96.5% of plumbers are male, leaving half the potential workforce untapped

Only 3.5% of plumbers are female, making it one of the most gender-skewed occupations in the U.S. economy. In an industry short 550,000 workers, this means roughly half the potential labor pool is effectively excluded. The people who suffer are women who want to enter the trade but face jobsite culture barriers, lack of appropriately sized PPE and workwear, no female mentors or journeywomen to apprentice under, and outright harassment (documented across trades). The industry itself suffers because the labor shortage that drives $150+/hour emergency rates and multi-week wait times could be partially addressed by tapping the other 50% of the population. This persists for structural reasons: high school career counseling still steers girls away from trades, apprenticeship programs have nearly zero female enrollment pipelines, plumbing marketing and branding is overwhelmingly masculine, and the physical-labor stereotype discourages entry even though modern plumbing (PEX, power tools, trenchless technology) is far less physically demanding than it was 30 years ago. The 96.5/3.5 split has barely moved in a decade.