Dec

Gender Divide Shortening Or Widening In Industry?

Filed in: Uncategorized by Emmanuel Mba on 12-08-09

Although there are more women entering the trades than ever before, it has been brought to attention that still more needs to be done in order to give these women the help and encouragement they need to succeed within these male-dominated environments.

The heating industry has undergone a period of great change as the government has proposed new policies and developed new technologies such as renewables. This transitionary period has brought with it a requirement to build upon its work force by adding new and additional skills. Nowadays it should be easier than ever before for women to not only get trained for specialist roles, but a wide range of roles within the industry.

Preventing gender divides in the industry

Although it cannot be argued that there are more women working in the industry now than ever before, there are still gender obstacles and other stereotypes that are preventing women from reaching the top. According to The Women and Work Commission (WWC), the gender pay gap has actually widened to 22.6% from 21.9% in 2007.

One way of tackling this problem is to encourage women to get into adult apprenticeships. The government has taken a massive step forward in spending over 1 billion on apprenticeships and the reaction to this development has been positive.

However, although the government has been working hard in developing strategies in order to get more women into the industry, some organizations claim that there is still a long way to go and not enough is being done. For example the WWC are still sceptical about the level of progress made and state that there is still a gender divide in the work place.

Employers taking steps to deal with gender divide

Many employers have responded to the situation by taking some positive steps forward in preventing this discrimination. For example, Construction Skills ran a national advertising campaign to promote the construction industry as a attractive and lucrative career option for women.

In addition, British Gas have also taken some steps forward in order to dis-encourage this gender stereotype. They did this by trebling the number of women starting an apprenticeship in order to redress the balance.

Are women themselves not that interested?

Many of the UK construction and engineering companies have claimed that despite initiatives to encourage more women to enter the industry, job applications from women are still low. It was found that despite 80% of women saying that they would be interested in going down a non-traditional career path, the applications coming in are still low.

Many of the critics argue that the gender stereotypes begin at school where not enough is done to promote non-traditional careers for girls. On the plus side, there are some organisations that are set up for the purpose of encouraging these women to enter non-traditional career paths. For instance, the Women in Science & Construction (WISE) is set up to encourage young girls up to the age of 19 to pursue careers in science, engineering and construction.

Tal Potishman, editor of Heating Central, writes articles about combi boiler, central heating, plumber Maidstone, underfloor heating and solar thermal. He specializes in helping save money by advising on efficient heating.

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