The sound of the click of pliers filled a workshop in Hangzhou, eastern China, as a group of women practiced removing wires while their female instructor moved around the classroom to offer advice.
DIY and maintenance work is a male-dominated field in China, but a growing number of women living alone with a desire for self-sufficiency has led to a growing appetite for courses to teach such skills.
Across the country there are now many women-only repair groups, including Hangzhou workshop organizers Mulan Build.
“People are moving away from the traditional mindset that certain jobs should be associated with a specific gender,” Chen Ning, the 27-year-old founder, told AFP.
The engrossed students carefully inserted wires into junction boxes to make circuits connected to lights, the bulbs flickering one by one to signal a job well done.
Student Zhang Xuefen said many of her friends had been “extremely practical since they were kids”, proving it was not “just a male thing”.
“This kind of empowerment can be passed on to many women living alone today, helping them to tackle small household chores themselves,” said the 42-year-old.
The one-woman household is not a small demographic in China, with marriage rates falling and women more likely to be financially independent than before.
Student Xu Leran, 26, said inviting a man into one’s home could raise “security concerns” but with a female technician “I would definitely feel much more relaxed and communication would also be smoother.”
Instructor Wu Shuang said the challenges faced by women living alone are “a very real and objective issue.”
“For too long… their voices have been ignored and their needs overlooked.”
“Where were all the women?”
The popularity of such courses was made clear last month at a workshop in Shanghai run by another women-only company, 38fix – named for the date of March 8, International Women’s Day.
Noise and sawdust filled the room as dozens of students tried their hand at drilling through brick and wood.
Founder Kale Li told AFP she first became interested in the industry after growing tired of dealing with unstable and unreliable artisan prices in southwestern Chengdu, where she lives.
She signed up for an electrical engineering course, only to discover that her classmates were almost entirely male.
“I thought it was very strange,” Li said. “Where were all the women?”
Her company now has a month-long backlog, with workshops constantly booked.
One participant, who gave her nickname as Yiling, told AFP that she jumped at the chance to participate.
In regular classrooms full of men, “you can experience a lot of microaggressions,” she said.
Despite growing interest, barriers remain.
“It’s incredibly difficult for women to break into (the industry) … and many who are already in it don’t get the respect they deserve,” said Mulan Build’s Chen.
38fix’s Li said her team often faces increased scrutiny from customers – including women – who don’t believe they are as competent as men.
‘break free’
Some job platforms explicitly say they don’t accept female technicians, Mulan Build’s Wu said, while women face more barriers to promotion.
Mulan Build “sends a message: if these platforms choose to discriminate against us, we don’t need to rely on them,” she said.
It’s important that women have the opportunity to enter the profession, said Yang Mengchen, who heads another women-only equipment repair and cleaning team.
“It would make it much easier for women – especially those from rural areas or small towns – to come to the city and secure a stable career,” she said.
Li said she looked forward to the day when 38fix would no longer be “special” and that there were signs that this was already happening.
As well as Mulan Build and 38fix, there is Diandian Home Solution, a women-only plumbing and furniture assembly service operating in the southern cities of Guangzhou and Kunming.
It boasts more than 30,000 followers on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, where it posts videos of its technicians showing off their tools.
All-female cleaning companies are also expanding their skill sets.
Dressed in pink and purple and using a pink electric drill, Liu Xingyun, the founder of Shero, deftly tore through the air conditioner when AFP accompanied her on a recent home visit.
“I don’t want anyone to be limited by their gender,” she said.
“Whether they’re girls or boys, I hope they can break free from the shackles of gender and do what they really want to do.”
