Mears, the Brockworth based social housing and care group, wants to encourage more women to work in trade roles in the housing sector.

New research by Mears Group suggests that a strategic national approach is needed to boost the numbers of women employed in this area.

The research, which was carried out by the Construction Youth Trust on Mears' behalf, was launched at a special event hosted by the Rt. Hon. Baroness Smith of Basildon at the House of Lords.

Latest figures produced by the CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) in 2016 revealed that while women make up 13 per cent of the construction workforce, when it comes to manual roles only one per cent are female.

With a serious skills shortage in the construction industry, and a need for greater gender diversity in a sector where a significant proportion of households are headed by women, there is a strong business case for encouraging women to work in manual trades.

Mears' research, which was developed by their CITB-funded 'Tradeswomen into Maintenance Project', found that the challenge is complex with no single, quick-fix solution.

Project manager, Gainor Keeton said: "The findings suggest that the difficulty in attracting women to become part of repairs and maintenance teams reflects a wider social problem of gender stereotyping that starts in the family and extends throughout life.

"There is no one root cause of inequality; multiple causes are at play. These interact with each other to decrease the likelihood of women getting into training and jobs in the trades, let alone employment by social landlords or repairs and maintenance companies."

Tradeswomen who contributed to the research cited numerous barriers to women taking up roles like plumbing and construction - from hostile working environments to poorly fitting personal protection equipment that just isn't designed for women.

However, the research also highlights examples of good practice, including many successful and effective employment and training initiatives to recruit, train and employ women.

"Employers who are successful in recruiting and retaining women in the trades have, without exception, a strong gender equality ethos coming from the top, and take positive action to recruit and retain women," said Keeton.

The report concludes that the lack of progress in increasing the proportion of women working in the trades is not due to a lack of will among stakeholders, nor to lack of examples of good practice.

Instead it finds that increasing the proportion of women working in social housing repairs and maintenance teams is simply not a national strategic priority.

The report makes a number of recommendations for tackling the problem including the formation of a Gender in Housing Repairs and Maintenance Action Group.

On the back of the findings, Mears have also published a series of good practice guides which aim to support landlords and other businesses in the social housing sector to increase the number of women working in trades and a toolkit for schools to encourage more interest in manual roles among girls. These can be downloaded from their website at www.mearsgroup.co.uk/mears-tradeswomen-into-maintenance/ .

They include:

• Best Practice Guide - making social housing landlords and maintenance companies open to tradeswomen

• Resource Directory - signposting for girls and women wanting to work on the manual trades in the Social Housing Maintenance sector

• Legal Guide - providing guidance and templates for the procurement of social housing contracts, maximising the recruitment and retention of tradeswomen

Mears group executive director, Jane Nelson, who spearheaded this initiative and started her career as an apprentice painter and decorator, said: "We are pleased to launch these important publications. We hope they provide social housing organisations and contractors with practical recommendations and examples of how the proportion of women working in the manual trades in the social housing building maintenance sector might be increased.

"It's time for us all to make a concerted effort to do more in this area and help to generate a range of benefits to social housing landlords and the communities in which they work."

Picture credit: The Construction Industry Training Board.