The only female

It can be tough sometimes being one of the few females in a male dominated industry. I’m a tradie, or a ‘lady-tradie’ as some like to call me. My trade specialisation is welding. I’ve always been someone who has taken an interest in learning how to make things with their hands. My skill and passion from welding had definitely come from my dad. In my early teens, he’d always try to involve me in all his little projects that he had going on. Growing up, I had two older brothers and a self-proclaimed handy-man dad. If I wanted to get any attention, or have any interaction with my family, I knew I had to join them with their handy-man hobbies.

Fast forward fifteen years on, and I am in a career I love. You should see all the funny looks I get every time I visit the hardware store. The store attendants always assume I’m there for my husband. What can’t be the one who has come to buy the best ute trays? Melbourne has many women who are quite progressive, I’m sure there will only be more to join the industry in the coming years.

I’d love to encourage more young women to think about becoming ‘lady-tradies’. As gender stereotyping continues to break down, it’ll be just a matter of time until driving utes with aluminium ute canopies becomes normal for more women. Until then, I’ll keep waving the flag.

I’d like to team up with a local school to start offering women-lead metalwork classes. I’d start the classes how my dad started them with me. The girls will start off by learning how to make jewellery. As they progressive, we can then start welding more challenging projects. From a lot of reading I’ve done about gender roles in society, it takes having a role model to help more women to want to take part in what is usually a male-dominant activity.