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'I like proving people wrong': The women taking up DIY and plumbing - Published It's hard to miss the explosion of DIY content that has hit our social media feeds over the last decade. From quick reels on how to fix cracks in walls, to complicated YouTube tutorials on building alcove seating from scratch, the internet is chock-a-block with seemingly endless home improvement demos. While DIY was once seen as more of a male domain, female influencers are inspiring a new generation of women to take matters into their own hands. Meanwhile, demand for female professionals is rising, while some women are changing careers to take up trades which they see as more AI-proof than their desk jobs. Eight months pregnant and building wardrobes DIY influencer Jasmine Gurney has documented an impressive and exhausting sounding list of tasks on Instagram. She has torn down partition walls, replaced flooring, erected a fence, insulated and boarded her loft, built an outdoor workshop, made custom cabinetry, moved plug sockets, made her son his first bed and has been building him a treehouse. Eight months pregnant, the former marketer is now racing to finish building a fitted wardrobe before the new baby arrives. "I like proving people wrong," says Jasmine, 33, from Bedfordshire, who says she's been trolled by people questioning her techniques but they just "spur me on more". "I'm showing and empowering other women to do it," she says. "I've shown me doing things whilst pregnant, I've had my firstborn strapped to me in a baby carrier while doing things. "I'm just showing that we are capable, we are interested in this sort of stuff and... we're sick of waiting around for six months for our husbands to pick up the tools and do it in most cases." Jasmine says her page really took off during Covid when people couldn't get professionals in so needed to learn to do jobs themselves. While the lockdowns are long over, demand for content like hers has stuck, she believes, because there aren't enough tradespeople to meet demand, and cost of living pressures are squeezing budgets. Gen Z leads the way Gen Z women are "leading the charge in challenging gendered DIY stereotypes", according to a 2024 report by B&Q. Around three-quarters of Gen Z women surveyed said they enjoy DIY, compared to 60% of all female respondents. And 82% of Gen Z women said seeing women doing more complex home DIY on social media had inspired them to do more themselves, versus 60% of women in general. Of course, not all jobs are DIY. Sometimes you'll need to GSI (get someone in). Bliss Cunneen walked away from an Anthropology university course in 2020 to train as a plumber. The 28-year-old from south London says trying the trade on a whim is the "best thing I've ever done", and she loves the freedom and flexibility of running a business. While she has experienced doubt from some customers when she turns up at their door - and has even once been mistaken for the receptionist - "once you start working and you show you're confident and you know what you're doing, they're okay". She says the explosion of content online has "definitely helped" with broadening attitudes to women taking up DIY or a trade. Rising demand for tradeswomen Anna Moynihan set up TaskHer, a platform connecting female tradies with customers who need jobs done, after feeling frustrated when tradesmen she had booked for renovation work would address her husband rather than her. Five years ago she says she couldn't find any stock photographs of tradeswomen to use for marketing. Even the word "tradeswoman" would get autocorrected to "tradesman". "It's those little things that, you know, ultimately you don't feel welcome into that environment. "It's already hard enough to become a tradeswoman, a woman in an industry where you're massively under-represented." Enquiries on the site have more than doubled so far this year compared to 2025, while the number of tradeswomen signing up has almost quadrupled, Anna says. People might prefer a tradeswoman for a range of reasons - industry surveys suggest they may feel more at ease with a woman entering their home, external, feel a woman would be more respectful, or want to support women working in traditionally male roles. Anecdotally, Anna says more women are joining her platform after leaving white-collar jobs, adding three Oxford University-educated tradeswomen have signed up in the last month. She says some had always wanted to take up a trade but felt unable to up until now because of their gender. Others, she says, want the flexibility of working for themselves in a role less likely to be directly impacted by the rapid advance of AI. 'You can't be what you can't see' Despite the buzz, women make up a tiny proportion of the UK's construction workforce - around 4%, according to the Federation of Master Builders. But there are encouraging signs. One in 10 people who started a construction apprenticeship in 2024-25 was a woman, up from around one in 14 five years earlier. DIY influencer Jasmine hopes women who see online content such as hers will be inspired to give a project a go, or consider entering a trade. "The more women who are seen online doing these sorts of things, the more normal it becomes." Anna agrees. "You can't be what you can't see, and anything that shows women and girls that they can do something is fantastic." Related topics - Published6 September - Published22 June - Published26 January
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