Crew cementing lady tradies

The ribbon has been cut for a local networking site to equip the high-rising number of women on the tools.

The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) officially added a Te Tauihu (Top of the South) storey on 13 March and will work hard to nail connections for all local wāhine in the industry and lay the foundations for budding female blue-collars.

Co-chair of the Te Tauihu chapter and BCITO Nelson training advisor, Angela Zalewski-Guest, says blueprints for the initiative were first drawn after she attended a NAWIC awards evening in 2024.

“There was a shout-out for anyone who is local to Nelson or the top of the South Island to show their interest in starting a chapter and I then got in touch with the right people,” she says.

“For me, it was about knowing that there are lots of women in construction, I see them working all around the place, and I work with them as apprentices in my job.

“It was a big interest for me to connect local wāhine again to learn about each other’s journeys, and inspire each other to keep going as well because sometimes it can be a lonely place to be.”

Angela reckons there had been a “steady growth” of local women in construction in her 11 months in Nelson, and says Te Tauihu had the second-highest number of BCITO apprentices who are women. When asked why Nelson Tasman women are building construction careers, Angela says the reasons were multistoried.

“Sometimes there are husband and wife duos, and the wife will be interested, or she’ll be doing the books, and then she’ll be roped into doing some work, and then all of a sudden, she realises, ‘I really enjoy this work’,” she says.

“Then she hops into an apprenticeship, whether that be in painting or tiling, it’s not exclusive to carpentry.

“Other reasons are they’ve inspired young women at high school, their dad might be a builder, or they might have grown up wanting to be in the trades from an early age.”

Angela and co-chair Priyani de Silva-Currie also want local industry-related or industry-adjacent businesses and industry leaders to raise the initiative’s roof to add value.

Contact [email protected] for more information.