I do believe our economy will shift thanks to AI; and one consequence will be that trades like plumbing and being an electrician will be even more appealing.
However, some trade jobs involve showing up at strangers’ houses. From a safety perspective, that may be less appealing to women than men. Perhaps working in pairs is the way to go.
Many of my tradespeople come in pairs already even tho most are men. It’s often handy to have two workers when one is doing one thing while the other does something else. Often the older one is also training the younger one and has him do more of the running back to the truck for one more tool.
Oh, yes to this! We recently had a warranty repair on an appliance, and the man who repaired it told us a story about how he had to leave a customer’s home without payment when two very large, menacing men appeared as he tried to collect payment. Getting robbed is bad … being assaulted is worse.
That’s awful that the tradespeople are threatened, robbed & assaulted. Realtors can suffer similar fates as they can do showings solo. People can file claims against them if they’re up for it, but that’s resource intensive. 
I remember some business decades ago that advertised that their repair workers were women. This niche outfit was designed to make women at home waiting for repairmen feel safer.
And then there are single women who might prefer a female tradesperson to do some handiwork. 
Personal anecdote: our builder sent a female contractor to do the one year warranty fixes at our house when I told him that I would be home to let the contractor in.
Yikes - seems like those with evil intentions would be drawn to that company, not just single female homeowners.
You’re correct! Maybe they only worked with female homeowners? I don’t remember, and I think that they are out of business now.
A great song, but a low debt, low status job.
So if women start making up 50.1% of trades, military, law enforcement and firefighting will men stop doing that too? Seems to me the solution is for men to see women as complete humans just like they are and worthy coworkers rather than seeing women and the work they do, no matter what it is, as less than.
Of course not. I don’t believe the “male flight” narrative.
Here’s a local story about a female plumber.
Females are already excelling at a lot of these trade jobs as well as military, law enforcement/Firefighter - so I’m not sure anything specific needs to be done to make them female-friendly - maybe a separate porta-john on construction sites? I’ll admit to never having seen a female on the masonry crews, but I’ve seen them in every other construction job (I’ve even seen a couple of female roofers and that is a tough job! I also know female heavy equipment operators).
A popular air-conditioning company in my area heavily recruits female technicians and all of their commercials feature both male and female techs. Like another poster mentioned - most come in pairs and with a hand truck.
The best home inspector we worked with was a petite woman. She was soooo thorough! And could definitely get into all small nooks and crannies to take a close look.
The city we used to live in sent a female inspector to check our hot water heater installation.
Both of these women apparently worked in construction for a while and switched gears into a field where their skills and knowledge came in handy.
Air conditioning (and other building and repair trades) work can involve crawling through tight spaces in attics and crawl spaces. Small people (more likely to be women) are more likely to be able to maneuver in such tight spaces.
But you get your chicks for free.
Plumbing involves tight spaces and also tight spots where small hands are definitely an asset. The older supervising workers are happy to have the younger smaller workers help for these jobs.
Regarding law enforcement, there is some (but not much) research on how the gender of police officers affects likelihood of misconduct. Some of the research suggests that female officers are less likely to commit misconduct, while other research suggests no significant gender difference.
If it is true that female officers are less likely to commit misconduct, then it may be advantageous for police departments to hire more female officers, in order to reduce the costs of misconduct (lawsuit payouts and decline of trust in the police department that worsens the effectiveness of the police department).
HVAC also requires crawling around in tight spaces. My S’s buddy is in HVAC, and he was thrilled to trade heat/AC installation & repair for repair, maintenance & installation of bar/restaurant equipment (soda, ice, draft systems). Good pay, good hours & no crawl spaces!
That’s only when you become a successful rock star…unfortunately not as an appliance installer…
Now look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free
Now that ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it
Lemme tell ya, them guys ain’t dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb
…
I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin’ in the camera man
We could have some
And he’s up there, what’s that?
Hawaiian noises?
Bangin’ on the bongos like a chimpanzee
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothin’, get your chicks for free
But even when he was keeping the beat , Juliet still said she just used to have a scene with him….