Even in our current day and age, the number of women in the building sector worldwide is still extremely low. But with the industry facing an acute shortage of tradespeople, the opportunities to break into a career in this area are better today than they ever have been. With the True Pro Ladies campaign, STABILA has been establishing a global community dedicated to female tradespeople since 2020, highlighting women who have forged successful careers in trade sectors and promoting a new generation of up-and-coming female talent in the industry.
For many years now, STABILA has been dedicating itself to supporting young talent in the trade industry. As the world faces an acute and increasingly prominent shortage of young tradespeople, this is a mission that has become more important than ever. In trade professions, women are mostly the dominant force in areas such as hairdressing, tailoring, jewellery-making and baking and, while their numbers are certainly growing in sectors with a more industrial slant, they continue to be under-represented in these areas. Not only that, but female tradespeople in the construction industry are still failing to receive the recognition and appreciation they so richly deserve.
These are the exact challenges and issues that we are seeking to tackle with the True Pro Ladies campaign. In 2020, we established a global community for current and future female tradespeople with the long-term goal of making trades more appealing to women.
The campaign is entering its third year. Another official True Pro Ladies team has been established in 2022, consisting of 23 female tradespeople from Germany, Austria, England, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Norway, the Netherlands and France.
This year, a founding member of the 2020 True Pro Ladies team has returned. Alice gave birth to her second son, Alexander, last year and so had to take a break from her trade profession. At the moment, she is accomplishing the enormous challenge of being a mother and a tradesperson at the same time. She also relies on her customers’ help with this, as Alex often comes to the construction site with her and obviously needs to be watched. Luckily, working mothers are not a rarity in society anymore, even in the trades sector, so customers are happy to help. Yet Alice knows from her own experience that you always have to remember to look after yourself and your own physical and mental health. She says: “It’s a real balancing act and, while I like to do everything as well and as quickly as possible, I know that we women may be strong, competent and adaptable but we aren’t invincible!”
Ahjin is one of many new faces in the 2022 True Pro Ladies team. She is also the first True Pro Lady from South Korea. Even in modern South Korea, women are still not commonplace on construction sites, so Ahjin had a fight on her hands too at the beginning of her career. However, motivated by her own experiences, she has set herself the goal of inspiring young South Korean women to become tradespeople using her Instagram page. In addition, she wants to teach the world more about Korean architecture and construction through her posts and show how South Korea has managed to maintain tradition in its cityscapes while also implementing ultra-modern building projects. This combination of tradition and modernity is very special in South Korea and something that Ahjin herself embodies and brings to life in her work on traditional hanok houses and by wearing her hanbok dress. “One of my main goals is to create a new hanok style combined with modern architecture, connecting South Korea with the rest of the world.”
Jenni from Munich is another new member. The 23-year-old master tinsmith loves working above Munich’s rooftops. Above all, she appreciates the creative side of her job. Regardless of whether you are using copper or zinc, the tinsmith trade offers so many unique creative experiences. “The creative aspect of the job is very important to me. Often, I have to concentrate on the small corners of a construction site that were not given a lot of consideration during the planning phase. This means that I have no restrictions on my creativity so that I can achieve a functional and attractive result by the end.” The largest creative challenge she has ever faced on a construction site was a steeple roof made of copper. Jenni also likes to think back to the piece she made for her qualification to become a master craftsperson. “I didn’t want to make the same old thing as everyone else, so I decided to make a gramophone from copper. It took a really long time to refine all of the individual details so that everything looked good when it all came together at the end.”
Brittany is 23 years old and comes from Ontario in Canada. She’s still in her early 20s but she already runs a small carpentry firm. “At 17, I started in the carpentry trade and I founded my own business when I was 20. As a young businesswoman in the trades sector, there are many challenges that I have to overcome.” This includes the usual business challenges but also problems that young women in particular have to endure in the trades sector. “At the beginning, many people walked past me and spoke to my older male employees because they thought that one of them was the boss rather than the young tradeswoman next to them.” After two years of hard work and many successful projects and happy customers, everyone knows who the boss is now. “With help from STABILA and other great women in the sector, we’re changing the image that people have of women in the trades sector, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this shift.”
Caro and Hannah come from Baden-Württemberg in Germany. They met each other when completing their trade apprenticeships and decided to set up an Instagram page together during the coronavirus lockdown. From the beginning, the aim was to tell people about their carpentry apprenticeship and inspire young people to enter trade professions. After two years full of positive feedback on Instagram, their joint page has become a real passion for both of them. “The thing that makes us the most happy is reading messages from other young people who have entered a trade profession because of our page and are really enjoying it.”
Lastly, there is Julia from Toronto in Canada. The 26-year-old mason renovates listed buildings, maintaining the architectural tradition and face of Canada. She wants to use her page to inspire young people to enter trade professions so that the masonry trade, which is steeped in history, does not die out. Furthermore, her posts have a clear motto: “break the bias”. This means breaking away from old-fashioned stereotypes and promoting liberal-minded ways of thinking. Because more young women in trades professions is just the first step. How do we go on to make sure that up-and-coming female tradespeople remain in the trades sector and are happy? According to Julia, we need to concentrate on the following in particular: better professional education, a welcoming culture, progressive social education, an end to misguided stereotypes and, perhaps the most human aspect, appropriate sanitary areas.
In addition to the official True Pro Ladies team members, female tradespeople and young women with an interest in trade professions from around the world are able to engage in the campaign by sharing their thoughts using the #trueproladies hashtag and becoming part of a community that provides a mutual source of inspiration and motivation.
Over the course of three years, we have already managed to reach millions of young female and male tradespeople through our campaign activities on our marketing channels (website, social media and press). The feedback we have received from women and men alike has been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing just how important it is to engage with this kind of issue facing society.
Over the years ahead, we are looking forward to working more with our community in order to promote the True Pro Ladies campaign and keep pursuing our goals and ambitions to support young talent in the trade industry. Our ultimate hope is to inspire lots of young people to explore a career in a trade profession!
