Over the past 12 years, Kim Maci has lost count of the times a woman has opened her front door, taken one look at her and visibly relaxed. As a female electrician, she has grown used to the relief she encounters from women who had been expecting a man to turn up.

‘They’ll tell me about times they’ve been scammed or overpriced by a man in the industry, or when they’ve been made to feel stupid for not understanding something,’ says the 30-year-old. ‘They often say they’re grateful I’m a woman, because I’ve taken the time to explain the work I’m doing and given advice they trust.’

As a single woman with a young child, I seek out female tradespeople, too. I feel more comfortable inviting a woman into my home, particularly when I’m alone – and I’m not the only one.

Demand for skilled tradeswomen is soaring. According to recent research by MoneySuperMarket, Google searches for ‘tradeswomen’ in Britain rose 36 per cent in the first quarter of this year, while worldwide, searches rose by 313 per cent in the year to 2026. In the UK women painters were the most sought-after female tradespeople, with 5,220 searches between May 2025 and May this year, followed by 4,200 for female electricians and 4,140 for female mechanics.

Anna Moynihan, co-founder of TaskHer, a platform connecting customers with female tradespeople, has experienced a similar surge: enquiries to the service rose by 134 per cent over the past year. The idea for TaskHer was born out of a frustration all too familiar to many women. When renovating her home, Moynihan was the one researching and hiring tradespeople, yet when they arrived, they would direct their questions to her husband.

‘It was galling,’ she says. ‘I thought, “I’m the one who emailed you and explained the scope of the work.” And in my house, I was the one who fixed the toilet, not my husband.’

Electrician Kim Maci

Avoiding these outdated attitudes is a big reason why many women prefer a female plumber or plasterer. Moynihan says, ‘The vast majority of tradeswomen have experienced that kind of condescension themselves and know how it feels, so they can approach clients with more sensitivity.’

For many female customers, this is just one advantage of tradeswomen. In my own experience, not only are they more likely to listen and explain without being patronising, they’re often more reliable and tidier.

And I also simply feel more comfortable letting another woman into my home. It’s easy to understand why around 80 per cent of TaskHer’s clients are women.

Maci has many customers who specifically request a female electrician, and is thriving, both in her work life and on social media.

On Instagram, where she offers 20,000 followers electrical tips and advice as @kimmythesparks, there’s a vast network of tradeswomen cheering one another on. ‘We have events where we all meet up,’ she says. ‘It’s a supportive community.’

At school, her current career path was never mentioned to girls as an option. ‘Most of my friends did hairdressing or business courses,’ she says.

She was planning to study psychology at the University of Birmingham until a gap year admin job at a local electrical firm convinced her to enrol at college and start training. ‘I thought the work they were doing was so cool – starting with a problem and using logic and their hands to solve it,’ she says. ‘It’s so satisfying, and I love the diversity of the jobs I do.’

Skilled trades can be lucrative – top performing tradeswomen earn up to £82,000 a year via TaskHer jobs – flexible and unlikely to be replaced by AI. All reasons why Moynihan has noticed a growing number of women who skip university to train in the trades or leave white-collar careers to retrain. ‘There’s a much wider variety of women coming through now,’ she says. ‘In the past month alone we’ve onboarded three Oxbridge graduates.’

Gas engineer Daisy Kade Andrews

Daisy Kade Andrews, 32, studied illustration at university and worked in a series of office jobs before deciding to pursue the career she had wanted since school: becoming a gas engineer.

‘At school we were taught that apprenticeships were for people who weren’t very clever,’ she says. ‘We were told you needed a degree to get anywhere.’

She retrained in her late 20s, working during the day and attending night school, before completing an apprenticeship and recently becoming fully qualified. Her brother is an electrician, and it was the practical nature of trades like his that had always attracted her. ‘I don’t like being stuck at a desk all day,’ she says. ‘I like being out and about, getting on with something and seeing the final product.’

Midlife women are also making the switch. Emily Mawson, 45, spent two decades as a pastry chef, before retraining as a plasterer this year.

The decision was partly practical: having bought a house that needed work, she was tired of waiting for tradespeople to turn up and wondered if she could do it herself. But it was also about finding a career that gave her greater control over her working life.

‘I’m a single mum of three children and I wanted a skill that’s in demand, so I could bring in more money, and also be able to plan my own time,’ she says. ‘I only qualified recently, but I’m already working full-time and earning much more than I used to.’

Plasterer Emily Mawson

Her intensive plastering course was heavily male-dominated, with men making up around 75 per cent of the students. Her client list has surprised her, though. ‘I assumed it would be mostly women hiring me, but actually it’s been both sexes, so I’m hopeful some of the prejudices against women are starting to fade.’

She has particularly loved the positive feedback she receives from female clients. ‘I’ve been told I’m more approachable than tradesmen – they find it easier to ask me questions,’ she says. ‘One client also said she was relieved she could walk around her own house in her PJs and not worry.’

A time when women are as well represented as men in the trades may still be some way off. Moynihan believes one of the biggest barriers is not seeing women doing these jobs in the first place. ‘We’re working on that through schemes such as facilitating tradeswomen going into schools to talk to school leavers,’ she says. ‘They can say, “I look like you, I like getting my hair done, but I can also fix a boiler.”’

When it comes to the men in the industry, Maci has seen a welcome evolution in attitudes. ‘It’s rare to get a reaction now when I walk on-site,’ she says. ‘I’ve seen a huge progression in the past 12 years – back then, if you’d asked for a women’s toilet, you’d have been laughed at, but now it’s normal to have them.’

Women like her are also helping to shift perceptions by increasing the visibility of tradeswomen. ‘Representation is so important,’ Maci says. ‘The more women see other women like them doing it, the more confident they’ll be to enter the trades.’

For customers like me who actively seek out female tradespeople, the more women picking up tools, the better.