September 17, 2024 • 51 mins
In this inspiring episode of the Ladies Kickin' Ass Podcast, Tanya Wilson interviews Hacia Atherton, the incredible founder of Empowered Women in Trades (EWIT). Hacia shares her personal journey of overcoming a life-altering accident to become a leader in the construction industry. The conversation dives deep into women's unique challenges in the trades, from navigating cultural barriers to battling self-doubt. Hacia talks about the significance of community, mentorship, and psychological support and offers insight into how we can inspire the next generation of women to pursue careers in trades. This powerful episode showcases the need for cultural change, respect, and equality in male-dominated industries and highlights women's value in the trades.
Key Takeaways:
- Hacia’s story of resilience and determination after a life-threatening accident is a testament to the power of self-belief.
- Women in trades face unique challenges, such as harassment, physical endurance concerns, and self-doubt.
- Empowered Women in Trades is building a supportive community to uplift women in these industries.
- Cultural change is essential for creating a more inclusive and respectful trade environment.
- Women bring unique skills and perspectives to the trades, often excelling in specialized sectors.
- Education and outreach can inspire young women to pursue trade careers.
- Psychological safety and proper workplace amenities are crucial for women’s success in trades.
- Women should never underestimate their value or potential in any industry.
Episode Highlights:
Can overcoming a life-threatening accident redefine the limits of what's possible? Meet Hacia Atherton from Australia, a trailblazer in the construction industry and the founder of Empowered Women in Trades. Hacia shares her journey from being told she might never walk again to running a half marathon. Her story isn’t just about physical recovery—it's about mental strength, resilience, and a drive to break barriers for women in the trades.
We also discuss the challenges women face in trades and practical solutions, such as ensuring proper facilities and psychological safety. Hacia emphasizes how women bring immense value to the trades and are often preferred in specialized industries like hospitals, schools, and women’s shelters. This episode covers everything from empowering women through education and mentorship to Hacia’s plans for expanding her global movement.
Tune in to hear how you can support gender equality in the trades industry and be part of a movement to foster community, respect, and opportunity for all. If you’re ready to be inspired and empowered, this episode is for you.
Connect with Hacia
LinkedIn Instagram Hacia's Website Empowered Women In Trades (EWIT)
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Learn more about ASCEND - Applications being accepted through June 25th!
Connect more with Tanya & Ladies Kickin Ass…
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Ladies Kickin' Ass Podcast, where we
help you ignite your innerbadass and create the service
business of your dreams.
I'm your host, Tanya Wilson,and together we'll dive into
inspiring stories and expertcoaching to set your journey on
fire hey, badasses, welcome backto the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today is going to be a good one, oh my gosh.
I'm so excited to be able tobring this next guest to the
ladies kickin ass communitybecause I am just kind of
fangirling over here because I'mso inspired by her story and
what she's been able to do forwomen in the trades.
So today we have HaseyaAtherton with us.
She is from Australia, which isa new thing for the podcast
(00:57):
guests here on Ladies Kickin'Ass, and she is recognized in
the construction industry as aleader, as a thought leader, as
someone that is trying to makebig changes for women in the
trades.
I love that you use the term atradie, because that's what they
need to say, something fun likethat here in this state.
(01:17):
But she is the founder ofEmpowered Women in the Trades,
and what an incredibleorganization it is.
We're going to talk all aboutthat today.
But Hazy also has one hell of abackstory and you're going to
be so inspired about what shehas risen up from and what she's
been able to do with her life.
So thank you so much for beingon the podcast today.
(01:39):
Why don't you go ahead and giveus a little bit of that
backstory and tell us thisjourney that you've been on for
the last several years.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yes, thank you so much for being here.
I'm really excited and thebackstory towards setting up the
business all links in together.
So I'm actually from a fifthgeneration plumbing family.
So my great great grandfathercame over from England to
Australia and he was one of thefounding contractors of an
association that we have herecalled the Master Plumbers
(02:08):
Association.
But despite all the familyhistory, I went off and followed
, like my academic careers,becoming an accountant, and my
focus was very much on writing.
So I wanted to represent mycountry in equestrian in
dressage, and I was gettingclose to that goal.
(02:28):
But on one very cold winter'sevening I was training my young
horse and she decided to rearher and I fell off and all 600
kilos of her came over andlanded on top of me.
Came over and landed on top ofme.
(02:52):
So that doesn't work very well.
You know, 70 kilo human, 600kilo horse equals human being
literally.
So I got airlifted to one ofthe major hospitals in Melbourne
, australia, and was told that Iwas most likely never going to
walk again, that there was onlymillimeters in whether I was
even going to be able to havethat conversation.
So she landed on me slightlydifferent.
(03:14):
We wouldn't be having thisconversation this morning.
For me, it's 5.30am over here inAustralia and so I had to spend
six months in hospital earlier.
And so I had to spend sixmonths in hospital learning how
to stand again, really pushingthrough so much self-doubt, so
(03:34):
much kind of identity.
I identified as a dressagerider.
That was my whole life.
And then for the first threemonths in hospital I literally
lay lifeless in a hospital bed.
I couldn't move.
If I dropped something on theground I couldn't pick it up.
I was completely, 100%dependent on other people and,
being a very independent woman,that was a lot to go through and
really a lot to understand howto become vulnerable and really
(03:57):
let other people support me andhelp me.
So after three months I wascleared for weight bearing.
So I stood up on land 117 daysafter accident and I reckon
that's probably the hardestthing I've ever done.
And even when I'm onconstruction sites and men tell
me women aren't tough enough tobe tradies, I literally like
(04:19):
show them my x-rays, becauseI've had 30 surgeries, I've got
computers inside me, I've got abunch of metal, my hips being
replaced, like, as you canimagine, being crushed by a
horse.
There's a lot of work that hasto be done to put Humpty Dumpty
back together again.
Um, so I use my story a lotwhen men really doubt that women
(04:41):
have the physical strength,mental strength, to be in the
trades.
And after a time I started toteach myself to walk again
against all of the odds, andI've even run a half marathon
since.
So it really goes to show ifsomeone, even professionals, are
telling you you can't dosomething, if you know inside
(05:03):
yourself you can do it, then youcan turn the impossible into
possible.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh my gosh, that is so incredible.
Well, just already, that storyin itself just shows the
incredible resilience andbrilliance of anyone that wants
to actually do something.
You know, it's just so manypeople get told you can't do
that and they have so muchself-doubt that they just really
(05:30):
don't ever start living a lifethat they want to have.
It's just like whatever cardswere dealt to me is what I have.
So thank you for being aglowing example that that's
bullshit in like every way,shape and form 100%, like it's
just no excuse mindset.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
If you want something , if you truly believe that what
that's what you want to have inyour life.
Like when I was learning towalk again, I would be in my
hospital and every day we'd haveto put up three goals and it
would be like transfer from thebed to the wheelchair, um, like
learn how to use the wheelchairaround corners or up hills, like
(06:10):
very, um, very basic stuff.
And then number three wasalways learn to walk again.
So I always had that goal.
Just Just before the accidenthappened, I actually came back
to work at my family companythat now like manufactures
medical infection controlequipment and my dad said you've
(06:32):
got all of your business acumenand you've worked at other
companies and everything.
I want you to go experience thetrade side of the business and
go work on the factory floor.
And it was a really interestingexperience because I've grown
up around this factory like Iwalked around the factory as
like a little baby and a littletoddler.
I was brought into the companywhen I was in a bassinet, like a
(06:54):
few weeks old.
So I've been around thesepeople, I've been in the company
for my whole entire life.
But something weird happenedwhen I put the steel cap boots
on, the high V's on and I walkedin there, I all of a sudden
just shrunk.
I was telling myself I didn'tbelong there.
The boys are going to think I'msome kind of joke.
(07:16):
They're going to laugh at me.
All of this negative self-talkstarted happening and within my
family company everyone wasreally supportive to a fact.
One of the tradesmen actuallycalled me out when I was like
see, I'm a girl, I can't weld,and he's like the welder has no
idea if you're a girl or a guylike you're the one that's told
you that.
(07:37):
Yeah, that's awesome, that wasreally amazing.
But what would happen when Iwas out and about in public?
I would get harassed.
So men would say it's notHalloween, why are you dressed
up as a tradie?
Or was it laundry day?
Because you're wearing yourboyfriend's clothes or just all
(08:00):
of these different things.
So there was a lot of menoutside my family company that
would say very unkind things tome.
There's a lot worse things thathave been said to me now that
I've got my business.
But so when the accidenthappened I was working on the
factory floor and I obviouslyhad that six months in hospital,
(08:21):
so a lot of time, a lot of timeon my hands, so I started to
reach out on Instagram to likeother women in the industry to
see if that was just like a mething or what they were
experiencing.
And so many of the women arelike, yeah, I'm thinking about
leaving.
The culture's terrible.
All I do is want to do my joband all I do is get harassed or
(08:44):
hit on or gawked at or, evenworse, like here in Australia,
there's stories of women in thetrades industry that men have
like urinated all over sothey're like pissed on them on
site and it's like holy, yeah.
So I was getting all thesestories and then I was like, hmm
(09:04):
, I'm going to reach out to somewomen not in the industry and
be like would you ever thinkabout doing becoming a tradie?
And so I met the women who werelike I wouldn't even know where
to start.
I have no idea what a fitterand turner is, or a gas fitter
or anything like that.
And so I thought, wow, there'sthis massive, massive problem
where women who aren't in theindustry don't understand the
(09:28):
industry or understand how toget into the industry the women
in the industry because theculture is so terrible it was
wanting to leave the industry.
At the time, femalerepresentation in the trades in
Australia was just 2%, so tiny.
We're only 3% now, but that'sprogress at least.
(09:50):
So when I was in hospital I justthought, wow, there is so much
work that needs to be done.
This is not going to just bedone by like individual
companies.
We need to set up a movement, amovement and a community.
Support these women that arereally isolated the industry.
Bring them together so thatthey can network, they can meet
each other, they can createfriendships, but also design
(10:12):
products and services forindustry to help with the
culture.
Support the men in the industryto transform their leadership
styles, their theircommunication styles, their
mindsets, the way that theyperceive and value women, and
(10:32):
then also support women tounderstand how to get into these
jobs and how to get into theseroles.
And we do a lot of work in theschools as well, because it's
really important getting infront of those young female
students these careeropportunities, especially if
they're disengaged from theacademic career pathway of going
to college and university anddifferent things like that.
For a lot of those women theydon't have hope that they're
(10:53):
going to have successful lives,but the trades is going to give
that to them, so that's why Iget so excited about it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The potential in the trades for women is mind blowing
, you know, if you really thinkabout, like, the time period of
time that we live in right now,like I know in the States, like
they talk about how 10,000 babyboomers a day so people that you
know are starting to hit thatretirement age are retiring
(11:22):
10,000 a day.
This is the greatest populationlike generation of the United
States ever they're retiring.
Of those, about 12% of them ownbusinesses and a lot of them
are trades businesses that theirkids don't want to run, their
family's not interested intaking over.
(11:43):
But they also have thesesmaller trades businesses that
aren't really like the levelwhere, like, big companies want
to come in and buy them and so alot of them are just really
dying off because they have noone to come in and run them.
These gentlemen and ladies thathave are retiring.
They are the business you know.
(12:03):
They didn't grow like this bigmaster plan to work themselves
out of their job there.
They still have a job at thebusiness.
They need somebody that wantsto come in and take over the
business, that wants to work init.
But people just are notinterested and it's so crazy
that there's like 20, 30, 40years of experience and they're
just having to shut thesebusinesses down.
(12:24):
There's so much opportunity forwomen to come in, especially
with a business like that, whereyou add a little love to it.
You come in and you know,restore a beautiful culture or
create a culture of family andlove and growth and great
mindset, pay them what they'reworth.
Throw some modern marketing inthere and you've got like a done
(12:45):
for you business in a boxalready.
So it's really cool what youare putting together here.
What are some of the thingsthat when you're talking to
women that are getting into thetrades, that are learning how to
do it, what are some of theirbiggest fears getting into the
trades and what are their some?
(13:05):
What are some of their biggestinspirations for wanting to be
in the trades?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
yeah, most of their fears are again around safety,
and that's a question we aswomen ask ourselves on the hour,
every hour.
We're always analyzing andasking that question are are we
going to be safe?
Now, unfortunately, in thetrades industry, there is a lot
of sad stories around sexualharassment, bullying, unsafe
(13:32):
practices for all humans too,and it's not just towards the
feminine genders that those kindof concepts of bullying and
harassment more so the sexualharassment, but bullying,
harassment, unsafe work siteshave been there for the male
demographic as well.
So a lot of women are very muchlike am I going to be
(13:54):
physically safe?
Am I going to be mentally safe?
Is this a place that I'm goingto be able to go to and feel
safe in?
So that's a big question, andthat's why we have our EWIT
Alliance, which brings togetherall of the employers that are
very focused on safety for allhuman beings, whether that's
(14:16):
physical safety or psychologicalsafety, making sure women have
the right PPE gear, that they'rewearing clothes that actually
fit them, not just like this isour company logo clothes, extra
small men's, you make it fityour love, not that kind of
attitude as well.
So that's a big thing aroundwomen.
(14:37):
Is the safety Then the nextthing I see is really that
self-doubt like am I going to begood enough?
Can I keep up with the boys?
Am I strong enough?
Uh, will I be able to have theendurance to go six days a week,
10 hour days?
Um, can I work outside in themiddle of winter?
Like all of these kind ofself-doubt questions that they
(15:01):
often ask themselves.
And again, because it is one ofthe world's most male dominated
jobs, a lot of women are likewell, do I even belong there?
Again questions around is theretoilets?
Is there change rooms?
Is there sanitary bins?
Is there sanitary items on site?
If the site's like two hoursaway from any kind of shops,
(15:23):
what happens if I get my periodin the middle of this site?
And all of those.
So there's a lot of practicalquestions.
There's a lot of questionsaround safety and there's a lot
of questions around the doubt ofwhether we're actually
physically and mentally capableof doing as well.
What I find so exciting andinspiring, once women can move
(15:46):
through those barriers, is againwhat you're talking about, like
so many of them can see theopportunities to set up
businesses or work forbusinesses and take over
businesses, that they canactually help those businesses
grow their market share and tapinto new markets that if they
didn't have a female tradie theywould struggle to tap into, and
(16:08):
that's everything from women'sshelters for women that's
experienced domestic violenceand a lot of tradeswomen find
that really rewarding.
Knowing that they can go to ahome with a woman that has
experienced domestic violenceand fix her toilet or install a
new security system or do thingslike that is really rewarding
(16:28):
for a lot of women in the trades.
And then there's a lot ofhospitals that prefer to have
tradeswomen come into thematernity wards and the ICU
wards.
Schools a lot of schools liketo have female tradespeople, so
it's really exciting for womento go wow, actually I can come
into these businesses and helpthem grow their businesses, help
(16:50):
them move into markets.
Even just financially empoweredindependent women prefer to
have a female in their home thanbe alone in their home with a
male tradesperson.
So there's a huge, hugebusiness case to bring women
into the industry.
And women can see that, thevalue that they're adding and
what I really love.
(17:10):
And women, we're creators.
We bring life into this world.
That's what we do, and you cansee the connection between that
kind of drive that we have thatbiological drive and creating
something in the trade.
Every tradeswoman I speak to islike I love bringing my friends
or my kids or my family and go.
(17:32):
I was part of building thatbuilding.
I've added to society, I'vecreated something in society.
That's going to be that legacy.
It's going to be a legacy thatlasts longer than me that home
or that building that I created,or the car that I was a part of
manufacturing, or like ifthey're in service-based trades,
knowing that they're creatingsafe environments for other
(17:55):
humans to live in.
Um connection between who we areas women and our feminine
desire to to protect, to build,to create, being executed
through the trade space.
And then the final thing is thereally philanthropic side of
trades.
In australia, so many women getinto the trades and they're
(18:18):
very excited to go to, likecambodia and build a house for a
cambodian family or go to somethird world countries and be
involved in getting clean waterto a village.
And there's this wholephilanthropic side of the trades
that I really see resonate andinspire and excite women to get
into the industry yeah, it'sjust an industry where I think
(18:43):
service-based love really canshine and I think that every
woman possesses that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Just they're really great at empathy.
So when people call, I knowthis is something in our office.
I run a septic and commercialwastewater business so when
people call, they're like I gotshit coming up in my bathtub.
You know like they got someserious issues going on, you
know.
But to be empathetic with themand it's like I'm so sorry that
you're having such a rough day,you know we're gonna get that
(19:12):
taken care of and be able tolike calm them down.
I'm like it's almost liketherapy on the phone, because a
lot of our stuff isemergency-based calls that we
get.
That you really have to havethat special touch and I've had
guys on the phone and I've hadladies on the phone and the
ladies tend to get betterreviews than a lot of my guys do
(19:33):
on the phone of like you wereso calm, you were so sweet, you
walked me through everything,like that was just really cool.
But to even have women show upat the job site so many times,
it's such a pleasant surprise.
I had a junk removal companythat my friend and I ran
together as well, and when wewould book the calls and she
(19:55):
would show up, they'd be like uh, just you, just me.
They're like uh, and like somany times people in the home
would be like help you try tohelp her, do so.
She's like no, you paid us tocome out here.
You know she would have ahelper, but lots of times it was
female based.
We had a lot of females thatworked there and it was such a
(20:17):
cool surprise to see that theywere not expecting that.
So I love the you know, reallynon-expectation of women being
in this industry too, I think isreally really cool.
What do you get as far asfeedback from when you're
working in the schools?
This is something I'm superinterested in talking more about
(20:37):
.
What is the feedback that youget from those young females
when you go in and talk to theschools?
Are they kind of like yeah,okay, or do they see potential
and they do see some?
You do see some excitementbehind them.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I see such great excitement.
There's a beautiful example ofthis one student that we work
with.
She was very disengaged.
She came, actually came intothe session and she saw the
hammers and she's like, yay, whoare you going to hit today with
the hammers?
Like she just was a very uhlost, I think, in the
traditional school system by theend the day and she'd been
(21:16):
making like planter boxes soshe'd been learning some
carpentry tools.
She actually came to my teamand she's like I see there's a
little bit of extra materialleft over.
Would I be able to like buy itor take it home because I
actually want to make theseplanter boxes and sell them?
And so we gave her the extrastuff.
Some of our corporate partnersactually sponsored some
(21:39):
materials and everything for herand now she makes these planted
boxes and she sells them at thelocal market and she's learning
again around budgeting costinghow much is the materials?
What does she have to sell itfor?
So all of a sudden she's gonefrom completely disengaged, her
parents really concerned abouther, the school concerned about
(21:59):
to.
She's running her little sidehustle through her carpentry
skills that she taught.
So I think that's a beautifulexample of how it can really
turn students' lives around thatdidn't understand this career
pathway.
The other thing I love abouteven the female students that
engage in the programs and gookay, I see the value, but it
(22:20):
wasn't for me.
You see them starting to talkto their friends and they'd be
like well, have you actuallythought about doing trades?
I did this trade day.
I don't want to be it, but itactually seems like a really
cool career pathway and if youdon't want to go off and do
college and do the academiccareer pathways, you should
check it out.
So it's really great to see thatchange in mindset where before
(22:42):
they have that experience inschools, they're probably.
If someone one of their friendssaid I'm thinking about being a
tradie, they'd be like oh, whatfor?
Like?
Why would you do that?
Like?
Yeah, it's really important toexpose all females to it so that
they can decide if it's forthem or not for them.
But if it's not for them, sothat they can understand the
(23:03):
value, they can understand theattraction, they can understand
the importance of that careerpathway and they can understand
that it is a very successfulcareer pathway with a long-term
jeopardy to the career, alifetime career in the industry
yes, and to respect it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I think that's one of the things for me is, when
people learn, like my industry,they're like, wow, I had no idea
that was so involved.
You know, people flush thetoilet and they think it
disappears because no one everhas to deal with it afterwards,
you know.
So it's really cool to educatepeople.
(23:44):
And they're like wow, I had noidea.
Like I had no idea that soilplayed such a big deal in, like
a septic system being installedsomewhere.
And the more you can educatepeople, the more they gain
respect for the trade itself.
And the more you can educatepeople, the more they gain
respect for the trade itself.
It's not just a bunch of losersthat didn't go to college and
they didn't have a great, youknow life.
So this is where they got stuck.
(24:10):
Like it's a choice that, areally conscious choice that
males and females are now makingto be part of the trades.
One, the demand is sky high.
I'm sure it probably is inAustralia, like it is in the
States.
Like it's absolutely like wecan't hire enough people
qualified, good people that willconsistently show up and do a
good job and care.
So if you're somebody like thatI mean even if you get the
(24:31):
experience working with someoneand you start your own business.
You've now got time,flexibility, ability to make
your own whatever you want'venow got time, flexibility,
ability to make your ownwhatever you want kind of
paychecks, which a lot of themwill afford that anyways but you
can create a hell of a businessin the trades and it wasn't
this second rate choice becauseyou didn't go to college.
It was a conscious choice youmade to not be in student loan
(24:54):
debt for the rest of your lifeand to have a career path that
you're very, very proud of.
You know, not everybody ismeant to have butts in seats and
pay attention to something.
My son struggles with thatterribly, but you give him
something he's interested in, hecan do with his hands, he will
be entertained for hours and wejust need to understand that
there's not just one path tosuccess.
(25:16):
Like I love what you do becauseyou're showing that the trades
is success, it's not a secondarychoice, so I love that.
I would also love to hear youspeak more on, since we were
talking about respect whatrespect equality looks like and
what you're trying to do withthat through the organization
(25:37):
and bring it to light in thetrades.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah.
So my concept and egos in thatis let's just come down to our
human level how do we unite, howdo we connect and how do we
understand each other from ahuman lens?
So, if you look at thepsychology of all humans,
regardless of where we're bornor what bodies biological bodies
(26:02):
we're born into, we all, ashumans, need to feel a sense of
belonging, a sense of confidenceand a sense of autonomy.
So respect, equality is verymuch around.
Coming down to that basic, realfoundation of ourselves as
human beings and understandinghow do we build up from there to
(26:23):
ensure that all have access toopportunities, resources and
rights without discriminationconnected to their gender, and
understanding that, as we buildup, different genders do need
different forms of support.
Female bodies go throughsomething that male bodies do
not go through we menstruate.
(26:44):
So we do need certain support,whether that is if a female is
menstruating and on that day shedoes have dizziness and nausea.
Don't put her up on the ladderand create a culture where it's
psychologically safe enough forher to say hey, today's not a
great day, I can't go on theladder today and find other jobs
(27:06):
like the trade-based industry.
There's other jobs.
If she can't go up on theladder, fine again, like if she
needs to have heat packs and andhelp carrying her tool belt on
one or two days a month becauseshe's got a lot of pain through
her menstruation.
Provide that support to her andthat's respect, equality.
That's not going.
Oh, we have to be exactly thesame.
(27:27):
No, we need to buildenvironments, both psychological
and physical, that support bothbiological bodies in the world.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yes, that is so important because you see the
traits kind of being like Kate,if you're going to work in here,
you have to be just like theguys, because we're making zero
concessions for you becauseyou're a woman, you just have to
come in and we're not going tochange anything because we're
mostly guys here.
So I love that that's aconversation that you put on the
(28:01):
table, because a lot of peopledon't even think about that,
especially if it's maleownership or male leadership and
it's like it's not to be likeyou should know better.
They just don't know better.
You know, I really thinkthere's a lot of times they're
trying to do the best that theycan know better.
You know, I really thinkthey're a lot of times they're
trying to do the best that theycan, but they get feedback too,
from the other male workers, I'msure.
So it's a delicate balance toget through.
(28:23):
So I love so much it is and howI handle the conversation.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
I'm like, okay, well, what amenities do you have?
Do you have like instant coffee?
Do you have like we call itMilo over here in Australia,
which is like to make hotchocolate, so putting like
chocolate chocolate into milk?
Like, what amenities do youhave?
And the guys will talk throughwhat they have in their in their
kitchen for their staff,whether that's tea bags or
(28:49):
something like that and like sowhy did you decide to get that?
Oh, the guys like that brand oftea and like well, again, again
, the.
What the women are asking for,like sanitary bins or sanitary
items in a first aid kit so thatthey don't get caught off.
That's just like getting teabags for the guys that you like.
You know, for the tea bags.
(29:09):
Coffee, hot chocolate in thelunchroom, because human beings
desire a hot drink.
Female human beings desiresanitary items.
Like, if you're going to go andbuy coffee, go and buy some
sanitary items.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It's not that difficult.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
No exactly Because, if you say, well, you buy coffee
and not all of your team drinkscoffee, not every single person
you employ is going to drinkcoffee, so why can't you go buy
sanitary items just because notsingle person you employ is
going to drink coffee?
So why can't you go buysanitary items just because not
every person you employ is goingto need the sanitary items,
like you are buying stuff thatnot every human that you employ
(29:48):
uses.
So I really love working withthe men to put it down to that
position.
Like some people drink coffee,some people need sanitary bins,
some people drink tea, it's thesame.
It's just what our bodiesdesire and need to do.
Unfortunately, women can'tchoose whether we need sanitary
(30:08):
items or not, versus we canchoose if we drink coffee or not
.
So there's a little bit more ofa desire and need to make sure
that the males are providingthat support.
But again, it's very simple.
We're talking about buying abin, guys.
We're not talking about, likerebuilding a whole building for
us.
We just need a bin, a lock onthe door and some sanitary items
(30:29):
in the first aid kit seemspretty simple to me.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I don't know why it's such a big deal Change scares
me in this industry though Anykind of change that they may
experience.
It's like I don't knowpositions like this.
How does your organization workwith employers in the trades to
integrate and be more open tofemales joining in those trades
(31:04):
positions?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
For the work we do.
We actually start with the maleleaders and do a lot of work
with them to first of all makesure they're not anchoring their
masculine identity to theirtrade, because if they feel like
they're a man because they're aplumber or they're a carpenter
or they're an electrician andthat's that's what makes them a
man, that's going to be veryproblematic because when a
(31:29):
woman's working next to him onhis trade he's going to feel
like less of a man.
So we actually work on thatpsychological identity work
first and really support thosemen to see their masculinity in
different forms, because they'rea protector, because they're a
provider, because they areachievers and all of these other
(31:53):
amazing qualities that men have, and get them to really connect
to their masculine identitythrough those connections, not
because he's a plumber, etcetera, et cetera.
So that's definitely the firstwork to do.
And then what I really loveworking with the male leaders is
giving them the support andstructure of how they can create
a psychologically safeenvironment so then they can
(32:16):
foster those conversations toco-create what good looks like
for the females that are cominginto their team.
As we touched on before, likewomen with endometriosis and
things like that might strugglea couple of days a month because
of pain and everything likethat.
So we really work with the maleleaders to make sure that they
can create cultures where womenfeel comfortable talking about
(32:40):
the needs and supports that theyneed to have, but also that the
men in the team feelcomfortable talking about any
kind of concerns that they have,whether that's like I don't
know whether I help her with herladder or don't help her with
her ladder, like I don't knowwhether, if there's something
heavy, do I step in and help hercarry it or don't help her
(33:00):
carry it.
So so much of the research I'vedone and interviews with the
male demographic shows thatthere's not necessarily that
much malice.
There is just a lot of actualfear among men of like I don't
know what's the right thing todo, so I'm just going to do
nothing and kind of avoid herand exclude her, because I don't
want to upset her, but I don'twant to do the wrong thing, so I
(33:24):
just won't do anything, whichis the worst thing to do but
that is human nature.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
It's like a confused mind won't buy.
You know a confused mind isn'tgonna try either.
You know a confused mind isn'tgoing to try either.
You know they're just going to.
If I do nothing, I don't get introuble and I don't get praised
.
But I'm at even ground ratherthan trying to do one or the
other and being right or wrong.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
So Exactly, and you and I can't speak on behalf of
every woman in the world.
So that's what I say to themales.
I'm like this is you need tohave the conversation with the
individual women in your team,because what they individually
need, they need to have theirvoices.
I can't speak on behalf of allwomen in the world.
I don't know what all women inthe world need or want.
(34:08):
You need to create cultureswhere, again, all humans because
your main staff might need orwant certain things their, their
wife might be really unwell andthey have now become the
primary care of dropping thekids off and picking them up and
looking after the household,because their wife is struggling
with a terminal illness, forexample.
That male is going to need somesupport, he's going to need
(34:32):
people in the team to get aroundhim.
So you need to create a culturewhere that male also feels that
he can speak up and say, hey,I'm struggling, I need help,
yeah, I think this is.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
it comes back to just like be involved leadership too
.
You know, if you run a smalltrades business, get to know the
people that are working for you.
You know, get to know what'sgoing on in their lives.
I understand that they'reprobably not going to tell you
everything, but you're going tonotice when they're off.
Have a conversation, Ask themsomething simple like are you
(35:05):
doing okay?
Is everything okay?
You know, do you need supportin anything?
Sometimes it's just the simplequestion of do you need support
with anything?
Can I help you with anything?
Because a lot of people have areally hard time asking for help
and I can imagine, as a femalein the like working specifically
in the labor's parts of thetrades, lots of times you don't
(35:29):
want to ask for things becausethat's kind of an exclusionary
way of you know I'm different orI need something extra, and
they feel like they're out theretrying to prove themselves
against a bunch of these guys.
Do you see a lot of that?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
yeah, I do and it gets to the point of dangerous.
So like, um, I know some womenthat desired some like ppa gear
for their knees and things likethat and they were really
concerned because they're like Idon't, no one else has this on
site but like I'm very muchstruggling with my knees and I'm
(36:05):
getting like calluses andblisters and I really need some
knee pads.
I said, well, ask for them.
And she's like well, no oneelse on the team wears the knee
pads.
I'm like your body is tellingyou you need the knee pads.
Ask for the goddamn knee pads.
And you know, she was so, soconcerned and scared to ask for
the knee pads.
So I mentored her.
(36:26):
She asked her employer for theknee pads and he's like yeah,
sure, he's like, actually it'sprobably good, I'll ask any of
the guys if they want knee padsas well, because I didn't really
think about it and the minuteof the day, like if they're
getting sore knees and differentthings like that, they're
probably not working as goodtowards the end of the day.
So when the question was asked,three or four other guys said
(36:47):
yeah, actually, if you're doingan order, put one in for me.
I said, see, like the guys justdidn't think about it, like it
wasn't that they didn't want tosupport you, they just weren't
thinking about it.
Once you spoke up, all of asudden, three or four other
people on the team now have whatyou've asked for.
So it wasn't a female-specificthing, it was a human thing that
(37:08):
the guys just weren't thinkingabout asking for.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, that's smart, even as employers sometimes,
like my guys, will be like, hey,we need, and I'm like I didn't
even think about that.
So, yay, thanks for somebodyspeaking up.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
And then it's something that continues to keep
showing up all the time exactlyas employers and leaders like
we can't think of everything wewe have to handle and deal with
so much.
We're not boots on ground dayin and day out doing the trades
and different things like that,so we're probably not aware of
(37:42):
some of the challenges andsupport that the team needs.
And that's where, as leaders,you've really got to drive
culture where your team feelssafe to really talk about what
challenges they're facing, whatsupport they need to overcome
those challenges and all ofthose kind of things like the
knee pad situation.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yes, oh, so good, so good.
If there's something that you,as being a spokesperson of women
in the trades, if there'ssomething that you want women to
know that are working in thetrades either in the trades as a
tradie, or if they are inmanagement or ownership in the
(38:22):
trades what is something thatyou want them to know?
Something that's like somethingyou've observed, something that
you think that may help them?
Speaker 3 (38:32):
never doubt your value and never underestimate
yourself, like, yes, we're in anindustry where you might quite
often be dismissed or underminedor felt like you are not being
seen for your value.
We are an industry that can bequite crushing towards women and
my call to action is have thatcourage to really back yourself.
(38:56):
Double down on yourself,believe in your value, believe
in what you're bringing to it.
Don't listen to those externalpeople like going back to the
beginning of the conversation, Ididn't listen to the doctors
that were telling me I couldn'twalk because I knew I could walk
.
To really go into that internalself-narrative, make Make sure
that it is supportive, make surethat it is a positive internal
(39:19):
narrative.
Make sure that you'recelebrating your small wins,
even if no one around you iscelebrating you.
Make sure you celebrate youbecause, at the end of the day,
the women in the industry at themoment are the trailblazers and
the game changers and if wenever give up, if we have a no
excuse mindset, we will forge apath that the next generation
(39:40):
and the next generation willjust keep coming in and
hopefully one day it's justsomething that humans do is come
into the trade-based industryoh, so good.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So so good, because you're going to get up to that
30% of women right, 100%, we are.
I love it.
I love it.
Well, tell us what's excitingwith the organization and what
you guys have coming up.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
The very exciting news is I found a co-founder for
Canada, so I'm the only founderin Australia, and my model to
move the movement into othercountries is to search for a
co-founder that's boots onground in that country,
obviously understands thenuances of legislations, how
(40:30):
apprenticeships is done, etcetera, et cetera.
So I finally found this amazingwoman, lex Lexi, over in Canada
, and we'll be launchingempowered women in trade in
Canada as our first kind of nextcountry after Australia, which
is super, super exciting.
I can't wait to learn from thatcountry and bring stuff from
(40:51):
Australia, bring Australia toCanada and really get this 30 by
30, so 30% femalerepresentation by 2030.
Not just something thatAustralia is pushing towards,
but now Canada and hopefully oneday the US and hopefully the UK
as well, so that we have all ofthose amazing countries pushing
(41:11):
to get 30% femalerepresentation in skilled trades
by 2030.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That is so cool.
Well, I will be cheering you onas one of those women,
definitely through this podcast,and we'd love to continue to
support wherever you guys end upexpanding to.
This is so, so cool.
This has been such anincredible conversation.
I've had so much fun havingconversations with you.
(41:37):
If someone wants to connectwith you and they want to learn
more about the organization,they want to learn more about
your story, how to connect orpossibly work with you, where
would they go to find you?
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah, so for me personally, my website is just
HACIA, which is H-A-C-I-AAtherton, a-t-h-e-r-t-o-ncom,
and then for Empowered Women andTrades it's E-W-I, then trades
with an Scom.
So that's our website.
And then all of our socialmedia handles of LinkedIn and
(42:14):
Instagram are the same.
So if you put HACIA Atheron inLinkedIn, you'll come across me.
If you put EWI Trades inLinkedIn and Instagram, you'll
come across the business page aswell.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
That is incredible, and we'll be sure to link
everything in the show notes tooand promote whatever you guys
end up putting out, because youladies put out, because it's so
incredibly important that wecontinue this conversation.
What I would love to know is ifsomeone let's just say in
states wants to get involved,say even at a local level, and
(42:48):
they want to be able to producesomething amazing like what you
have created, but maybe justeven smaller, at a local level.
Talking to the schools, talkingto women in the trades, how
would you encourage them to getstarted?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
you very much need a community.
So if you want to get thatmovement of that grassroots over
in the US, I would suggestfirst of all speaking to some of
your local schools and say thisis the trade that I do.
Can I come in for, like youknow, one of the class sessions
and teach the students how to domy trade?
(43:25):
Then, if you want to do it on aslightly larger scale is work
out a couple of other localemployers and local tradies in
the community and say, hey,could we actually run a whole
day with a school together, likethe three different trades come
in, we do some fun activities,the kids can rotate through it
and different things like that.
(43:46):
So that's a really, reallygreat way to do it.
And the same setting upnetworking groups like for a lot
of women it is very lonely outthere working, often the only
female in their, in their job oron their site.
So setting up like tradie ladybreakfast and things like that,
where you can come and get likean egg and bacon roll and a
(44:07):
coffee or whatever is thebreakfast of choice and you can
all just get together before youhead to site for a half an hour
or an hour and just have a chatwith each other.
I think it's really importantwe set that community up for
women.
So I would highly advise yeah,set up a local networking group
and then connect with some ofthe schools and see if you can
(44:29):
just go in there and show someof the students your trade and
try and get a couple of otherlocal employers to come in with
you as well.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
I love that.
Thank you for sharing that,because I think a lot of times
women in the sender show arelike I never get invited to
anything, I don't know where togo, like they're waiting for
someone to bring them along.
Sometimes you got to build thatdamn table yourself and
sometimes you got to not bescared.
That's one of my favoritethings.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
I'm'm like I'm not waiting for a seat at the table,
I'm building my goddamn tableyes, yes, and then I'll bring
people over and bring a friend.
You know like it's so people tosit at my table?
Speaker 2 (45:09):
yeah, and then I don't never have to be invited
to anything again, because youexactly so you're being
courageous, be proactive, likefor all the women out there.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
If you want to do something, go do it.
Don't don't wait for someone toopen the door for you.
If you're really passionateabout getting the next
generation in, reach out to theschool and the whoever runs
careers and and um stuff at theschool.
And if you're a mom with achild at a school, just reach
out to your school where yousend your child and say, hey,
(45:40):
I'd love to come and do asession for the students at the
school, the female students atthe school, to show them what I
do every day.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Yeah, there's always plenty of teachers.
I know my daughter's asophomore in high school and
she's in a business class.
I'm like I don't care what youtake, but you have to take
business classes.
But she is in a business classthis year and they're teaching
entrepreneurship and they'realways teachers like that are
always looking for real lifeexamples, to come in and talk to
the schools and let them knowwhat the opportunities are,
(46:14):
because there's so manydifferent jobs out there now.
Let them know what theopportunities are because
there's so many different jobsout there now.
So if you've got one, you knowthat you're proud of being in.
Definitely reach out to thoseschools are always looking for
help and in showing people whatis possible.
This has been such an incredibleconversation and I love so much
being able to network withincredible women from literally
(46:34):
all over the world that areinvolved in these industries.
That's the whole reason whyLadies Kickin' Ass was built was
because I said that I'm goingto build my own goddamn table
and bring some women togetherthat we can have awesome
conversations about thisindustry.
But what I love about the titleof this podcast is that
(46:55):
whenever I say I have a podcastand it's called Ladies Kickin'
Ass people go tell me more.
It's not necessarily that it'sjust the trades, it's women that
have an incredible story toshare, and I think that many
people are inspired by the waypeople get into things, the way
people overcome things, justlike you have done what you've
(47:15):
been able to just grow andprosper and now take to another
country that you probably neverthought hey, like this is even
possible, like it's soincredible to see that.
So when you hear the phraseladies kicking ass, what does
that mean to you in your life?
Speaker 3 (47:38):
What does that mean to you in your life?
Yeah, so for me, I really seethat as what we're talking about
that internal kind of strengthand women really starting to see
their worth, see their value,find their voice, find their
strength and going out there andstarting to set boundaries and
be like no, we're not going toaccept this, like no, we're not
going to accept this behavior.
(47:58):
We're not going to accept thisdoor being closed.
We're not going to accept thisis not an opportunity that's
actively being provided to us,because we know we can, we know
we're worth it, we know we canexcel in this and we're going to
do whatever it takes, with noexcuses, to make sure that we go
after what we want to go after.
And that's because they havethat internal I'm going to kick
(48:21):
ass internally and they havethat courage, they see their
worth, they see their value.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yes, it's so important, and especially in
what we're talking about today.
So thank you so much forsharing.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Like another one of my favorite sayings is like no
one's going to save you, we haveto be our own heroes.
We have to be our own heroes.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yes and ladies, you've got it in you to do
whatever the hell you want to.
You know, tighten your own capeand make your own dreams come
true, because you can, and it'sreally cool that you've got
incredible support like thesetwo organizations behind you
that want to see you succeed.
So please reach out if you needanything and until then, keep
kicking ass.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Thanks for being part of the ladies kick and ask
community Cheers to all youbadass women out there.
Keep rocking your power,igniting your and making waves
in the service industry.
If you loved today's episode,please do me a quick favor.
Take a screenshot, post it andtag us at LadiesKickinAss.
Be sure to include the link toyour favorite episode.
(49:27):
Your support in spreading theword means the world to us as we
aim to empower even more women.
Hit that subscribe button tostay tuned for more kick-ass
episodes.
And don't forget a five-starreview is the ultimate high five
.
Connect with us on social media.
All the links are in the shownotes.
Thank you for being part of ourtribe.
Now go kick some serious ass,lady.
Welcome to the Ladies Kickin' Ass Podcast, where we
help you ignite your innerbadass and create the service
business of your dreams.
I'm your host, Tanya Wilson,and together we'll dive into
inspiring stories and expertcoaching to set your journey on
fire hey, badasses, welcome backto the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today is going to be a good one, oh my gosh.
I'm so excited to be able tobring this next guest to the
ladies kickin ass communitybecause I am just kind of
fangirling over here because I'mso inspired by her story and
what she's been able to do forwomen in the trades.
So today we have HaseyaAtherton with us.
She is from Australia, which isa new thing for the podcast
(00:57):
guests here on Ladies Kickin'Ass, and she is recognized in
the construction industry as aleader, as a thought leader, as
someone that is trying to makebig changes for women in the
trades.
I love that you use the term atradie, because that's what they
need to say, something fun likethat here in this state.
(01:17):
But she is the founder ofEmpowered Women in the Trades,
and what an incredibleorganization it is.
We're going to talk all aboutthat today.
But Hazy also has one hell of abackstory and you're going to
be so inspired about what shehas risen up from and what she's
been able to do with her life.
So thank you so much for beingon the podcast today.
(01:39):
Why don't you go ahead and giveus a little bit of that
backstory and tell us thisjourney that you've been on for
the last several years.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yes, thank you so much for being here.
I'm really excited and thebackstory towards setting up the
business all links in together.
So I'm actually from a fifthgeneration plumbing family.
So my great great grandfathercame over from England to
Australia and he was one of thefounding contractors of an
association that we have herecalled the Master Plumbers
(02:08):
Association.
But despite all the familyhistory, I went off and followed
, like my academic careers,becoming an accountant, and my
focus was very much on writing.
So I wanted to represent mycountry in equestrian in
dressage, and I was gettingclose to that goal.
(02:28):
But on one very cold winter'sevening I was training my young
horse and she decided to rearher and I fell off and all 600
kilos of her came over andlanded on top of me.
Came over and landed on top ofme.
(02:52):
So that doesn't work very well.
You know, 70 kilo human, 600kilo horse equals human being
literally.
So I got airlifted to one ofthe major hospitals in Melbourne
, australia, and was told that Iwas most likely never going to
walk again, that there was onlymillimeters in whether I was
even going to be able to havethat conversation.
So she landed on me slightlydifferent.
(03:14):
We wouldn't be having thisconversation this morning.
For me, it's 5.30am over here inAustralia and so I had to spend
six months in hospital earlier.
And so I had to spend sixmonths in hospital learning how
to stand again, really pushingthrough so much self-doubt, so
(03:34):
much kind of identity.
I identified as a dressagerider.
That was my whole life.
And then for the first threemonths in hospital I literally
lay lifeless in a hospital bed.
I couldn't move.
If I dropped something on theground I couldn't pick it up.
I was completely, 100%dependent on other people and,
being a very independent woman,that was a lot to go through and
really a lot to understand howto become vulnerable and really
(03:57):
let other people support me andhelp me.
So after three months I wascleared for weight bearing.
So I stood up on land 117 daysafter accident and I reckon
that's probably the hardestthing I've ever done.
And even when I'm onconstruction sites and men tell
me women aren't tough enough tobe tradies, I literally like
(04:19):
show them my x-rays, becauseI've had 30 surgeries, I've got
computers inside me, I've got abunch of metal, my hips being
replaced, like, as you canimagine, being crushed by a
horse.
There's a lot of work that hasto be done to put Humpty Dumpty
back together again.
Um, so I use my story a lotwhen men really doubt that women
(04:41):
have the physical strength,mental strength, to be in the
trades.
And after a time I started toteach myself to walk again
against all of the odds, andI've even run a half marathon
since.
So it really goes to show ifsomeone, even professionals, are
telling you you can't dosomething, if you know inside
(05:03):
yourself you can do it, then youcan turn the impossible into
possible.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh my gosh, that is so incredible.
Well, just already, that storyin itself just shows the
incredible resilience andbrilliance of anyone that wants
to actually do something.
You know, it's just so manypeople get told you can't do
that and they have so muchself-doubt that they just really
(05:30):
don't ever start living a lifethat they want to have.
It's just like whatever cardswere dealt to me is what I have.
So thank you for being aglowing example that that's
bullshit in like every way,shape and form 100%, like it's
just no excuse mindset.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
If you want something , if you truly believe that what
that's what you want to have inyour life.
Like when I was learning towalk again, I would be in my
hospital and every day we'd haveto put up three goals and it
would be like transfer from thebed to the wheelchair, um, like
learn how to use the wheelchairaround corners or up hills, like
(06:10):
very, um, very basic stuff.
And then number three wasalways learn to walk again.
So I always had that goal.
Just Just before the accidenthappened, I actually came back
to work at my family companythat now like manufactures
medical infection controlequipment and my dad said you've
(06:32):
got all of your business acumenand you've worked at other
companies and everything.
I want you to go experience thetrade side of the business and
go work on the factory floor.
And it was a really interestingexperience because I've grown
up around this factory like Iwalked around the factory as
like a little baby and a littletoddler.
I was brought into the companywhen I was in a bassinet, like a
(06:54):
few weeks old.
So I've been around thesepeople, I've been in the company
for my whole entire life.
But something weird happenedwhen I put the steel cap boots
on, the high V's on and I walkedin there, I all of a sudden
just shrunk.
I was telling myself I didn'tbelong there.
The boys are going to think I'msome kind of joke.
(07:16):
They're going to laugh at me.
All of this negative self-talkstarted happening and within my
family company everyone wasreally supportive to a fact.
One of the tradesmen actuallycalled me out when I was like
see, I'm a girl, I can't weld,and he's like the welder has no
idea if you're a girl or a guylike you're the one that's told
you that.
(07:37):
Yeah, that's awesome, that wasreally amazing.
But what would happen when Iwas out and about in public?
I would get harassed.
So men would say it's notHalloween, why are you dressed
up as a tradie?
Or was it laundry day?
Because you're wearing yourboyfriend's clothes or just all
(08:00):
of these different things.
So there was a lot of menoutside my family company that
would say very unkind things tome.
There's a lot worse things thathave been said to me now that
I've got my business.
But so when the accidenthappened I was working on the
factory floor and I obviouslyhad that six months in hospital,
(08:21):
so a lot of time, a lot of timeon my hands, so I started to
reach out on Instagram to likeother women in the industry to
see if that was just like a mething or what they were
experiencing.
And so many of the women arelike, yeah, I'm thinking about
leaving.
The culture's terrible.
All I do is want to do my joband all I do is get harassed or
(08:44):
hit on or gawked at or, evenworse, like here in Australia,
there's stories of women in thetrades industry that men have
like urinated all over sothey're like pissed on them on
site and it's like holy, yeah.
So I was getting all thesestories and then I was like, hmm
(09:04):
, I'm going to reach out to somewomen not in the industry and
be like would you ever thinkabout doing becoming a tradie?
And so I met the women who werelike I wouldn't even know where
to start.
I have no idea what a fitterand turner is, or a gas fitter
or anything like that.
And so I thought, wow, there'sthis massive, massive problem
where women who aren't in theindustry don't understand the
(09:28):
industry or understand how toget into the industry the women
in the industry because theculture is so terrible it was
wanting to leave the industry.
At the time, femalerepresentation in the trades in
Australia was just 2%, so tiny.
We're only 3% now, but that'sprogress at least.
(09:50):
So when I was in hospital I justthought, wow, there is so much
work that needs to be done.
This is not going to just bedone by like individual
companies.
We need to set up a movement, amovement and a community.
Support these women that arereally isolated the industry.
Bring them together so thatthey can network, they can meet
each other, they can createfriendships, but also design
(10:12):
products and services forindustry to help with the
culture.
Support the men in the industryto transform their leadership
styles, their theircommunication styles, their
mindsets, the way that theyperceive and value women, and
(10:32):
then also support women tounderstand how to get into these
jobs and how to get into theseroles.
And we do a lot of work in theschools as well, because it's
really important getting infront of those young female
students these careeropportunities, especially if
they're disengaged from theacademic career pathway of going
to college and university anddifferent things like that.
For a lot of those women theydon't have hope that they're
(10:53):
going to have successful lives,but the trades is going to give
that to them, so that's why Iget so excited about it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The potential in the trades for women is mind blowing
, you know, if you really thinkabout, like, the time period of
time that we live in right now,like I know in the States, like
they talk about how 10,000 babyboomers a day so people that you
know are starting to hit thatretirement age are retiring
(11:22):
10,000 a day.
This is the greatest populationlike generation of the United
States ever they're retiring.
Of those, about 12% of them ownbusinesses and a lot of them
are trades businesses that theirkids don't want to run, their
family's not interested intaking over.
(11:43):
But they also have thesesmaller trades businesses that
aren't really like the levelwhere, like, big companies want
to come in and buy them and so alot of them are just really
dying off because they have noone to come in and run them.
These gentlemen and ladies thathave are retiring.
They are the business you know.
(12:03):
They didn't grow like this bigmaster plan to work themselves
out of their job there.
They still have a job at thebusiness.
They need somebody that wantsto come in and take over the
business, that wants to work init.
But people just are notinterested and it's so crazy
that there's like 20, 30, 40years of experience and they're
just having to shut thesebusinesses down.
(12:24):
There's so much opportunity forwomen to come in, especially
with a business like that, whereyou add a little love to it.
You come in and you know,restore a beautiful culture or
create a culture of family andlove and growth and great
mindset, pay them what they'reworth.
Throw some modern marketing inthere and you've got like a done
(12:45):
for you business in a boxalready.
So it's really cool what youare putting together here.
What are some of the thingsthat when you're talking to
women that are getting into thetrades, that are learning how to
do it, what are some of theirbiggest fears getting into the
trades and what are their some?
(13:05):
What are some of their biggestinspirations for wanting to be
in the trades?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
yeah, most of their fears are again around safety,
and that's a question we aswomen ask ourselves on the hour,
every hour.
We're always analyzing andasking that question are are we
going to be safe?
Now, unfortunately, in thetrades industry, there is a lot
of sad stories around sexualharassment, bullying, unsafe
(13:32):
practices for all humans too,and it's not just towards the
feminine genders that those kindof concepts of bullying and
harassment more so the sexualharassment, but bullying,
harassment, unsafe work siteshave been there for the male
demographic as well.
So a lot of women are very muchlike am I going to be
(13:54):
physically safe?
Am I going to be mentally safe?
Is this a place that I'm goingto be able to go to and feel
safe in?
So that's a big question, andthat's why we have our EWIT
Alliance, which brings togetherall of the employers that are
very focused on safety for allhuman beings, whether that's
(14:16):
physical safety or psychologicalsafety, making sure women have
the right PPE gear, that they'rewearing clothes that actually
fit them, not just like this isour company logo clothes, extra
small men's, you make it fityour love, not that kind of
attitude as well.
So that's a big thing aroundwomen.
(14:37):
Is the safety Then the nextthing I see is really that
self-doubt like am I going to begood enough?
Can I keep up with the boys?
Am I strong enough?
Uh, will I be able to have theendurance to go six days a week,
10 hour days?
Um, can I work outside in themiddle of winter?
Like all of these kind ofself-doubt questions that they
(15:01):
often ask themselves.
And again, because it is one ofthe world's most male dominated
jobs, a lot of women are likewell, do I even belong there?
Again questions around is theretoilets?
Is there change rooms?
Is there sanitary bins?
Is there sanitary items on site?
If the site's like two hoursaway from any kind of shops,
(15:23):
what happens if I get my periodin the middle of this site?
And all of those.
So there's a lot of practicalquestions.
There's a lot of questionsaround safety and there's a lot
of questions around the doubt ofwhether we're actually
physically and mentally capableof doing as well.
What I find so exciting andinspiring, once women can move
(15:46):
through those barriers, is againwhat you're talking about, like
so many of them can see theopportunities to set up
businesses or work forbusinesses and take over
businesses, that they canactually help those businesses
grow their market share and tapinto new markets that if they
didn't have a female tradie theywould struggle to tap into, and
(16:08):
that's everything from women'sshelters for women that's
experienced domestic violenceand a lot of tradeswomen find
that really rewarding.
Knowing that they can go to ahome with a woman that has
experienced domestic violenceand fix her toilet or install a
new security system or do thingslike that is really rewarding
(16:28):
for a lot of women in the trades.
And then there's a lot ofhospitals that prefer to have
tradeswomen come into thematernity wards and the ICU
wards.
Schools a lot of schools liketo have female tradespeople, so
it's really exciting for womento go wow, actually I can come
into these businesses and helpthem grow their businesses, help
(16:50):
them move into markets.
Even just financially empoweredindependent women prefer to
have a female in their home thanbe alone in their home with a
male tradesperson.
So there's a huge, hugebusiness case to bring women
into the industry.
And women can see that, thevalue that they're adding and
what I really love.
(17:10):
And women, we're creators.
We bring life into this world.
That's what we do, and you cansee the connection between that
kind of drive that we have thatbiological drive and creating
something in the trade.
Every tradeswoman I speak to islike I love bringing my friends
or my kids or my family and go.
(17:32):
I was part of building thatbuilding.
I've added to society, I'vecreated something in society.
That's going to be that legacy.
It's going to be a legacy thatlasts longer than me that home
or that building that I created,or the car that I was a part of
manufacturing, or like ifthey're in service-based trades,
knowing that they're creatingsafe environments for other
(17:55):
humans to live in.
Um connection between who we areas women and our feminine
desire to to protect, to build,to create, being executed
through the trade space.
And then the final thing is thereally philanthropic side of
trades.
In australia, so many women getinto the trades and they're
(18:18):
very excited to go to, likecambodia and build a house for a
cambodian family or go to somethird world countries and be
involved in getting clean waterto a village.
And there's this wholephilanthropic side of the trades
that I really see resonate andinspire and excite women to get
into the industry yeah, it'sjust an industry where I think
(18:43):
service-based love really canshine and I think that every
woman possesses that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Just they're really great at empathy.
So when people call, I knowthis is something in our office.
I run a septic and commercialwastewater business so when
people call, they're like I gotshit coming up in my bathtub.
You know like they got someserious issues going on, you
know.
But to be empathetic with themand it's like I'm so sorry that
you're having such a rough day,you know we're gonna get that
(19:12):
taken care of and be able tolike calm them down.
I'm like it's almost liketherapy on the phone, because a
lot of our stuff isemergency-based calls that we
get.
That you really have to havethat special touch and I've had
guys on the phone and I've hadladies on the phone and the
ladies tend to get betterreviews than a lot of my guys do
(19:33):
on the phone of like you wereso calm, you were so sweet, you
walked me through everything,like that was just really cool.
But to even have women show upat the job site so many times,
it's such a pleasant surprise.
I had a junk removal companythat my friend and I ran
together as well, and when wewould book the calls and she
(19:55):
would show up, they'd be like uh, just you, just me.
They're like uh, and like somany times people in the home
would be like help you try tohelp her, do so.
She's like no, you paid us tocome out here.
You know she would have ahelper, but lots of times it was
female based.
We had a lot of females thatworked there and it was such a
(20:17):
cool surprise to see that theywere not expecting that.
So I love the you know, reallynon-expectation of women being
in this industry too, I think isreally really cool.
What do you get as far asfeedback from when you're
working in the schools?
This is something I'm superinterested in talking more about
(20:37):
.
What is the feedback that youget from those young females
when you go in and talk to theschools?
Are they kind of like yeah,okay, or do they see potential
and they do see some?
You do see some excitementbehind them.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I see such great excitement.
There's a beautiful example ofthis one student that we work
with.
She was very disengaged.
She came, actually came intothe session and she saw the
hammers and she's like, yay, whoare you going to hit today with
the hammers?
Like she just was a very uhlost, I think, in the
traditional school system by theend the day and she'd been
(21:16):
making like planter boxes soshe'd been learning some
carpentry tools.
She actually came to my teamand she's like I see there's a
little bit of extra materialleft over.
Would I be able to like buy itor take it home because I
actually want to make theseplanter boxes and sell them?
And so we gave her the extrastuff.
Some of our corporate partnersactually sponsored some
(21:39):
materials and everything for herand now she makes these planted
boxes and she sells them at thelocal market and she's learning
again around budgeting costinghow much is the materials?
What does she have to sell itfor?
So all of a sudden she's gonefrom completely disengaged, her
parents really concerned abouther, the school concerned about
(21:59):
to.
She's running her little sidehustle through her carpentry
skills that she taught.
So I think that's a beautifulexample of how it can really
turn students' lives around thatdidn't understand this career
pathway.
The other thing I love abouteven the female students that
engage in the programs and gookay, I see the value, but it
(22:20):
wasn't for me.
You see them starting to talkto their friends and they'd be
like well, have you actuallythought about doing trades?
I did this trade day.
I don't want to be it, but itactually seems like a really
cool career pathway and if youdon't want to go off and do
college and do the academiccareer pathways, you should
check it out.
So it's really great to see thatchange in mindset where before
(22:42):
they have that experience inschools, they're probably.
If someone one of their friendssaid I'm thinking about being a
tradie, they'd be like oh, whatfor?
Like?
Why would you do that?
Like?
Yeah, it's really important toexpose all females to it so that
they can decide if it's forthem or not for them.
But if it's not for them, sothat they can understand the
(23:03):
value, they can understand theattraction, they can understand
the importance of that careerpathway and they can understand
that it is a very successfulcareer pathway with a long-term
jeopardy to the career, alifetime career in the industry
yes, and to respect it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I think that's one of the things for me is, when
people learn, like my industry,they're like, wow, I had no idea
that was so involved.
You know, people flush thetoilet and they think it
disappears because no one everhas to deal with it afterwards,
you know.
So it's really cool to educatepeople.
(23:44):
And they're like wow, I had noidea.
Like I had no idea that soilplayed such a big deal in, like
a septic system being installedsomewhere.
And the more you can educatepeople, the more they gain
respect for the trade itself.
And the more you can educatepeople, the more they gain
respect for the trade itself.
It's not just a bunch of losersthat didn't go to college and
they didn't have a great, youknow life.
So this is where they got stuck.
(24:10):
Like it's a choice that, areally conscious choice that
males and females are now makingto be part of the trades.
One, the demand is sky high.
I'm sure it probably is inAustralia, like it is in the
States.
Like it's absolutely like wecan't hire enough people
qualified, good people that willconsistently show up and do a
good job and care.
So if you're somebody like thatI mean even if you get the
(24:31):
experience working with someoneand you start your own business.
You've now got time,flexibility, ability to make
your own whatever you want'venow got time, flexibility,
ability to make your ownwhatever you want kind of
paychecks, which a lot of themwill afford that anyways but you
can create a hell of a businessin the trades and it wasn't
this second rate choice becauseyou didn't go to college.
It was a conscious choice youmade to not be in student loan
(24:54):
debt for the rest of your lifeand to have a career path that
you're very, very proud of.
You know, not everybody ismeant to have butts in seats and
pay attention to something.
My son struggles with thatterribly, but you give him
something he's interested in, hecan do with his hands, he will
be entertained for hours and wejust need to understand that
there's not just one path tosuccess.
(25:16):
Like I love what you do becauseyou're showing that the trades
is success, it's not a secondarychoice, so I love that.
I would also love to hear youspeak more on, since we were
talking about respect whatrespect equality looks like and
what you're trying to do withthat through the organization
(25:37):
and bring it to light in thetrades.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah.
So my concept and egos in thatis let's just come down to our
human level how do we unite, howdo we connect and how do we
understand each other from ahuman lens?
So, if you look at thepsychology of all humans,
regardless of where we're bornor what bodies biological bodies
(26:02):
we're born into, we all, ashumans, need to feel a sense of
belonging, a sense of confidenceand a sense of autonomy.
So respect, equality is verymuch around.
Coming down to that basic, realfoundation of ourselves as
human beings and understandinghow do we build up from there to
(26:23):
ensure that all have access toopportunities, resources and
rights without discriminationconnected to their gender, and
understanding that, as we buildup, different genders do need
different forms of support.
Female bodies go throughsomething that male bodies do
not go through we menstruate.
(26:44):
So we do need certain support,whether that is if a female is
menstruating and on that day shedoes have dizziness and nausea.
Don't put her up on the ladderand create a culture where it's
psychologically safe enough forher to say hey, today's not a
great day, I can't go on theladder today and find other jobs
(27:06):
like the trade-based industry.
There's other jobs.
If she can't go up on theladder, fine again, like if she
needs to have heat packs and andhelp carrying her tool belt on
one or two days a month becauseshe's got a lot of pain through
her menstruation.
Provide that support to her andthat's respect, equality.
That's not going.
Oh, we have to be exactly thesame.
(27:27):
No, we need to buildenvironments, both psychological
and physical, that support bothbiological bodies in the world.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yes, that is so important because you see the
traits kind of being like Kate,if you're going to work in here,
you have to be just like theguys, because we're making zero
concessions for you becauseyou're a woman, you just have to
come in and we're not going tochange anything because we're
mostly guys here.
So I love that that's aconversation that you put on the
(28:01):
table, because a lot of peopledon't even think about that,
especially if it's maleownership or male leadership and
it's like it's not to be likeyou should know better.
They just don't know better.
You know, I really thinkthere's a lot of times they're
trying to do the best that theycan know better.
You know, I really thinkthey're a lot of times they're
trying to do the best that theycan, but they get feedback too,
from the other male workers, I'msure.
So it's a delicate balance toget through.
(28:23):
So I love so much it is and howI handle the conversation.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
I'm like, okay, well, what amenities do you have?
Do you have like instant coffee?
Do you have like we call itMilo over here in Australia,
which is like to make hotchocolate, so putting like
chocolate chocolate into milk?
Like, what amenities do youhave?
And the guys will talk throughwhat they have in their in their
kitchen for their staff,whether that's tea bags or
(28:49):
something like that and like sowhy did you decide to get that?
Oh, the guys like that brand oftea and like well, again, again
, the.
What the women are asking for,like sanitary bins or sanitary
items in a first aid kit so thatthey don't get caught off.
That's just like getting teabags for the guys that you like.
You know, for the tea bags.
(29:09):
Coffee, hot chocolate in thelunchroom, because human beings
desire a hot drink.
Female human beings desiresanitary items.
Like, if you're going to go andbuy coffee, go and buy some
sanitary items.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It's not that difficult.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
No exactly Because, if you say, well, you buy coffee
and not all of your team drinkscoffee, not every single person
you employ is going to drinkcoffee, so why can't you go buy
sanitary items just because notsingle person you employ is
going to drink coffee?
So why can't you go buysanitary items just because not
every person you employ is goingto need the sanitary items,
like you are buying stuff thatnot every human that you employ
(29:48):
uses.
So I really love working withthe men to put it down to that
position.
Like some people drink coffee,some people need sanitary bins,
some people drink tea, it's thesame.
It's just what our bodiesdesire and need to do.
Unfortunately, women can'tchoose whether we need sanitary
(30:08):
items or not, versus we canchoose if we drink coffee or not
.
So there's a little bit more ofa desire and need to make sure
that the males are providingthat support.
But again, it's very simple.
We're talking about buying abin, guys.
We're not talking about, likerebuilding a whole building for
us.
We just need a bin, a lock onthe door and some sanitary items
(30:29):
in the first aid kit seemspretty simple to me.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I don't know why it's such a big deal Change scares
me in this industry though Anykind of change that they may
experience.
It's like I don't knowpositions like this.
How does your organization workwith employers in the trades to
integrate and be more open tofemales joining in those trades
(31:04):
positions?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
For the work we do.
We actually start with the maleleaders and do a lot of work
with them to first of all makesure they're not anchoring their
masculine identity to theirtrade, because if they feel like
they're a man because they're aplumber or they're a carpenter
or they're an electrician andthat's that's what makes them a
man, that's going to be veryproblematic because when a
(31:29):
woman's working next to him onhis trade he's going to feel
like less of a man.
So we actually work on thatpsychological identity work
first and really support thosemen to see their masculinity in
different forms, because they'rea protector, because they're a
provider, because they areachievers and all of these other
(31:53):
amazing qualities that men have, and get them to really connect
to their masculine identitythrough those connections, not
because he's a plumber, etcetera, et cetera.
So that's definitely the firstwork to do.
And then what I really loveworking with the male leaders is
giving them the support andstructure of how they can create
a psychologically safeenvironment so then they can
(32:16):
foster those conversations toco-create what good looks like
for the females that are cominginto their team.
As we touched on before, likewomen with endometriosis and
things like that might strugglea couple of days a month because
of pain and everything likethat.
So we really work with the maleleaders to make sure that they
can create cultures where womenfeel comfortable talking about
(32:40):
the needs and supports that theyneed to have, but also that the
men in the team feelcomfortable talking about any
kind of concerns that they have,whether that's like I don't
know whether I help her with herladder or don't help her with
her ladder, like I don't knowwhether, if there's something
heavy, do I step in and help hercarry it or don't help her
(33:00):
carry it.
So so much of the research I'vedone and interviews with the
male demographic shows thatthere's not necessarily that
much malice.
There is just a lot of actualfear among men of like I don't
know what's the right thing todo, so I'm just going to do
nothing and kind of avoid herand exclude her, because I don't
want to upset her, but I don'twant to do the wrong thing, so I
(33:24):
just won't do anything, whichis the worst thing to do but
that is human nature.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
It's like a confused mind won't buy.
You know a confused mind isn'tgonna try either.
You know a confused mind isn'tgoing to try either.
You know they're just going to.
If I do nothing, I don't get introuble and I don't get praised
.
But I'm at even ground ratherthan trying to do one or the
other and being right or wrong.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
So Exactly, and you and I can't speak on behalf of
every woman in the world.
So that's what I say to themales.
I'm like this is you need tohave the conversation with the
individual women in your team,because what they individually
need, they need to have theirvoices.
I can't speak on behalf of allwomen in the world.
I don't know what all women inthe world need or want.
(34:08):
You need to create cultureswhere, again, all humans because
your main staff might need orwant certain things their, their
wife might be really unwell andthey have now become the
primary care of dropping thekids off and picking them up and
looking after the household,because their wife is struggling
with a terminal illness, forexample.
That male is going to need somesupport, he's going to need
(34:32):
people in the team to get aroundhim.
So you need to create a culturewhere that male also feels that
he can speak up and say, hey,I'm struggling, I need help,
yeah, I think this is.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
it comes back to just like be involved leadership too
.
You know, if you run a smalltrades business, get to know the
people that are working for you.
You know, get to know what'sgoing on in their lives.
I understand that they'reprobably not going to tell you
everything, but you're going tonotice when they're off.
Have a conversation, Ask themsomething simple like are you
(35:05):
doing okay?
Is everything okay?
You know, do you need supportin anything?
Sometimes it's just the simplequestion of do you need support
with anything?
Can I help you with anything?
Because a lot of people have areally hard time asking for help
and I can imagine, as a femalein the like working specifically
in the labor's parts of thetrades, lots of times you don't
(35:29):
want to ask for things becausethat's kind of an exclusionary
way of you know I'm different orI need something extra, and
they feel like they're out theretrying to prove themselves
against a bunch of these guys.
Do you see a lot of that?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
yeah, I do and it gets to the point of dangerous.
So like, um, I know some womenthat desired some like ppa gear
for their knees and things likethat and they were really
concerned because they're like Idon't, no one else has this on
site but like I'm very muchstruggling with my knees and I'm
(36:05):
getting like calluses andblisters and I really need some
knee pads.
I said, well, ask for them.
And she's like well, no oneelse on the team wears the knee
pads.
I'm like your body is tellingyou you need the knee pads.
Ask for the goddamn knee pads.
And you know, she was so, soconcerned and scared to ask for
the knee pads.
So I mentored her.
(36:26):
She asked her employer for theknee pads and he's like yeah,
sure, he's like, actually it'sprobably good, I'll ask any of
the guys if they want knee padsas well, because I didn't really
think about it and the minuteof the day, like if they're
getting sore knees and differentthings like that, they're
probably not working as goodtowards the end of the day.
So when the question was asked,three or four other guys said
(36:47):
yeah, actually, if you're doingan order, put one in for me.
I said, see, like the guys justdidn't think about it, like it
wasn't that they didn't want tosupport you, they just weren't
thinking about it.
Once you spoke up, all of asudden, three or four other
people on the team now have whatyou've asked for.
So it wasn't a female-specificthing, it was a human thing that
(37:08):
the guys just weren't thinkingabout asking for.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, that's smart, even as employers sometimes,
like my guys, will be like, hey,we need, and I'm like I didn't
even think about that.
So, yay, thanks for somebodyspeaking up.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
And then it's something that continues to keep
showing up all the time exactlyas employers and leaders like
we can't think of everything wewe have to handle and deal with
so much.
We're not boots on ground dayin and day out doing the trades
and different things like that,so we're probably not aware of
(37:42):
some of the challenges andsupport that the team needs.
And that's where, as leaders,you've really got to drive
culture where your team feelssafe to really talk about what
challenges they're facing, whatsupport they need to overcome
those challenges and all ofthose kind of things like the
knee pad situation.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yes, oh, so good, so good.
If there's something that you,as being a spokesperson of women
in the trades, if there'ssomething that you want women to
know that are working in thetrades either in the trades as a
tradie, or if they are inmanagement or ownership in the
(38:22):
trades what is something thatyou want them to know?
Something that's like somethingyou've observed, something that
you think that may help them?
Speaker 3 (38:32):
never doubt your value and never underestimate
yourself, like, yes, we're in anindustry where you might quite
often be dismissed or underminedor felt like you are not being
seen for your value.
We are an industry that can bequite crushing towards women and
my call to action is have thatcourage to really back yourself.
(38:56):
Double down on yourself,believe in your value, believe
in what you're bringing to it.
Don't listen to those externalpeople like going back to the
beginning of the conversation, Ididn't listen to the doctors
that were telling me I couldn'twalk because I knew I could walk
.
To really go into that internalself-narrative, make Make sure
that it is supportive, make surethat it is a positive internal
(39:19):
narrative.
Make sure that you'recelebrating your small wins,
even if no one around you iscelebrating you.
Make sure you celebrate youbecause, at the end of the day,
the women in the industry at themoment are the trailblazers and
the game changers and if wenever give up, if we have a no
excuse mindset, we will forge apath that the next generation
(39:40):
and the next generation willjust keep coming in and
hopefully one day it's justsomething that humans do is come
into the trade-based industryoh, so good.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So so good, because you're going to get up to that
30% of women right, 100%, we are.
I love it.
I love it.
Well, tell us what's excitingwith the organization and what
you guys have coming up.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
The very exciting news is I found a co-founder for
Canada, so I'm the only founderin Australia, and my model to
move the movement into othercountries is to search for a
co-founder that's boots onground in that country,
obviously understands thenuances of legislations, how
(40:30):
apprenticeships is done, etcetera, et cetera.
So I finally found this amazingwoman, lex Lexi, over in Canada
, and we'll be launchingempowered women in trade in
Canada as our first kind of nextcountry after Australia, which
is super, super exciting.
I can't wait to learn from thatcountry and bring stuff from
(40:51):
Australia, bring Australia toCanada and really get this 30 by
30, so 30% femalerepresentation by 2030.
Not just something thatAustralia is pushing towards,
but now Canada and hopefully oneday the US and hopefully the UK
as well, so that we have all ofthose amazing countries pushing
(41:11):
to get 30% femalerepresentation in skilled trades
by 2030.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That is so cool.
Well, I will be cheering you onas one of those women,
definitely through this podcast,and we'd love to continue to
support wherever you guys end upexpanding to.
This is so, so cool.
This has been such anincredible conversation.
I've had so much fun havingconversations with you.
(41:37):
If someone wants to connectwith you and they want to learn
more about the organization,they want to learn more about
your story, how to connect orpossibly work with you, where
would they go to find you?
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah, so for me personally, my website is just
HACIA, which is H-A-C-I-AAtherton, a-t-h-e-r-t-o-ncom,
and then for Empowered Women andTrades it's E-W-I, then trades
with an Scom.
So that's our website.
And then all of our socialmedia handles of LinkedIn and
(42:14):
Instagram are the same.
So if you put HACIA Atheron inLinkedIn, you'll come across me.
If you put EWI Trades inLinkedIn and Instagram, you'll
come across the business page aswell.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
That is incredible, and we'll be sure to link
everything in the show notes tooand promote whatever you guys
end up putting out, because youladies put out, because it's so
incredibly important that wecontinue this conversation.
What I would love to know is ifsomeone let's just say in
states wants to get involved,say even at a local level, and
(42:48):
they want to be able to producesomething amazing like what you
have created, but maybe justeven smaller, at a local level.
Talking to the schools, talkingto women in the trades, how
would you encourage them to getstarted?
Speaker 3 (43:05):
you very much need a community.
So if you want to get thatmovement of that grassroots over
in the US, I would suggestfirst of all speaking to some of
your local schools and say thisis the trade that I do.
Can I come in for, like youknow, one of the class sessions
and teach the students how to domy trade?
(43:25):
Then, if you want to do it on aslightly larger scale is work
out a couple of other localemployers and local tradies in
the community and say, hey,could we actually run a whole
day with a school together, likethe three different trades come
in, we do some fun activities,the kids can rotate through it
and different things like that.
(43:46):
So that's a really, reallygreat way to do it.
And the same setting upnetworking groups like for a lot
of women it is very lonely outthere working, often the only
female in their, in their job oron their site.
So setting up like tradie ladybreakfast and things like that,
where you can come and get likean egg and bacon roll and a
(44:07):
coffee or whatever is thebreakfast of choice and you can
all just get together before youhead to site for a half an hour
or an hour and just have a chatwith each other.
I think it's really importantwe set that community up for
women.
So I would highly advise yeah,set up a local networking group
and then connect with some ofthe schools and see if you can
(44:29):
just go in there and show someof the students your trade and
try and get a couple of otherlocal employers to come in with
you as well.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
I love that.
Thank you for sharing that,because I think a lot of times
women in the sender show arelike I never get invited to
anything, I don't know where togo, like they're waiting for
someone to bring them along.
Sometimes you got to build thatdamn table yourself and
sometimes you got to not bescared.
That's one of my favoritethings.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
I'm'm like I'm not waiting for a seat at the table,
I'm building my goddamn tableyes, yes, and then I'll bring
people over and bring a friend.
You know like it's so people tosit at my table?
Speaker 2 (45:09):
yeah, and then I don't never have to be invited
to anything again, because youexactly so you're being
courageous, be proactive, likefor all the women out there.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
If you want to do something, go do it.
Don't don't wait for someone toopen the door for you.
If you're really passionateabout getting the next
generation in, reach out to theschool and the whoever runs
careers and and um stuff at theschool.
And if you're a mom with achild at a school, just reach
out to your school where yousend your child and say, hey,
(45:40):
I'd love to come and do asession for the students at the
school, the female students atthe school, to show them what I
do every day.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Yeah, there's always plenty of teachers.
I know my daughter's asophomore in high school and
she's in a business class.
I'm like I don't care what youtake, but you have to take
business classes.
But she is in a business classthis year and they're teaching
entrepreneurship and they'realways teachers like that are
always looking for real lifeexamples, to come in and talk to
the schools and let them knowwhat the opportunities are,
(46:14):
because there's so manydifferent jobs out there now.
Let them know what theopportunities are because
there's so many different jobsout there now.
So if you've got one, you knowthat you're proud of being in.
Definitely reach out to thoseschools are always looking for
help and in showing people whatis possible.
This has been such an incredibleconversation and I love so much
being able to network withincredible women from literally
(46:34):
all over the world that areinvolved in these industries.
That's the whole reason whyLadies Kickin' Ass was built was
because I said that I'm goingto build my own goddamn table
and bring some women togetherthat we can have awesome
conversations about thisindustry.
But what I love about the titleof this podcast is that
(46:55):
whenever I say I have a podcastand it's called Ladies Kickin'
Ass people go tell me more.
It's not necessarily that it'sjust the trades, it's women that
have an incredible story toshare, and I think that many
people are inspired by the waypeople get into things, the way
people overcome things, justlike you have done what you've
(47:15):
been able to just grow andprosper and now take to another
country that you probably neverthought hey, like this is even
possible, like it's soincredible to see that.
So when you hear the phraseladies kicking ass, what does
that mean to you in your life?
Speaker 3 (47:38):
What does that mean to you in your life?
Yeah, so for me, I really seethat as what we're talking about
that internal kind of strengthand women really starting to see
their worth, see their value,find their voice, find their
strength and going out there andstarting to set boundaries and
be like no, we're not going toaccept this, like no, we're not
going to accept this behavior.
(47:58):
We're not going to accept thisdoor being closed.
We're not going to accept thisis not an opportunity that's
actively being provided to us,because we know we can, we know
we're worth it, we know we canexcel in this and we're going to
do whatever it takes, with noexcuses, to make sure that we go
after what we want to go after.
And that's because they havethat internal I'm going to kick
(48:21):
ass internally and they havethat courage, they see their
worth, they see their value.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yes, it's so important, and especially in
what we're talking about today.
So thank you so much forsharing.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Like another one of my favorite sayings is like no
one's going to save you, we haveto be our own heroes.
We have to be our own heroes.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yes and ladies, you've got it in you to do
whatever the hell you want to.
You know, tighten your own capeand make your own dreams come
true, because you can, and it'sreally cool that you've got
incredible support like thesetwo organizations behind you
that want to see you succeed.
So please reach out if you needanything and until then, keep
kicking ass.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Thanks for being part of the ladies kick and ask
community Cheers to all youbadass women out there.
Keep rocking your power,igniting your and making waves
in the service industry.
If you loved today's episode,please do me a quick favor.
Take a screenshot, post it andtag us at LadiesKickinAss.
Be sure to include the link toyour favorite episode.
(49:27):
Your support in spreading theword means the world to us as we
aim to empower even more women.
Hit that subscribe button tostay tuned for more kick-ass
episodes.
And don't forget a five-starreview is the ultimate high five
.
Connect with us on social media.
All the links are in the shownotes.
Thank you for being part of ourtribe.
Now go kick some serious ass,lady.
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