DIY Home Improvement and woodworking is pretty much a man’s world. Right?
Nope.
A pair of surveys show a surprising shift in who’s more likely to wear the tool belt in modern households.
Ladies doing more DIY
Bosch conducted a survey in Britain, France and Germany and discovered an increasing percentage of women are taking on home DIY projects across Europe. I suspect if similar surveys were conducted in North America we’d see the same trend.
According to an article on GetWoodworking.com
"More than 80 per cent of the women surveyed said they happily did DIY jobs when necessary, with 35 per cent saying they did so regularly. 43 per cent considered it to be an issue of particular importance. One in three respondents was happy to take on more demanding projects, such as furniture restoration."
Bosch feels it relates to changing social trends towards women’s financial independence and the increase in single households.
Are men losing their DIY skills?
The DIY gender shift tilts even more if you add to that the suggestion that 21st century men are more skilled at solving a technology glitch than swinging a hammer.
According to this House to Home article:
"Out of the 2,000 men that were questioned only 32% of under-25s were able to fix the latest DIY problem in their home, compared with 55% of under-35s and 83% of over-55s.
The drop in men’s DIY skills is blamed, in part, on fathers not passing on their skills to their sons. For example, in the 1970s, 71% of men learned skills, such as putting up shelves, from their dad."
DIY blogs reinforce the surveys
I’ve found this seems to be the case when searching for DIY ideas on the interwebs. There are plenty of blogs on DIY home furniture projects, and interior decor & design that are authored by women such as Apartment Therapy and Marie’s Home Improvement. This may be partly due to the fact that women may be more inclined to share their ideas or promote their business through blogs than men.
