Ms Gaddi was the only female student in her Building and Construction course where she says the teachers would ask questions about the paperwork involved and ask the technical ones to only male students.
- Women make up just 11 per cent of the total workforce in the construction industry and just 1 per cent in building trades
- Even fewer women from Southasian communities in Australia are working in the building and construction industry
- Gitanjali Gaddi says she finds her career as a builder highly rewarding
Five years later, not only is she the only one from her batch to have a builders’ licence but also runs a company with her husband, building up to 25 homes every year.
“Because we both [Gitanjali and her husband Anuj] run our home building company, more often than not people assume that I look after the paperwork and my husband mans the construction site,” Ms Gaddi told SBS Punjabi.
Her husband Anuj Mehta who takes care of the marketing side of the business says most of their clients are happy to have Ms Gaddi oversee the construction of their dream homes.
Gitanjali Gaddi Source: Supplied
“She has a great eye for detail and our clients are more at ease with that knowing they’d get a home they had dreamt about,” Mr Mehta said.
However, it wasn’t an easy beginning. Before finally finding her calling in the building industry, Ms Gaddi had worked in finance, and almost became a nurse.
“I have always wanted to do something that didn’t involve sitting in a cubicle and ramming the keyboard. The opportunity came when a builder known to my husband was looking for someone to work on the construction site and I took it up,” she said.
Ms Gaddi says initially tradies at the worksite won’t give her respect and thought she didn’t know much about the trade.
“It was difficult but I knew this wasn’t something where one could steamroll a stamp of authority. I had to show them that I knew my job – what timber would go where and what part sand, gravel and cement to mix. I rather did it with a smile,” she said. 
Source: Supplied
According to Master Builders Australia, a nation-wide industry body, women make up only 11 per cent of the total workforce of the industry and only one per cent of the building trades.
In over five years of running her own construction business, Ms Gaddi says she came across a woman traide only once.
"There was a plumber who had a female apprentice with him and that's the only time we had a woman on our worksite. But I would like to encourage more women from our community to take up the tools and get into the industry as it's not just a well-paid work but also highly rewarding in other ways.
"It's been a male-dominated industry and when a woman is standing there and does the job as good or even better, it's a great feeling, not just for the individual but for all the women out there."
