It's hard to miss the explosion of DIY content that has hit our social media feeds over the last decade. From quick reels on how to fix cracks in walls, to complicated YouTube tutorials on building alcove seating from scratch, the internet is chock-a-block with seemingly endless home improvement demos. While DIY was once seen as more of a male domain, female influencers are inspiring a new generation of women to take matters into their own hands.
Meanwhile, demand for female professionals is rising, while some women are changing careers to take up trades which they see as more AI-proof than their desk jobs. DIY influencer Jasmine Gurney has documented an impressive and exhausting sounding list of tasks on Instagram. She has torn down partition walls, replaced flooring, erected a fence, insulated and boarded her loft, built an outdoor workshop, made custom cabinetry, moved plug sockets, made her son his first bed and has been building him a treehouse.
Eight months pregnant, the former marketer is now racing to finish building a fitted wardrobe before the new baby arrives. "I like proving people wrong," says Jasmine, 33, from Bedfordshire, who says she's been trolled by people questioning her techniques but they just "spur me on more". "I'm showing and empowering other women to do it," she says.
"I've shown me doing things whilst pregnant, I've had my firstborn strapped to me in a baby carrier while doing things. "I'm just showing that we are capable, we are interested in this sort of stuff and... we're sick of waiting around for six months for our husbands to pick up the tools and do it in most cases." Jasmine says her page really took off during Covid when people couldn't get professionals in so needed to learn to do jobs themselves. While the lockdowns are long over, demand for content like hers has stuck, she believes, because there aren't enough tradespeople to meet demand, and cost of living pressures are squeezing budgets.
Gen Z women are "leading the charge in challenging gendered DIY stereotypes", according to a 2024 report by B&Q. Around three-quarters of Gen Z women surveyed said they enjoy DIY, compared to 60% of all female respondents. And 82% of Gen Z women said seeing women doing more complex home DIY on social media had inspired them to do more themselves, versus 60% of women in general.
Of course, not all jobs are DIY. Sometimes you'll need to GSI (get someone in). Bliss Cunneen walked away from an Anthropology university course in 2020 to train as a plumber.
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