Australia, 10 October, 2022:

New content shatters stereotypes within the Australian trade industry and sets standards for authentic and inclusive representation of women

 

[Image credit: Louise Beaumont/iStock]

iStock, a leading e-commerce platform providing premium content to SMBs, SMEs, creatives, and students everywhere, and Tradeswomen Australia, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to increasing the representation of women in skilled trade roles, have released new images of real Australian female tradies. Available now for the media and advertising industries to view, licence and use in their next project or campaign, these images aim to empower brands with content that drives a more authentic representation of female tradies in Australia.

While many brands and businesses are working towards greater inclusion, some still use outdated stock imagery that doesn’t reflect the reality of many industries — tradies are no exception—. In fact, according to iStock’s visual research platform, VisualGPS, 70% of women in ANZ do not feel represented by everyday images. Media and advertising still struggle to represent multiple intersections of identity, such as race and ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, bodies and religion. Through updated visuals that reflect the diversity and authentic representation of Australia’s trade industry, iStock is challenging the status quo and breaking stereotypes so that brands can lead the way in changing perception.

TWA and iStock call on Australian businesses to join them in redefining how women are represented in the images we see around us every single day, especially where systemic and structural gender inequality continues to be a major issue. These images, taken by Australian Photographer Louise Beaumont, feature five real female tradies, selected from Tradeswomen Australia’s community, instead of models in an effort to prevent tokenism, and will feature in Project #ShowUs the world’s largest stock photo library created in partnership with Dove by women and non-binary individuals to shatter beauty stereotypes by showing women as they are, not as others believe they should be:

● Safa Hablas – a gardener who runs her own business, based in Melbourne — Horticulture
● Luisa Pardo – working as a mechanic apprentice, based in Melbourne — Automotive
● Keeley Mason – aviation apprentice, based in Cairns — Aviation
● Jennah Halley – plumbing apprentice specialising in HVAC, based in Cairns — Construction
● Kate Lucas – electrician and 2021 ETU National Apprentice of the Year, based in Melbourne —Electrical

These images come at a pivotal time for Australia’s trade industries which face persistent, national shortages of skilled labour and a critical need to lift female workforce participation. According to Tradeswomen Australia, women’s representation in core trades remains at less than 2 per cent, with ‘lack of engagement’ and ‘social misconceptions’ key barriers to making trades an attractive career path for women.

“Tradies are quintessentially Australian, making up almost a third of the workforce. But the visual representation of tradies hasn’t kept up with Australia’s richly diverse population,” said Kate Rourke, Getty Images and iStock Head of Creative, APAC. “By tapping into Tradeswomen Australia’s community to find real female tradies from different backgrounds, working across a range of industries, we hope to foster not only a more meaningful, authentic and inclusive representation of tradies in visual storytelling, but to raise reflection on how other underrepresented groups are being visualised in media and advertising.”

“We know that greater connection is made with our community when we show real tradeswomen in our communications,” said Fiona McDonald, founder of Tradeswomen Australia. “But as a not-for-profit organisation, we have limited resources to build our own library of quality images and found that current stock imagery does not accurately reflect female tradeswomen and undervalues the hard work they do.”

“We’re excited to partner with iStock to support our goal of increasing the representation of diverse women in trade settings, with the many industry associations and businesses that we partner with. Visual representation in Australia’s trade industries matters; after all, you can’t be what you can’t see.”

iStock will continue to add images and videos to the gallery, with more opportunities for inspiring Australian tradies to be photographed and featured. To mark the gallery’s launch, iStock, is offering a discount code to encourage small business owners in the trade industry to use these images that depict the real Aussie tradies. Discount code is REALTRADIES and is valid until December 30.
To see the full gallery of images visit: https://www.istockphoto.com/diversity

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About iStock

iStock is a leading global source of visual content offering small to mid-sized businesses and individuals a powerful way to make their message stand out to consumers. iStock offers over 151 million premium quality stock photos, illustrations, vectors and video clips sourced from the crowd and available via simple, affordable pricing. Combining iStock’s exclusive global contributor community with parent company Getty Images’ extensive resources and creative trends expertise, iStock further delivers market leading quality, curating distinct and authentic creative stock content only available at www.istock.com.  For company news and announcements, visit our Press Room; For insights visit the iStock blog. Find iStock on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also download the iStock app where you can easily search, save and share premium quality content to create standout visual communications.

About Tradeswomen Australia

Tradeswomen Australia Group strives for gender equality and empowerment for all girls and women to access, participate and succeed in trades. We’re working to educate, encourage, recruit, and retain more women in trade careers. We raise community awareness as well as educate and support women who may be in vulnerable situations to transition to financial and life security. We do this through encouraging them into trade pathways and then careers, by connecting them to trades employers. We support businesses in all trade industries to hire from a previously untapped workforce – women! We do
this by leading large-scale culture change projects that aim to change social attitudes in the workforce, empowering businesses to take the lead and remove barriers for women wishing to enter their trade.

About Tradeswomen Australia’s founder, Fiona McDonald 

Fiona McDonald’s career began as a light vehicle apprentice. During her apprenticeship and time working in the automotive industry, she identified a lack of support, promotion and opportunities for women in trade industries. Fiona decided to start a networking group for women in trades and Tradeswomen Australia was born. Fiona is passionate about establishing and enabling partnerships with businesses, government and industry. During her term in operations, Fiona oversaw and implemented strategies to increase the participation of women in trades building Tradeswomen Australia into a national organisation. Fiona’s vision is to see TWA create safe and equitable workplaces for everyone.

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