Hard Work Has No Gender

Bisley workwear launches their women’s range as research reveals female tradies at risk on work site.

Bisley Workwear is paving the way for diversity in the workplace by consulting with female tradies to create an innovative new range of protective clothing and workwear, designed specifically for women. The range has been created following Bisley Workwear’s ongoing industry research that revealed female tradies may be putting themselves in danger on the worksite due to a lack of protective clothing options available to them. Nearly half of female tradies surveyed for the report have stated that they have worn casual, or non-safety clothing on-site due to a lack of options available to them, with (40%) saying that they feel less safe at work because of ill-fitting garments offered to them. Three in five women also said that they have worn workwear designed for men.

When wearing ill-fitting workwear, female tradies have reported that they are more likely to feel more self-conscious (45%), feel like they don’t belong (20%), and feel like they can’t work as hard as they want to (33%). Bisley Workwear consulted with five Australian female tradies who were able to consult on the real practicalities of women’s need on the jobsite. One of these female tradies is Aimee Stanton. Aimee said: “One of my favourite features in the new range is the reinforced panelling – which provides additional support and stops the material wearing through. I also generally feel safer on the worksite when I’m wearing clothes which I know have been designed specifically for women.” According to the research, Aimee is not alone in the challenges she faced. A startling 9 in 10 (87%) female tradies surveyed also reported experiencing difficulties when trying to find protective clothing or workwear.

BISLEY WORKWEAR TRADIES REPORT:
FINDINGS SNAPSHOT

• A third (33%) of female tradies feel like they can’t work as hard as they want to when wearing poorly fitting workwear.
• 71% of female tradies reported that the most common area of difficulty when trying to find suitable workwear is the fit of the clothing available.
• Female tradies are nearly three times as likely as male tradies to experience difficulties finding something made for their shape (37% / males 13%).
• Female tradies are nearly twice as likely to report feeling more self-conscious (43% / males 22%) and like they don’t belong (20% / males 11%) when wearing uncomfortable protective clothing or workwear than male tradies.

For Bisley Workwear’s Managing Director and Owner, David Gazal, he knew he had to do something about these statistics. He said, “The safety of workers is the foundation of our business. When our research revealed that tradeswomen were feeling unsafe and uncomfortable on the worksite, we realised the need for a new industrywide approach to women’s workwear. For our new range, we developed a three-dimensional fit model with our consulting tradies based on how tradeswomen move and work, variations in fit and size, and the best silhouettes for functional, professional, and safe workwear. We’re proud to be at the forefront of this design innovation in our industry to help reduce on-site safety inequalities.” Scott Cam, Bisley Workwear’s Ambassador for the past 20 years said, “We want to fill our industry with the most qualified, skilled, and able tradespeople, and provide anyone with the opportunity to become exceptionally skilled. We need to provide all genders with the right equipment to do so. Until now, the future of Australian industries has been overlooked by ignoring the fact that different tradies have different needs. There is no onesize- fits-all approach and Bisley Workwear recognises this.”