re: Trade skills are great jobs, but why aren't women being pushed there?

Of course not. There's also nothing wrong with women wanting to be plumbers.

Your wife falls into the college and a career category. Her choices after that were all personal and valid.

I still agree with OP that society largely ignores non-college educated women, or wrongly pushes them into the college path regardless of ability. No matter how much we try to force gender equality, our nature prevents blue collar work from being seen as a broadly acceptable option for women, generally speaking.