From power tools to community: the growing impact of The Women’s Shed
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Have you ever thought about joining the trade industry? Interested in DIY but don’t know how to use power tools? Or love working with your hands but are not sure if trades are the right path for you? The Women’s Shed is the perfect place to learn and find your calling.
Founded by Sunita Kotnala – who was recently presented the 2025 Canberra Citizen of the Year Award for her work – the Women’s Shed provides a safe and self-paced learning environment for women at all levels.
Accommodating over 50 participants and with an introductory focus, the Women’s Shed believes in an ‘introduction to power tools’ to be the most important skill to learn. Running multiple workshops with the help of a small team of professionals to help boost women’s confidence in this area, they have two main areas of focus: proof of concept, and working with trades people to ensure they provide the top level of respect and value for the skill they are providing the Women’s Shed.
“The kind of things we do is we run introduction to power tools, and we encourage everyone to do that. On top of that, we do a bird house course, and we also have two segments on right now,” says Sunita.
“One is home maintenance, which we are only doing for one-hour sessions because we realised people could learn how to fix a wall, change a fly screen, change washes and taps quickly, and the other section we are doing is more building from off-cuts of timber. Our very popular segment is the charcuterie board or chopping board, and then we have also made coffee tables.”
With so much on offer, and now at a new location in Greenway, the demand and response to the Women’s Shed has only grown. Offering workshops up to three times a week(with plans to expand even more) Sunita is receiving calls from all around the country to ask for assistance and guidance on how to open more Women’s Sheds.
But she says there is an important asset missing in order to help make all this happen: donations and funding.
“What happens is, when people hear the name Woman’s Shed, or when people hear anything about women, they automatically think that there is a lot of welfare work going on there, or we are receiving welfare funding. We receive no welfare funding. We are not a welfare organisation,” says Sunita.
“We are running on the basis of what we charge people for the workshops, which is still highly subsidised. For example, I do not pay myself anything, but we charge because we have to pay the facilitator, and we have to pay the logistics person who’s managing the workshops, we have to buy our consumables, machinery and tools, wear and tear, and fuel for the van,” says Sunita.
So, what can you do to help? Here’s what Sunita suggests.
“There could be philanthropists, or there could be businesses who could actually fund a particular aspect of our business. Construction firms and building firms could provide some kind of support through, a plumber, an electrician, a bricklayer and others who can come and run those workshops.”
“Another part is that we are always looking for where we can use unused building products that can be recycled and up-cycled, so we would love some good timber donations… we would really appreciate cash donations. And ideally, we would prefer year in year on grants.”
Now you might be wondering, ‘Why should I donate? This place just sounds like somewhere that teaches how to use power tools and build birdhouses.’ But it is so much more than that.
It is a place where women can find a sense of community, be guided and find like-minded people, laugh, learn from experienced members, and fail in a space without being judged and try, try again.
Johannes, one of the main trade instructors, says there is one main aspect of what the women who attend the workshops get out of the Women’s Shed.
“First of all, we take the fear away of the tools.”
“When it comes to sawing or something like that, they start out a bit more confident when it comes to tools that do not go by themselves…But there is a lot more techniques to it, and since they just go for it, the technique is usually terrible,”
“I can just go in and within 30 seconds, I am like ’Okay, this is the stance that you need to take, this is how you need to lean on the bench or hold your timber, this is how you move your arm, this is how you grip the tool’, and all of a sudden it works. And that is very nice to see.”
As Sunita and Johannes explain, the enterprise is all about offering women an experience like no other – and with donations and funding, it would allow the program to expand and accommodate more expertise and opportunities for future trade seekers.
Looking to the future, the Women’s Shed is focused on achieving two main goals.
“In the financial year of 2026, I do want to launch this shipping container makeover project under which we want to expose women to different trades, because then they can get that trade tasters experience, and they can see and ask themselves, ‘Do I want to spend four years as an apprentice somewhere?’” says Sunita.
Along with this, Sunita explains that the Women’s Shed is currently expanding its offerings
“Because of the demand, we are actually going to start one day where people can drop in and if they want to get something built, or they want something fixed in their homes, they can come and have a chat with us, and we will give them a quotation, and then we’ll do it.”
“The second thing is, we are starting to make things like charcuterie boards that will be for sale for Mother’s Day, and we are going to have a Mother’s Day special introduction to power tools.”
Be sure to visit womensshedcanberra.com.au to attend a workshop and see how you can help donate to ensure the Women’s Shed keeps going and growing to offer women more chances within the trade industry.
Photography: Sam Smythe.
