A trainee plumber has complained of sexism in the industry after sending out hundreds

of job applications and getting no responses.

Caroline Hughes, 34, of Hove, is about to finish her training at Sussex Downs College, Eastbourne, and is looking for work with a plumbing or construction firm.

Her work at college has been so good that she has even been nominated for an award.

But she says she has discovered the hard way that the most important qualification for getting a job in the trade is being a man.

She told The Argus: "I am sending out about 25 letters a week to plumbing and construction companies but getting no responses.

"One plumber I called told me I would never get a job in the trade, primarily because I am a woman.

"Another told me he and others would be wary of taking on women due to the risk of having to pay for maternity leave."

Data from the Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineers (IPHE) suggests fewer than one per cent of construction and plumbing workers are female.

Of the 3,000 plumbing apprentices in 2004, only 22 were women.

This is in stark contrast to research carried out in schools, which showed that 80 per cent of girls were interested in non-traditional jobs.

Christopher Powell, Caroline's tutor, has recommended her for a college achievement award in recognition of all the work she has put in.

He said: "I'm afraid it's true - women have to work harder than men in order to survive in plumbing."

Caroline is not the first woman to claim prejudice in the male-dominated construction and plumbing industries.

Trainee bricklayer Lisa Hill, 17, was featured in The Argus in December 2004 after being turned down ten times for work experience in Eastbourne and Hastings.

She told The Argus: "When I ring up a company asking for an apprenticeship, they realise I'm a girl and say: Don't mess me about love. We want somebody who's going to be able to do the work for us.'"

Ros Wall, manager of Jive Partners, a partnership of ten organisations promoting workplace equality, said: "Women who work in manual trade positions tend to be high achievers.

"When women are training to become manual workers, the qualifications they obtain are usually higher than those of their male counterparts."

Lisa Morgan has recently set up a new West Sussex-based website which hopes to meet this demand.

Founded last year, www.leaveittotheladies.com is a directory which helps clients find companies which are either run by, owned by, or can offer women workers on request.

She said: "The idea came to me when I had a bad experience with a service engineer in my home.

"I had great difficulty getting him to leave, and was left intimidated by the experience.

"Although we knew there were women out there to be hired, there seemed to be no way of finding them. The website was born out of this need."

Her business partner Lucy Lockyear said: "Out of the clients we have, those in traditionally male-dominated industries tend to have had to set up on their own."