Women entering trades

Once upon a time the young men headed off to trade school and the young women headed off to business school to learn administration and clerical skills. There were exceptions, hairdressing was a well represented trade for women and training to become chefs was also a popular vocation.

We live in a new age of opportunity where women are now able to enter the male dominated areas of engineering and automotive training to compete directly with the guys. I say fantastic, these occupations must attract intelligent and motivated people as the industries are dominated by technology and the brightest young minds are required to effectively maintain such systems.

With women in trades, no salary disparity exists; well, not in my experience anyway as jobs are costed and timeframes are tight - if you have an employee performing under pressure then the salary is highly negotiable. With technology increasingly linked to technical trades, the individuals who best adapt to technological change are the most valuable and deserve to the highest remuneration and best conditions - women meet these criteria and opportunities are opening up now.