The Lady Tradie serving a male dominated industry

Summar Mcauliffen of Quintessential Plumbing is, by her own admission, a “ladie tradie”, operating in the male-dominated plumbing industry and overcoming stereotypes on a daily basis. 

Working with her partner, Kelvin Quinn, Summar takes care of both the front & back office of her plumbing business while her partner mans the tools. 

“Customers don’t care whether they talk to a man or woman, but sometimes they ask me whether I’ll be the one to fix their issue or whether someone else will be fixing it. The tension here is that perhaps the customer is expecting a man to tend to their issue, particularly if it is a nasty plumbing one,” Summar said. 

Government figures show fewer than 2 per cent of construction and electrical tradespeople in Australia are women, putting Summar in a slim minority of women who run & operate a trade business.

Summar and her partner Kelvin have generated in excess of $60,000 through the website ServiceSeeking.com.au since joining just under two years ago. Work seems to be picking up, though, with more than $10,000 generated over the last week. 

“It hasn’t always been easy for us. My partner recently had a shoulder reconstruction, and due to that, we’ve had to put on more staff. We now have two plumbers working for us and maintain two work vehicles“. 

They are obviously doing something right, as they have generated in excess of 100 positive reviews and are continuing to expand. 

Summar is an inspiration to all women who have a desire to enter a male-dominated industry. While female tradies are increasingly running their own businesses and capturing underserved markets, they’re not always interested in putting their gender front and centre.