Todmorden plumber helping to attract more women into trade jobs

Stopcocks Women Plumbers, a network based in the Calder Valley, has created a National Register of Tradeswomen to connect vulnerable householders who may prefer to use a verified tradeswoman.

Hattie Hasan MBE, founder of the network, said: “The register of tradeswomen is going to be a one-stop shop where everybody can source tradeswomen.”

Ms Hasan became a plumber in 1990 after leaving her job as a teacher as she had always desired to work with her hands.

“I was a primary school teacher before and I was finding that it wasn’t really satisfying,” she said. “I looked into trades because I was always into fixing things and repairing things.”

Ms Hasan added: “I wanted to do metalwork when I was at school but back in those days, the 70s, I wasn’t allowed. When I said I wanted to do metalwork, they said you can’t do that, you are a girl. You have to do cooking and needlework.”

While attitudes have changed, there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made to ensure more women take up the trades.

The coronavirus outbreak has got a lot of women reevaluating what they want from their careers, according to Mica May, director at Stopcock Women Plumbers.

Many will have been told by careers advisors that they were too good to becoming a tradeswoman and others may have felt there was a lack of role models, she says.

The network has seen a spike in interest from women wanting to become plumbers in recent months.

Ms May said: “This pause is causing a greater number of women to think about what it is that they want to do with their lives.

“The awareness of mortality that the Covid-19 crisis is bringing to people, is making them think that I’m going to do something rewarding. Do something where I can see a job through from beginning to end. Feel the satisfaction of completing and doing something that’s worthwhile.”

However, Ms Hasan says that there have been various campaigns where it has seemed the tide has turned when it comes to women breaking into trades but too often momentum is lost.

She felt a strategic approach is needed to ensure the number of women in the industry doesn’t continue to ebb and flow

She said: “Momentum doesn’t stay up by itself. It needs a strategic approach that when women come into the industry or leave the industry, there are always more women to take those places.”

Ms Hasan hopes that the National Register of Tradeswomen will help them track the number of women in trades and lead to informed actions to redress the gender disparity.

Women have a ‘particular way of looking’ at problems, says Ms Hasan, and have a holistic way of solving them.

She added: “I know from my own practice and from women that I have worked with, the first thing you think about when you go into somebody’s home is not where’s the fix.

“It’s what’s happening to the person. We deal with people first. Going into somebody’s home and being able to be empathetic with what’s going on for the householder means a lot to the householder.”

Apart from it being a financially rewarding career, helping people in their hour of need is another incentive for entering trades such as plumbing, Ms Hasan says.

She said: “The hero aspect of being a plumber is really fulfilling. I still love it 30 years later. I don’t do as much of it now but I still love it.”