Women are being widely ignored across skilled trade workplaces, which can act as a barrier to female participation, new research suggests.

One in five women electrical workers don’t have access to sanitary bins in their workplace, according to a national survey by the Electrical Trades Union.

The amenities survey, which examined 2656 responses from women in the trades sector, found multiple gender disparities among workers – raising serious health and safety concerns.

Women are eight to 10 per cent less likely to have access to gendered or permanent bathrooms compared with their male comrades.

The survey reflected the gender disparity in electrical trades workers. Only 8.5 per cent of respondents identified as female. Just two per cent of Australia’s electricians are women.

Nearly half of the female respondents said they raised an issue in their workplace about inadequate amenities compared with less than 30 per cent of men.

Industry experts have called for a review into setting minimum health and safety standards for workplace amenities.

“Suitable toilets aren’t ‘nice to haves’. Having access to hygienic, reliable and adequate loos at work should be a basic expectation and a no brainer in 2022,” the ETU’s acting national secretary Michael Wright said.

“White-collar workers expect these basic standards, yet for women on construction sites, there’s still no guarantee of a usable toilet.”

By Mibenge Nsenduluka in Canberra