Women Tool Up for Independence with DIY Parties

By Jonathan Brown
The Independent UK

Tuesday 03 January 2006

A cold night in an affluent suburb in Denver, Colorado. Inside a well-appointed, detached home a dozen women are gathered.

Aged mainly in their mid-forties, the excited talk among this group of female graduate professionals is of only one thing: tools. They have come here to debate the relative virtues of the V-notch trowel against that of its square-notched rival. Then there is the question of whether to stock up on a few more rolls of waterproof tarp, splash out on a new eight-inch adjustable wrench or invest in that state-of-the art, easy-action caulking gun they have set their hearts on.

Once upon a time their mothers may have come together with friends in just such a manner to purchase Tupperware, or cosmetics. But, as the astounding success of the US-based company Tomboy Tools testifies, this new generation is happily colonising a market that was traditionally the preserve of their husbands.

Such is the success of "tool parties" among women in the United States that Tomboy Tools is exporting the concept across the Atlantic. From March, British women will be invited to break open the nibbles, pour out the wine and get to grips with the latest innovations in DIY design.

Janet Rickstrew founded Tomboy Tools along with two friends in 2000 after attending a Pampered Chef party in their home town of Denver. "We had a lot of fun, but it wasn't enough. We thought we should do something else," the 42-year-old former university maintenance department worker said.

Now the company has 500 party consultants in the United States and a further 150 in Canada. They expect to double the number of party planners this year as well as rolling out in the UK.

Recent research has suggested that 80 per cent of home improvement decisions and 60 per cent of DIY purchases are now made by women, according to the business consultancy the Proficiency Group, which organised the first Rethink Pink Marketing to Women Award this year.

And this new breed of consumers are not just painting cupboard doors and putting up new curtains. More than half say they have repaired a faulty lavatory, while 46 per cent say that they have fixed a leaking tap.

In the United States, retailers were quick to get on board the female DIY revolution, although it was often women themselves who pioneered the change. Barbara Kavovit, who was the former head of a New York construction company, has launched her own range of tools for women. And that does not just mean painting them pink. Specially designed to fit a woman's hand, slightly smaller and lighter to make them easier to handle, they are also stylish and not a little chic. "Every woman should be self-sufficient," the 36-year-old single mother said recently. "I didn't want to reinvent the hammer, which has been around since the caveman era, but I wanted to create tools that felt a little bit softer and a touch lighter and came with an empowerment message." British companies are catching on too.

And British consumers are also being spurred by the appeal of female-friendly shows such as House Invaders and the success of stars such as Linda Barker, Anna Ryder Richardson and Property Ladder's Sarah Beeny.

Ms Rickstrew is confident that tool parties will take off in the UK, which has similar rates of women owning their own homes. Single women account for 21 per cent of all households, while divorce and widowhood is steadily swelling these numbers.

"In the past, women thought that it wasn't their job and that it was down to their husbands. Now it is a question of fostering confidence and empowerment. Women just need the education so we teach them a few simple things like patching or tiling in a non-threatening atmosphere where they are not in fear of being made to look foolish."

So women, who in Virginia Woolf's memorable phrase, once aspired to owning a room of one's own as the apotheosis of independence, could soon be rewiring and plumbing it themselves too.