Isabelle McLellan is 72 and a retired nurse who has taken up woodworking despite having a knowledge base of "zero".
“Just do some whittling [carving] today, it was loads of fun,” she says.
Ms McLellan is among dozens of women to join Western Australia’s first women’s shed — a place for women of all ages to connect and build skills in the Perth suburb of Scarborough.
She says a chronic shoulder after many years of nursing means she probably won't be coming out of retirement just yet, but she's found the experience “empowering”.
Isabelle McLellan is upskilling at the Stirling Women's Shed. Credit: SBS / Rachel Cary
And that’s what this expanding women’s shed movement is all about.
After a 10-year campaign, the not-for-profit community organisation has opened its first temporary shed in the Scarborough Community Hub, run by the City of Stirling. Women's sheds are already well established and the movement is growing in other states.
Campaigner and City of Stirling councillor Elizabeth Re says: “A lot of women came to me and said that either their husbands had died or disappeared, and they didn't have a lot of males in their life. They wanted to be able to fix things, like hammering a nail into the wall or putting a picture up."
City of Stirling councillor Elizabeth Re. Credit: SBS / Rachel Cary
“When we first put up a notice on social media, we had 2,000 likes in one day, just one day. These women are out there, wanting to learn skills and be more self-sufficient.”
According to its website: ‘The goal of a women’s shed is to reduce isolation, to advocate for independence and to amplify socially embedded intergenerational collaboration, mentorship and connection while developing skills and community’.
Leslie Ray has been helping teach woodwork skills at the women's shed.
"I feel very passionate about helping build the community. I think women are very capable and often aren't given a chance to work with tools, or they have an interest but don't know how to start.
"You could be helping women who lost their husbands or lost brothers or people who traditionally do all this work.
"I've worked with tools with kids in pre-primary, up to people in their nineties. So any age can benefit from learning how to use tools ... Other people like to do it for pleasure, for the socialisation. It's a great mental health outlet."
Age Discrimination Commissioner Dr Kay Patterson welcomes the recent expansion.
“I hope when I retire from this job there’s a women’s shed near me," she says.
“I've always been a supporter of men's sheds as a place for men to go and talk about their health or other issues, and women need the same thing.
“Women live relatively longer than men, and often end up in retirement with fewer savings. In fact, women 60 to 64 have about 17 per cent less super than men of the same age."
Age Discrimination Commissioner Dr Kay Patterson. Credit: Supplied Human Rights Commission
Of those who lost jobs during the pandemic, she says older people took twice as long to find new employment: about 48 weeks compared with about 24 weeks for a younger person.
Older women who apply for jobs face discrimination in the workforce too, she says.
“Older women are more likely than older men to be perceived as having outdated skills, being too slow to learn new things, or being unable to deliver a satisfactory job.”
Dr Patterson understands the challenges many women face in the path to become independent. Having left school at 15 she later managed a small business and returned to study as a mature age student, finally completing a PhD in Psychology and a Diploma of Education at Victoria’s Monash University.
The Stirling Women's Shed is looking for a permanent home. Credit: SBS / Rachel Cary
“Of 400,000 people experiencing homelessness in Australia today, around 150,000 are older Australians. And there are many more women than men.
“Social housing is not going to be the answer for the huge number of older Australians, as the population ages,” she says.
“In the past, if a couple were in a bad marriage and the husband died, the woman inherited the home. Now, more couples divorce, and many women come out on the wrong side financially.”
Dr Patterson urges young people to start financial planning for retirement earlier in their working lives.
“In 1976, there were 122 people aged 100 years. Now Australia has more than 4,500 centenarians and in 2040, which is not all that long away, there will be more than 40,000.
“So it's absolutely vital that people, and especially young people, begin to plan for a 100-year life span."
Elisa Slaven is upskilling on legal topics. Credit: SBS / Rachel Cary
“I am retired and have not been able to travel in recent years due to COVID, so with spare time on my hands I decided to join the shed,” she says.
And it's not just woodwork that's on offer.
“Last week we learned about wills, and next week we are doing the power of attorney. After Easter we are learning about guardianships,” she says.
For older migrant and refugee women, joining a shed can also assist with learning English, along with new skills such as sewing, woodwork or other practical courses.
Councillor Ms Re hopes to find a standalone space in Perth for a permanent women’s shed in the near future.
“If we actually have one great big building, then we can have more women doing different activities on the one site, different times of day or night during the week and on weekends.”
Ms McLellan hopes so too: “It is a very lovely group. It’s a community, and vibrant and supportive which we need a lot of in this world.”
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