Women in HVACR preps for ‘new-collar’ workforce

Women make up three percent of the U.S. HVAC workforce — but nonprofit Women in HVACR aims to change that. 

What’s happening: Jane Sidebottom is the organization’s newly-installed 2026 president, working alongside a new executive board and board of directors.

• Sidebottom grew up with a dad who worked in facilities management and landed her first job because “I knew what a feasibility study was,” she told Homepros.
• That led to a role at Trane, and then Carrier. “They were redesigning the Carrier residential product line to meet a regulatory change, and I led the product redesign,” she said. 
• Roughly 18 years ago, she founded Applied Marketing Knowledge, a home services-focused consulting firm — and now, she’s excited to help other women navigate the industry. 

Why it matters: While women can bring valuable skills and perspectives to the HVAC industry, many are unaware of the pathways into it: A survey of attendees at a recent Women in HVACR conference found that 60 percent entered the industry through a friend or family member’s referral, Sidebottom noted.

• Women in HVACR provides education, networking, mentorship, and leadership development opportunities.
• Members often join the organization via its scholarship program — recent recipients include a former truck driver and a former nurse making career changes — or when they’re looking to own their own businesses. 
• Some are taking over multigenerational family businesses. 30 percent of members are either owners or executives at contracting firms across the U.S. 

Go deeper: The nonprofit is working on several initiatives this year, including: 

• Growing its mentorship program, which currently has 140 participants, and launching a mentor training program.
• Growing its Contractor Advisory Council — a sounding board of female contractors. 
• And launching regional events to complement its annual conference, slated for Sept. 27-29 in Indianapolis. 

What they’re saying: “Young women need help crafting a vision for their career and seeing how their talents and skills are very relevant,” Sidebottom said. 

• Women can work in product development without being engineers, for instance, and can be successful contractors without MBAs, she noted.  
• They also often have a knack for sales, she suggested, recalling one contractor in Colorado who hired women to staff model homes and help buyers choose and operate HVAC systems. “He said his ability to sell up went up dramatically when he had women staffing those centers,” she explained.

Of note: Sidebottom acknowledged that nationwide DEI initiatives brought attention to Women in HVACR, but said the organization has largely remained unfazed, despite many companies retreating from such programs. 

• “If you look at where Women in HVACR was in 2018 compared to 2022, definitely that push put us on the front pages, but our growth has continued,” she said. “We have 10-plus percent [growth] year over year, and our sponsorship has continued very strongly as well.” 
• As the group boosts awareness of careers in the trades, it’s helping the industry as a whole — not just women, she added.

What we’re watching: “Today’s service technician and field professional needs to understand some basic programming and smart controls operations, not just the ability to crawl in an attic and pull an air handler,” Sidebottom said, as AI and new technologies are applied to homes and buildings.

• She recalled reading an article that described the emerging workforce as “new-collar” — not blue-collar, not white-collar. “And I thought, ‘That’s what we’re developing here.’”