Connecting women in roofing from America to New Zealand

By Dani Sheehan. 

See how these roofing organizations are bridging continents for women and highlighting the importance of expanding your connections within the industry. 

We talk about the roofing industry as a close-knit community, but in some cases, the connections you make can spread across continents. In Season 5, Episode 51 of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth traveled across the globe to talk with the Founding Chair of New Zealand Women in Roofing (NZWiR) Jenny Maxwell. Sharing a love for the industry and wanting to empower women in roofing, the two chat about the formation of NZWiR, its impact on women in the industry and some of the similarities and differences between roofing in the U.S. and New Zealand. 

Jenny has been to the International Roofing Expo (IRE) three times and said it’s a different dynamic in New Zealand. She shared, “New Zealand is 80% metal, so very few tiles, hardly any asphalt. There is a bit of membrane roofing, but generally just in the commercial space. While there are similarities, there’s quite a big void between what we do in New Zealand and what happens in America, and I think that comes down particularly to climate.” When the entire continent is an island, it’s critical to keep houses safe and waterproof. 

This also helped spark the founding of NZWiR. After having attended a National Women in Roofing Day in New Orleans in 2018, Jenny went back to spread the word and start her own association. She explained, “All I wanted to do was get people excited about what this could do and how we could achieve some stuff to support women in roofing. And New Zealand’s not a big place, and it goes to stand for the fact that because we are small, we all become a little bit isolated. We’ve got people all over the country in small towns that don’t necessarily know a lot of people.” 

Borrowing the four pillars from National Women in Roofing (NWiR), they have been successful in education, networking and mentoring. Recruitment has been a struggle, but they’ve expanded to other trade organizations as well and have been gaining some traction. While they won’t attend IRE 2024, they look forward to making it in 2025 and continue to share ideas and  borrow from other organizations around the world. 

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast episode to hear more about NZWiR’s latest initiatives and how it’s connecting women in New Zealand and across the globe!