, and they can talk to us,” Jess says.

“We point them in the right director for things, give them my number so they can call me, and then we just talk about our lives – it’s not all work, I’ve got to be honest.

“We just say we’re here, and you’re not alone.”

Not being easily offended is a trait Jess says is helpful on a work site, and she makes an effort to let the men know she’s not there to change their culture.  

“I try to let them know that I’m not like a prissy little princess that’s going to be offended at every little thing they say,” she says.

“I think they sometimes expect that, and you can see them checking themselves sometimes, but I think once they understand that I’m not going to be out to get them in trouble for stuff, they’re good.

“They do apologise for swearing a lot and I’m like, ‘I’m pretty sure I swear more than you’.” 

Younger men tend to be more welcoming of women on the worksite than their older counterparts, says Jess, as it’s a new dynamic for them that they haven’t experienced before.

“I definitely feel like the younger tradies are really accepting because they’ve grown up seeing it, so they’re cool with it,” she says.

“It’s the older ones … they’re just not used to it because when they started, it was men – that’s it.

“But most of them are pretty good at realising, ‘okay, she’s alright, she’s not going to ruin my world’.”

But Jess says it’s important to draw the line.

“Stand up for yourself, start how you mean to go on, and don’t let them get away with it straight away.

“You just have to say, ‘hey, bit far mate’ and once you’ve said that then they know.”

When asked what is the hardest part about being a female in a heavily male-dominated sector, Jess reveals that for her, it’s herself.

“I don’t know if it’s more we put the pressure on ourselves, but the pressure to be good – to prove yourself – because you sort of feel like to be considered equal to or the same as everyone else, you have to be better,” she says.

“Sometimes the guys will help you … and if I’m feeling lazy I’m like ‘yeah, alright’ but sometimes you’re like ‘no, no, I can do it’. You’ve got to prove yourself.

“We actually have two women ‘linies’ [power line electricians], which is pretty good because it’s quite a physically demanding job and not a lot of women want to do it.”

Sometimes, according to Jess, the second difficult part is the bathroom situation. But she says if she doesn’t have access to a bathroom, she has a gym club membership and just heads to the nearest club she can find.

Access to toilet facilities has been shown to be a barrier for women in the trades, and the Electrical Trades Union is working towards creating mandating minimum standards for workplace amenities to ensure every worker has a safe and healthy bathroom. 

To any male tradies still living with the old-school mentality than women aren’t made for the trades, Jess is more than happy to prove them wrong.

“We’re not here to steal your jobs, we’re not here to make you change who you are. We’re just here to work like you are, so just treat us as if you’d treat anybody else and everything will be fine,” she says.

“All we want as women is the chance, the opportunity to try it. We don’t want special treatment or anything like that.

“Just treat us the same and with respect – that’s all we want. We just want the chance to do it.”

Jess smiles as she talks about the encouragement and sense of solidarity other women give her when she reveals she’s a tradie, including from older women, who would not have grown up seeing females working on job sites.

“Most women when they realise, they’re like ‘wow, that’s really good!’. I’ve never really had negative feedback from women … even older women are like, ‘go you!’,” Jess smiles.

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