This Campaign Uses Drag to Get Tradeswomen Taken Seriously

A collective of six incredible LGBTQIA+ tradeswomen from across the UK have joined forces this National Decorating Month to raise awareness of the gender-based discrimination they face in the trades industry, and urge people to make hiring a tradeswoman a normality. Especially given that one in three women in the UK feel safer hiring a tradeswoman.

‘Trade Places’ features a photo series of LGBTQIA+, London based decorating collective Corky’s Painters, who share their experiences of being tradeswomen in a male dominated industry - all the while being transformed into their male counterparts through drag.

The collective also feature in a 60-second social film where they call out some of the gender-based slurs and mansplaining they’ve faced whilst working, to further highlight the urgency to help end gender-based discrimination in the trade sector.  

Headed up by Poppy Tingay, 24, Corky’s Painters features six women from an LGBTQIA+ background aged 24-33, from across the UK. Poppy founded her all women decorating team in 2023, with a goal to create an inclusive space for tradeswomen and their careers. She noticed the rise in women looking to hire tradeswomen for painting and decorating jobs in their homes, and recognised the benefits for both her team and clients, to champion skilled women in the trade.

The construction industry has an issue with women. The average hourly rate for self-employed men is 43% higher than women - meaning women have to work five more months each year to achieve parity. 39% of tradeswomen aren’t taken seriously because of their gender, and almost one in 10 (9%) had customers who will not let them work on a job when they find out they’re a woman. This is further amplified when considering the LGBTQIA+ community, with 60% of LGBTQIA+ employees experiencing homophobic and derogatory terms at work.

Poppy Tingay, founder, Corky’s Painters says, “For myself and many members of the team, working in a male dominated trade has been a real struggle. Having previously worked for companies with mostly male employees, we have frequently been undermined in the workplace, based on our gender. Not only have we been undermined or belittled, but some of us have even experienced sexual harassment at work. 

Currently, everyone at Corky’s Painters identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community and has previously experienced further struggles as a result of being openly queer at work. We decided to set up our own women-run team after sharing our stories and realising how important it is to create spaces in which women can feel comfortable working in trades. All of us on the team truly love being decorators and would never have wanted to leave the trade because of the hardships we’ve faced. That’s why I’m so grateful to now have the opportunity to raise awareness of the stigma and bias that is still very prevalent in the industry. One member of Corky’s Painters is actually already a decorator by day, drag king by night, so this project was a special way to get more tradeswomen like us taken seriously.”

Highlighting the burgeoning demand for nearly a million new tradespeople over the next decade to keep up with demand, it has never been more important to raise awareness of the growing gender pay gap for women who are considering joining the industry. On average, the hourly rate for self-employed men is £23 compared to the £16 hourly charge for women. Self-employed tradeswomen would have to work five extra months per year to match a man’s salary across trade roles.

In addition to this, workplace discrimination is amplified in the LGBTQIA+ community, with 60% of LGBTQIA+ employees experiencing homophobic and derogatory terms at work.

TaskHer, an online platform for skilled and trusted tradeswomen in the UK, is backing the project by launching painter and decorator directories on their websites, to help more tradeswomen get hired this National Decorating month.

Anna Moynihan, co-founder, from TaskHer says, “We all have unconscious bias. Assuming everyone working in the trades are all men is such a hugely common one - even to people who are free thinkers in other areas. Our mission at TaskHer is to diversify the trades - because diversity improves everything, for everyone. 

“This project speaks directly to our north star. The trades are an exciting, lucrative and flexible arena to work in, and there’s space for more people to benefit from that.”