When Vashti shows up to worksites, there often aren't toilets for women

Women working on construction sites say they often have to plead with their employers to get them to put in a female toilet. Key points: The Electrical Trades Union wants toilets designed for women to be mandatory on worksites Just 2 per cent of Australia's electricians are women Electrician Vashti Arndt has often worked on sites without female toilets A report released today by the Electrical Trades Union links a lack of women's facilities with the incredibly small number of women in the trade — women make up just 2 per cent of Australia's electricians. "I definitely have been on sites where there's only one portable toilet and there's no sanitary bin in that, so you have to find the closest skip and do like a real awkward sort of walk to the bin and hope no-one notices you've got a handful of tampon." "We hear again and again from the women in our industries that they don't want to go to the toilet because even if there is a toilet on site it's 15 minutes' walk away, whereas the men's is just on the same level. "We're already seeing calls to bring in 30,000 temporary skilled migrants into the resource sector, and it's stark that it's seen as cheaper to fly in 30,000 men than making workplaces somewhere women actually want to work."