We Welcome Women

In my last blog I wrote about the high cost of college, a dramatic rise in the number of people defaulting on student loans, and that a skilled trade is worthwhile thinking about as a career option. I concluded with the sentence, “If you know someone who loves building and fixing things and likes working with people, send him or her our way.”

Dutton Plumbing Encourages Women to Apply

I want to follow up on that by pointing out that at Dutton Plumbing we welcome women to train with us as a plumbing apprentice, as well as for office staff positions.

It’s a shame that more women don’t pursue a skilled trade. I realize that our field carries a lot of historical baggage as “man’s work.” But that label has increasingly fallen by the wayside, especially in the residential service sector of the trades.

Although we don’t currently employ any female plumbers, we have in the past and have found out that in general they tend to be among the best performers. There is a notion that a woman has to work very hard to gain acceptance from her peers, but we believe there’s far more to it than that.

Female service technicians hold significant advantages over males. When a service technician rings a doorbell a female will answer the vast majority of the time. It’s only natural for home-alone women to be a little wary when inviting a male stranger into the house. A female technician can immediately put the homeowner at ease and more easily can establish rapport.

Unlike construction work, brute strength almost never comes into play on residential service calls. There the premium is on diagnostic skill and attention to detail, at which women tend to excel. Female technicians also benefit from the novelty factor. Customers don’t expect to be serviced by a woman and thus are more likely to discuss a positive experience with friends and neighbors.