Maria was delighted to speak at the 40th Anniversary Reception of Women and Manual Trades. WAMT was the first group formed by women to promote working in construction and building services as a positive and enjoyable option for women. There are very few women working in today’s construction industry, and those that do often feel isolated and face sexism and harassment. However, the construction industry, suffering from a skills shortage, is keen to recruit women to the trades.

WAMT’s aim has always been to represent and support women working and training in skilled trades. They provide, and develop, services that respond to the needs of their member tradeswomen, wanting to increase the number of women working in industries where they are underrepresented, and to help them improve their prospects and economic capacity.

Maria said “I congratulate WAMT for the excellent work that they do to promote careers in the construction and building services to women, as well as the great support that they provide to women in the trade.

"Discrimination faced by women in this field must be tackled, as it is vital that the construction industry recruits more women to fill the skills gap. Getting more women into manual trade is essential to boosting the UK’s economy. We must ensure that women tradespeople in the UK are the norm and not the exception.”