Women in Construction survey views: recruiting more women

Women’s experiences of and views about recruiting more women into construction:

"I’m female and have worked as a crane operator for a national company for the last 16 years. While it has always been and still is a male dominated sector, I've never had anything but support from my company and my colleagues. I'm the only woman in the entire company who is a crane operator. There has never been any difference in pay or any other area for me. I gained experience of cranes through my father while growing up, if it hadn't been for that I would never have even thought about doing something like this. There was absolutely no information on construction careers at school, certainly not for the girls anyway. If kids were shown women already in these roles it would help. Many simply don't realise it's a viable option. There's actually always been women in roles like mine. We're the construction industry's best kept secret."

Anon

"I think the industry needs to be very careful about how they word and how they promote the need to have more women in the workplace. I am tired of hearing 'we need more women' and feel that if i am promoted it would be viewed as 'the token woman in management' - i.e. not on merit, more on meeting targets. At the end of the day, we need more qualified people in the industry, be it women or men. Sometimes i feel the 'more women in construction' push is more damaging than helpful."

Anon

"Unconscious bias is something that subtlety holds women’s career progression back in the industry. This is maybe made worst by the collective fear of positive discrimination, which is perhaps needed in some instances to help shift the status quo."

Anon

"The most important part about encouraging women into the industry in my opinion is to report on the success stories and role models that are female and currently in the industry and give them an equal presence in marketing as opposed to specifically targeting women and talking about statistics as this can often have a negative impact. We feel empowered to have worked hard to achieve the qualifications and the current agenda can sometimes make you feel as though you’re a number or employed because you’re female."

Anon

"This survey only deals with the employee side. In an office with 50:50 gender ratio; since joining this company, over a period of 3 years, 75% of the women have had babies, each with LOTS of days off during pregnancy, taking the full maternity period, plus the holidays added on and then jacking in the job or moving on shortly after. Only one remains on a part-time basis who is totally inflexible due to childcare. How can small companies plan and accommodate this sort of impact on business. As a woman and one of the few PQS's of my time I can see that construction is not always compatible with women's job expectations and visa versa. Just because there is a large pool of potential talent does not make everyone compatible. Those that are good and appreciate the limitations will prosper. I would recommend my career but I could not persuade either of my children to follow"

Anon

Men's experiences of and views about recruiting more women into construction:

"The more women we can get into the industry the better. The vast majority of the women I know in the industry have above average performance and are well respected by their colleagues. We need to show the industry as being a good career option for girls from a young age."

Anon

"Women have all the opportunities they want however they dont always choose not to take them so i think we should leave them alone to make their own descisions and treat them like adults and not recaltriant teenagers."

Anon

"I really don't see that there is a significant problem in our industry - at least not in architecture. We have an even number of applications from women and men so there is clearly no issue in encouraging women to pursue a career in architecture."

Anon

"This is an artificial problem. Most of the women just don’t want to work in the construction industry."

Anon