Hairdresser to Carpenter: Women Double in Construction Trades

At 32, Hayley Miles walked away from her successful hairdressing business to start over as an apprentice carpenter. Nine years later, she runs her own carpentry business and represents a dramatic shift happening across Australia's construction industry.

The numbers tell an encouraging story. Women now make up 13 percent of Australia's construction workforce, and enrollment in trade courses has more than doubled between 2020 and 2025. While still a small proportion, industry leaders say this growth signals genuine change in one of the country's most male-dominated fields.

Miles grew up surrounded by both worlds. Her dad was a carpenter and her mum a beauty therapist, giving her a front-row seat to very different career paths. After more than a decade cutting hair, she picked up a hammer and chisel instead.

The transition wasn't easy. As a mature-age apprentice, she went from running a business and earning good money to trainee wages. But the short-term sacrifice paid off with long-term rewards.

Jennifer Perkins, an electrician who started her apprenticeship in 1987, has watched the transformation firsthand. For the first 20 years of her career, she never met another tradeswoman. Now, as executive director of teaching and learning in construction at TAFE NSW, she sometimes sees classes where half the students are women.

Perkins' own career started almost by accident when her mum insisted she have a plan before leaving school. Flipping through a TAFE handbook, "electrician" caught her eye. That moment set her on a nearly 40-year trajectory in the trades.

The shift isn't just about fairness. Australia's construction industry faces serious workforce shortages, and recruiting from the entire population instead of half immediately expands the talent pool. Diversity of thought strengthens teams and workplaces too.

Why This Inspires

Workplace culture remains the biggest hurdle. Tenille Reilly, who manages a women in trades support program on the Gold Coast, says many women struggle to find their first apprenticeship because of unconscious bias. Employers simply haven't seen women on job sites before, so they default to what they've always known.

But women like Miles are proving that trades offer genuine opportunity. The work is lucrative, allows skilled professionals to set their own rates, and opens doors that many women didn't know existed when they were younger.

Miles' advice to women considering a similar leap is straightforward: You're never too old or too female to start. For her, swapping scissors for a circular saw opened up a whole new world.