Hi, I’m Stephanie, and being an Electrician was not something I ever thought about growing up, but I was inspired and introduced to it by my former father-in-law about 9 years ago.
It started when he was a person short on a job (because my fiancée at the time couldn’t make it) and he needed some help.
So, I worked alongside him a couple of days a week, just doing small tasks for an extra bit of cash. After a while, he asked me if I wanted to keep passing tools or if I wanted to learn the job properly. I thought that I may as well pick it up. After that, I started going in 7 days a week whilst studying the trade at college, which was 2 nights a week for 2 years. It was tough at first, but you know when something just feels right? This felt right for me.Before this, I didn’t really know what career I wanted to go into, to be honest. I didn’t get on with school because I was more of a practical person than an academic person, so I left at 17 and started working in retail. I was doing quite well, and I enjoyed it, but that was nothing like the satisfaction I get from being on site. When I first picked up some skills as an Electrician, my mum was really encouraging, and it turned out to be a good decision.
I’d say that 95% of the time, people have accepted me.
In my first role, I felt like I didn’t get the respect I deserved, but it has mostly been okay. In fact, I think I’ve been quite fortunate because I’ve heard some awful stories about how other women in the trade have been treated by their peers. Even in college, there were three other women in my class, so I have always felt welcome personally, which is more than many women in the industry can say. However, I can’t overstate how brilliant my time at PA Housing has been, it’s such a friendly environment and I don’t think that’s just in the Direct Labour Organisation (the DLO, our in-house repairs service), it’s company wide. Literally from day one, I felt like part of the team. I had people offering to help if ever I needed it as soon as I joined.I’d say that there has definitely been some progress over the years in how accepted female Electricians are. I’ve spoken to other women who have been in the industry for 20-30 years and they have had to fight for their positions. I’d say we are going in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of work to do. I guess it’s a generational thing – the last generation taught us, but we can normalise it even more for the generation after us and hopefully, we can continue to make progress.
Something I think could do a lot of good is greater representation in the media.
For example, Molly in Construction by Lisa Molloy is a children’s book aimed at 5–10-year-olds that works to normalise female construction workers. I think that’s really helpful because I get looks of surprise and things like ‘I wasn’t expecting a woman’ from customers practically every day. I’d like to live in a world where it’s not such a surprising thing. So, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but the progress here at PA Housing can already be demonstrated as I’m not the only female Electrician at PA Housing; I’m also joined by my colleague, Bindi.I used to enjoy challenging people’s expectations at first, but it’s funny, I was actually having a debate with my colleagues the other day about this. I was saying that we shouldn’t have to represent ourselves as ‘female Electricians’, we should just be referred to as Electricians, just as men are. But then again, I kind of have to publicise myself in that way because how else am I going to raise awareness for a more diverse workforce? It’s a tricky one because even my Instagram handle is ‘@life_of_a_female_sparky’ so there’s no real right answer to it... yet! Not until society changes.
Never in a million years did I think I’d be so vocal online about this.
I started my Instagram account a little while ago, but my page has grown so much since then. Recently, I haven’t even been posting that much – just odd jobs that I’m happy with – and yet, I’m still getting a lot of offers to collaborate with people for various interviews and promotions. In fact, I’ve even been asked to teach in the evenings to inspire the next generation of Electricians, which is a nice offer, but at the minute, I’m happy to keep improving within the trade. There are people out there who I feel are making genuine change using social media and I have only just started. Just goes to show that social media is a powerful platform.
While I’m working, I’m a massive perfectionist because I don’t want to be seen as incapable or incompetent by my peers.
Of course, I wouldn’t be working for the DLO if I were incompetent, but it’s just the extra pressure that I impose on myself to prove to everyone that I can be as good as anyone else at my job. The other day, I noticed that something I had fixed to the wall was slightly askew. Everybody else thought that it was hardly even noticeable, but I wouldn’t rest until it was up straight. I do my best to ensure our residents are happy.
In my previous job, I saw some – excuse the pun – ‘shocking’ work by supposedly ‘more experienced’ Electricians. We’d all have two or three jobs to complete in a day, but sometimes my colleagues would get called back to jobs where people had done inadequate work. Honestly, it was just so lazy! We never had to return to any of my jobs.
My tips for other women starting out in repairs and construction: stay strong. Don’t worry about what others think, ignore any potential backlash (because you might get some disparaging comments along the way), and just keep an open mind to anything that people can teach you.
PA Housing is 100% an inclusive environment!
Whether I’d be accepted here or not was never even a question. When you’re driving around, every single person you come across from PA Housing stops for a friendly 5-minute chat. I actually couldn’t believe it when I first started. I immediately got a positive vibe from the company, and I honestly can’t fault them for it. I’ve been asked a lot of questions in the interviews I have done so far, but one thing that has never really come up is ‘why electrics and not, for example, plumbing or any other trade within construction?’ Well, the thought of fixing dirty toilets doesn’t particularly fill me with joy, but I may start to dabble in things like plumbing later down the line.Of course, I was trained in electrics, but even then, I could have moved into something else. I think that part of it is that there is so much variety in my job. Sometimes I’ll be repairing a light, a fan, or a socket – other times I’ll be testing a fault or doing something I’ve never even tried before, and I find that really enjoyable and rewarding.
I don’t have much experience with things like showers at the moment – issues where there’s the potential for electricity and water to mix terrify me. But I’m happy to have conversations with my co-workers and I’m not afraid to ask if there’s something I don’t know.
There’s still so much more to learn, but it’s reassuring when you have such a helpful team to work with.
