Early years
Hattie started to look at evening classes as she yearned to do something with her hands. She found a plumbing class, and it seemed like a great fit.
“I don’t know why it appealed to me so much,” said Hattie. “I loved it, but I was in the process of relocating from London to Leeds. I looked for a similar course in the north and found Leeds College of Building, so started training there for one day a week nearly 33 years ago.
“I found out recently that I was their first-ever female trainee. It's hard to imagine now, but back then, there were no female student toilets as so few women trained in construction, so I had to use the staff ones! I didn’t intentionally mean to instigate change, but I think I did it inadvertently.
“I started doing odd jobs for myself and others, like decorating, and looked for work in plumbing to fit alongside my training, but I struggled to find employment. When I called a business, they would often assume I was calling for my husband or son. I think there was an unconscious bias, as I was one of only a handful of other trained female plumbers across the country. That’s when I decided to go self-employed.”
Making change happen
Hattie created Stopcocks as a one-woman outfit and advertised herself, using her gender as a unique selling point. She knew there was a market from conversations with others, and so she made flyers that she hand-delivered. Hattie was right, and soon her books were full.
“It took off from there. My tools grew, as did my skills. I trained alongside, doing smaller jobs and then expanded my services as I qualified in new areas. I gained in confidence and noticed parents introducing me to their children in a positive way when I came to fix things in the house. The teacher in me realised I was more than just a plumber and had a responsibility as a female role model too.”
For many years, Hattie worked in the industry and never came across another female plumber. Over time, Hattie grew her business into the only national franchise of female plumbers in the world, Stopcocks Women Plumbers, which helps women set up their own self-employed business. If Stopcocks receive a request for a female plumber in a new area, they will immediately try to source someone through their sister company, the Register of Tradeswomen CIC. However, there is still a severe shortage.
Pushing for change
- Through Stopcocks, Hattie has been pushing boundaries for decades. Exceptional achievements include:
- Publishing The Joy of Plumbing book in 2011.
- Building a rainwater harvesting system for a village in Kenya affected by AIDS and empowering other young women to do the same.
- Organising the only national conference for women installers, WIT.
- Putting over 50 women through installer training, including survivors of domestic abuse.
- Acting as an incubator and mentor for five female-led businesses at any time.
In 2020, Hattie’s achievements were recognised in the New Year Honours List, which she describes as “phenomenal and surprising”. Hattie was the first woman to receive an MBE for Services to Women in the Heating and Plumbing Industries.
Hattie continued:
“There has been lots of changes over the last 30 years with taster days and recruitment drives to get more women into construction, which is great. However, this isn’t yet translating into large enough figures in the industry.
“We all need to work harder at normalising these careers for girls from a young age and smash stereotypes to create a new and inclusive culture. So many working practices are still centred around men’s needs owing to origins as a primarily male sector. From maternity leave to childcare, we need to re-write this to accommodate the needs of everybody.”
Domestic construction and maintenance is a sector where women represent only 1% of the workforce. Yet, at least 23% of women have stated they would have ‘seriously considered’ it if it had been presented as an option to them. As a result, Hattie now spends much of her time away from tools and talking to the industry about this issue.
“I’m quite inspired now when I speak in public and women tell me that after a previous encounter, I have changed their lives or provided the motivation to take that first step into this career. I have used self-employment to become an advocate for independence and passionately believe freedom for all women is vital.”
Start a career in construction and the built environment today by registering your attendance at the next Leeds College of Building Open Day on Saturday, 20 May.
