Last week I published an article on My Local Electrician about the NICEIC launching their “Jobs for the Girls campaign”. When I published the article I did not really think too much into it and just felt it was just another campaign, yawn yawn! Then a couple of days later and a blog post or two down the line, as well as plenty of tweets about this subject, I started to look into why people seem to be so interested in writing and campaigning about this subject.
The NICEIC state “ Although women represent at least 50% of the UK workforce, they are severely under-represented in most trade professions – many of which are facing huge skills gap shortages. NICEIC aims to highlight the exciting opportunities available to females within the electrical industry and dispel the myth that trade professions are a viable career path for men only. This image of our industry as an exclusive one is a dangerous one. If we are to plug the skills shortage gap then we can’t afford to dismiss half the working population,”
After reading this a couple of times and digesting what they are saying, I come to the conclusion that I do not know where they get this idea that the image of our industry is an exclusive one. I may even ask them the question at some point. I also do not understand why the NICEIC feel that they need to “highlight the exciting opportunities available to females” Am I missing something here? Is the industry so exciting for females but not men?
I am not writing this blog to try to pull apart the NICEICs' efforts in the campaign as I believe that it is a great idea as long as they word things more carefully and actually do what the campaign is stating, help women into our industry, and it is not just another PR stunt to try to gain more popularity with the industry and consumers!
I have also had a call today from a company that wants to bring this subject up and suggest that maybe sexism is to blame for the lack of female electricians. I gave my thoughts to them and I look forward to reading their article.
Because all this has come about, although I would like to add that if it hadn't, I would not have taken the time to write this blog, as I feel that no problem actually exists. I am writing this blog giving my thoughts on female electricians or indeed females in any trade profession.
My thoughts on this are regardless of gender, we are all capable of achieving the same goals, whether working in an office or working on site. If I worked in an office I would expect to see women there too, Why not on site? The answer, I feel, is nothing to do with sexism, our industry being an exclusive one or because our industry does not do anything to attract females, I believe it is merely that most females are not attracted to this industry, the same as I would not be attracted to being a childminder. Not that I could not be a childminder, it's not my thing! I think this goes for females, it is just not their thing, not because females can't do it. Of course there are the few exceptions, as I am sure there are men out there that want to be childminders, just not many in relation to the opposite sex.
After thinking this through, maybe these articles and campaigns are all about trying to gain brownie points with female electricians!
I just want to add one more thing and that is, I honestly believe that this subject should not be taken out of context nor overly written about. This I am sure will only create segregation between the sexes, and once you get that no one wins. You can have war between cultures, war between men, but a war between the sexes – Stalemate!
Let me now introduce Amanda Shaw, and yes! A female. Not only a female, but a female who is training to be an electrician! Da da daaaaaaa....... A male electrician and a female electrician who have written a blog together? Surely not! Our industry does not allow such things!
Off you go Manda:-
I actually gave some thoughts on the NICEIC campaign last week in an interview with my training provider. As a female training towards becoming an electrician I suppose this subject should be of great interest to me, but it's such a "non issue" in my mind that the fact that some people feel they have to go out of their way to put out the red carpet out to entice women into the industry seems a bit of an overkill and I begin to wonder if the country as a whole is going into overdrive with the whole PC thing.
There are and will continue to be women in the industry. Women joined the industry because that is what they wanted to do. Ok, so I can see that there may be one or two out there who may hold back, through lacking the confidence to go for it, partly maybe due to the worry of entering what is a predominantly male industry. But to think that there's this whole mass of women out there just waiting for permission to come flooding into the trade once they have been sufficiently made to feel comfortable enough to do so seems a little laughable.
Most women I know do as they please with regard to what career they choose! But as Gary has pointed out, most just don't tend to feel drawn to certain trades. We are out of the age of women having to stick to certain job descriptions. Women now serve in the forces alongside their male comrades, at first a lot of people worried it would never work. It did work, and now women serve on the front lines in war-zones. There wasn't however this great influx of women beating down the doors of Whitehall to join up. There is a natural division in career choices made by men and women, few men become nurses in comparison to women, few women become brickies in comparison to men. Not because either is not welcome in the profession, but because that is just what they choose.
Eleven years ago, I trained as a decorator, although I had worked on-site on painting contracts casually before that. Yes, there were a few guys who seemed to have an issue with it. Nothing major, and after seeing I was equally capable they inevitably respected me. Now, 11 years on and having decided to work towards becoming an electrician, I have been met with nothing but support from all the guys I have come into contact with in the industry. There is none of the negative reactions that people seem to just assume exist! There will always be one exception to the rule somewhere, but then that is the case for anybody, whether they be male or female, in any walk of life.
My concern is that campaigns such as this by the NICEIC, though they may be well intentioned immediately create a problem. I am not yet an electrician, but when that day comes I would be mortified to be labelled as a "female electrician" An electrician is an electrician. So lets not start drawing lines and labelling people. I don't want to be put in this box of "female electrician" and segregated from the guys. The result of doing this is just going to be creating a problem where one doesn't actually exist!
Why not instead concentrate on getting more paths into the industry where everyone can be trained to a high standard regardless of age or means? Why not concentrate on fighting for a national system whereby everyone within the industry is licensed and proven to be fully competent? I have only entered the doors of the electrical industry recently and it is glaringly obvious to me that the house is falling down around us. Let's then fix what's actually broken!