WaterSafe, the UK’s leading plumbing assurance scheme, has launched a consumer campaign designed to encourage more women to take up the trade.
The high-profile campaign, fronted by ITV presenter and consumer expert Alice Beer, is called ‘Get Girls Plumbing’ and is aimed at encouraging more females to take up plumbing roles while, in turn, discouraging age-old gender stereotyping in the trade sector. Testament to its topicality, it has also received full support from the Minister for Women and Equalities, Maria Miller.
The campaign launch follows extensive new research carried out by WaterSafe which found that nearly two thirds of homeowners (60%) would feel positive about more women taking up a trade role. In addition, 80% say they are completely unconcerned as to the gender of their plumber and it’s all about them doing a good quality job.
What’s more, 20% think that it’s time gender stereotypes were broken and over a third (37%) of women surveyed said that if they started out again they would like to take up a manual trade role citing that it offers a more stable career path.
Despite homeowners not being concerned whether their plumber is male or female, WaterSafe believes there is still a significantly large gender gap in the plumbing industry. Tellingly, the most recent figures show less than one per cent of approved plumbers are female.
WaterSafe’s Julie Spinks said:
“Clearly, the results are quite surprising and show that, despite impartiality from the consumer, women remain severely under-represented in the plumbing industry. Here, our remit is to break such stereotyping and promote the exciting opportunities available to women in the plumbing sector.
“This new campaign is one of a number of major initiatives we have in the pipeline as we continue to drive the WaterSafe message in national print and broadcast media and, in turn, consolidate our position as the first port of call for customers wanting a qualified and competent plumber.”