IT MIGHT be a man’s world, but who cares? Kane Constructions chippie-in-training Ema Blakeney-Manson reckons she has what it takes to match the blokes.
And as the only girl on the building site (and the classroom), the teenager has her work cut out for her.
Ms Blakeney-Manson, 19, works as an apprentice carpenter for Kane on our Bathers apartment project in Cronulla and studies at Sydney Institute Sutherland College, Gymea.
A recent state government report revealed that only 1 percent of carpentry apprenticeships in the state are female. There are fewer than 200 female carpenter and joiner apprentices and trainees in Australia, compared with more than 24,000 males. Only six of this year’s 315 enrolments at Gymea and Randwick were girls.
‘‘I love what I do — it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,’’ Ms Blakeney-Manson said. ‘‘Mum was always handy around the house; she built shelves and a pergola in the garden.
‘‘Then my boyfriend got me a job as a brickie’s labourer, but the mud ate my hands and I got calluses.
‘‘That’s when the girlie side came out, and I decided to go into carpentry because it varies so much.’’
Getting a job was not a cinch.
‘‘It took me months of sending out about 30 resumés,’’ she said. ‘‘Now I’m the only girl on a building site of 40.
‘‘If I’m struggling, the guys give me a hand. But I don’t want to work with tools forever; I’d love to get into construction administration.’’
