Improving Gender Equality In Construction - Women In Construction Week

Did you know it’s Women in Construction (WIC) Week? Women make up only about 9% of the construction industry’s workforce globally.

Recently there was a significant news story which broke in Ireland. Kate Fahey, a teenager from Galway, drives a tower crane on multiple large building sites across the country. 130 feet above ground level to be exact! The 18-year-old is said to be the youngest and only female tower-crane operator in the country. She is a trailblazer in her field.

There is a need for more women ambassadors in the construction sector like Kate Fahey.

How Can We Increase Women In Construction?

Stakeholders need to ensure that considerations of women and gender equality are integrated into strategies and plans within their organizations. This means setting specific gender-equity targets for gender equality in the workplace.

The sector should work harder to understand women’s needs, such as barriers to joining the workforce. It’s so important that women have male allies in the workplace.

We also need more events in the construction sector encouraging women to join the workforce, showcasing a clear career path for success.

Why Is It important To Have More Women In Construction?

There are areas within the construction sector that require specialist skills. Most contractors in the construction industry complain they cannot find good and skilled workers. A lack of skills is often blamed for poor quality, unsafe practices, and poor performance. This can cause massive delays on projects and organizations to be inefficient.

One of the biggest reasons behind the skill shortage that the UK construction industry is currently facing is its ageing population, with a good portion of workers being over the age of 60. Widening the parameters of the recruitment pool to women can be a significant step to reducing these skill and staff shortages.

Changing The Record

From my own personal experience growing up, these types of careers weren’t the kind of things we were told we could do. There was a list of careers then, that continued to be suggested now. Never featuring the likes of construction or technology, however. This can be why to this day, we see more women in certain careers over others.

FlowForma deals with many women in the construction sector that are driving digital transformations within their organizations. We recently hosted a webinar with an all-female panel.

FlowForma CEO, Olivia Bushe was joined by FlowForma customers Carolynne Heron, Director Of Corporate Services at Morgan Construction and Environment Ltd., and Lindsay Evans, Project Management Team Co-ordinator at EML Payments. On the webinar the panel chatted about topics such as business transformation, changing the culture of a company, and encouraging innovation across businesses.

It was a significant webinar in my opinion. It shone a light on how women are making a real difference across all industries but to two industries in particular, construction and technology, that are still predominantly male dominated but are beginning to slowly see change - for the better!

If you want to see how women are leading transformation across all industries, check out the all-female panel webinar recording here!