There is a distinct sense of class and composure on one building site in Canberra, with women hired for all key roles on two construction projects.

Ruiz Constructions have been hired to build two Housing ACT homes in the suburb of Richardson, the project managers say they are going to try and fill all the required roles with female workers. They have already taken on tradeswomen for carpentry, electrical and concrete work.

The project is designed to encourage more women to get into the construction industry. So far the women already recruited say their time and connections in the male-dominated construction world has really not been bad. Two said their fathers were in the business and had encouraged their interest, while plumber-turned-hydraulic engineer Rebecca Sweeting followed a hunch and hasn't looked back, saying “I just always thought plumbing would be a lot of fun – I told my guy friends to do it then thought why don't I do it... I didn't get a hard time.”

Helen Badger, president of the National Association of Women in Construction ACT said the project was only the second female-focused building operation in Australia. She also said figures from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency showed 11.7 per cent of Australia's one million construction industry workers are women, with about 16,000 in the trades.