Pioneering Calderdale tradeswoman urges women to join first trades register

The not-for-profit register was set up in 2019 by Todmorden plumber and entrepreneur Hattie Hasan MBE, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers, in response to ongoing frustrations around the lack of visibility of and access to tradeswomen.

The register also addresses concerns of vulnerable householders, some of whom feel safer with women.

The organisation has plans to enable women to train in trades and access funds for training.

To that end Hattie is creating a mobile School for Tradeswomen in Yorkshire and beyond for women to train in skilled trades and a trust fund to support women and their families while they train at a higher level.

“In trades right now the proportion of women is around six per cent where we’re well represented, such as in painting and decorating, and around one per cent in plumbing, with gas engineers and electricians far less,” she said.

"Gas engineers are around 500 out of 100,000. Bricklayers, builders and roofers are much lower.”

Since the register launched, demand for its service throughout the region, and especially in West Yorkshire, has been very high and Hasan is calling for more Yorkshire tradeswomen to join and verify.

Hattie said: “Construction and maintenance are so overwhelmingly male dominated and these low numbers make tradeswomen difficult for householders to find. The register overcomes this, but we need more tradeswomen to meet this demand from householders.”