‘It’s not just a man’s job’: Women in plumbing breaking glass ceilings

Despite plumbing and other skilled trades remaining male-dominated, data shows more women are taking up the profession.

Working as a skilled tradesperson, such as an electrician, builder, or plumber, still means working in heavily male-dominated industries.

But fresh data shows an increase in women taking up a skilled trade as a lifelong profession.

A recent inquiry into the Perceptions and Status of Vocational Education and Training (VET) found 30.9 per cent of all apprentices are women.

Women make up 1.6 per cent of all apprentice plumbers, 5.2 per cent of electrician apprentices and 2.5 per cent of apprentice bricklayers and carpenters.

Lara Smyth, aged 20, is a second-generation plumber following in the footsteps of her Mum and Dad. Already she is making great strides as a plumber in her own right.

The second-year apprentice is one of twenty emerging plumbers across the country to have been awarded a 2024 Rheem Apprentice Plumber Grant worth $3000, in recognition of her outstanding work.

Lara Smyth is one of twenty recipients of a 2024 Rheem Apprentice Plumber Grant worth $3000. Picture: Supplied.

The recipients received $2000 to assist with their TAFE/RTO fees and textbooks, and a $1000 tool voucher. The aim of the grant is to support up-and-coming apprentice plumbers in completing their studies and helping launch their plumbing careers.

Ms Smyth said a key challenge as a woman in plumbing, is sometimes having to find workarounds for certain jobs that require a high level of strength.

“You’re able to adapt and use your brain to figure out other ways to do it,” she said.

“It’s definitely something that you’re able to do, it’s just might take a little bit longer or you might have to find a shortcut.”

Lara Smyth working in a distillery as an apprentice plumber. Picture: Supplied.

For instance, she said, bending a copper pipe for her Dad and other male apprentices is a task they can do against their own body, but for plumbers like Ms Smyth, she has had to find other ways to get the job done.

“I’ve learnt that I have to kind of angle it up in the concrete and push down on it,” she said.

“You just have to adapt to what is comfortable for you and what is safe for you.”

In 2024, 30 per cent of the grant beneficiaries were women, which Rheem reports is a 50 per cent increase on 2023.

In recognising successful women in trade, Ms Smyth said, it goes a long way in encouraging other women to take up a trade like plumbing.

She said her mother, Kimberley Smyth, strongly influenced her to see the possibility of becoming a tradie.

“Watching my mum develop her company and train up to be the woman she is now.

“Seeing how she talks, how she works, and having the opportunity to do my pre-apprenticeship with her [ …] it really helped me decide what I wanted to be.”

Kimberley Smyth founded Hey Sista Plumbing in Melbourne in 2012 and runs a service for women experiencing domestic violence; providing plumbing services, delivered exclusively by women, for women at-risk of domestic violence.

Ms Smyth said she feels has to work harder than her male counterparts to prove herself on some job sites, but things have come a long way since her Mum took up plumbing as a mature-age student over 10 years ago.

Lara Smyth, right, with her Mum Kimberley Smyth, left. Picture: Supplied.

“I know my Mum faced a lot of discrimination at the start,” she said.

“All the other women who started out, say five years ago or 10 years ago, things are entirely different now.

“They were able to change how everyone sees trades.

“[Because of] what those women did 10, five years ago, I don’t have to worry about facing what they did.”

Unfortunately, female VET and TAFE graduates often still struggle to secure work, with employers carrying biases around women in trade.

Ms Smyth said she hopes future generations of women who wish to take up a skilled trade like plumbing are supported in their chosen career paths.

“It’s not just a man’s job, or a woman’s job’s, but actually there’s no gender role for a job, everyone can kind of give it a go,” she said.

“It’s not just allocated for one sex, at least everyone deserves to give it a go.”

Originally published as ‘It’s not just a man’s job’: Women in plumbing breaking glass ceilings