More Kiwi women are taking up building trade apprenticeships, and a new campaign aims to ensure work sites are ready for them.
It has the backing of a self-employed Bay of Plenty plasterer who says she has to be “gung-ho” on sites to deal with simple tasks like disposing of a tampon.
Through the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO), women now make up 6% of apprentices.
The number of young women participating in the BCITO Gateway programme has doubled since 2022, and female apprentices have nearly quadrupled from 52 to 205.
As a result, BCITO has launched Actions Speak Louder, an initiative aimed at making the trades an attractive place for women to work.
In partnership with other organisations, the initiative provides free period products, women’s injury prevention programmes, discounted Portaloos and free sanitary bins, and discounted essential workwear to women apprentices and their employers.
Haley Watts is a BCITO-qualified plasterer based in the Bay of Plenty.
She went through the Gateway programme at high school and has been working in the industry since 2020.
“I was always dead-set that I wanted to be a builder.”
At the beginning of 2024, at 21 years old, Watts started Watts Stop, her interior plastering business.
She said the Actions Speak Louder initiative was “just awesome”.
“I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been on site and had to throw a tampon or pad straight into the skip in front of the guys; they all have something to say, but what else am I going to do?”
Watts said not everybody was that “gung-ho”, and having access to Portaloos or sanitary bins was massive.
“I know so many women who can’t even find clothes that fit them to be able to show up on site, so having something that actually fits us is a great start.”
She said what motivated her to keep pushing boundaries in the trades industry was simply “beating negativity” and breaking the boundaries.
“I’m quite petty, so I have a lot of people that I need to prove wrong.”
Watt’s advice for other women getting into the industry was to “just do it”, and put in the work.
“I honestly hope that any woman can step onto a site where they can be like, yes, I belong here, and don’t have to question, like, ‘what am I doing’?”
BCITO principal advisor for women Amanda Williams said the initiative was providing practical solutions that would be most impactful for women on the front line.
“It’s about removing barriers and increasing participation and success for our women to thrive in the trades.”
She said Actions Speak Louder was about tackling “overlooked truths” and building inclusive cultures
“It’s really important that we’re looking after what I would class as our gems, our women who are already in the industry because they’re our ambassadors, they’re our leaders.”
New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) education and events manager Marcia Hintz said she was seeing more women take up apprenticeships with NZCB employers.
Hintz told the Bay of Plenty Times there were 13 women out of 324 people in their apprentice network.
“They’re still very much underrepresented, around 15% of the workforce in construction, and only 3% in carpentry.”
Hintz said women point out that basics like proper onsite toilets, well-fitting protective gear, and flexibility to balance parenting and family responsibilities were still barriers.
“Until these are consistently addressed, entry, retention, and completion rates will continue to be a challenge.”
Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology offers Wāhine Māia networking events for women studying a trade, at its Rotorua and Tauranga campuses.
Māori success manager Mel Katu said more women were enrolling in Level 3 pre-trades programmes and Level 4 apprenticeships.
“Wāhine need to be given a chance to show their worth in the first instance.”
Katu said with a shift towards inclusion, trade employers and managers were recognising the value women bring to a workplace.
“We want all our trades wāhine to feel empowered and confident entering the workforce, which is still heavily male-dominated.”
Katu said this was “encouraging” with greater visibility and presence of programmes like Wāhine Māia.
“There is still a way to go with reshaping workplace culture and breaking down stereotypes in trades workplaces.”
Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.