Record breaker

What’s your advice to women starting out in construction?

When you start out you’re a rare commodity, you have to prove yourself 20 times over.

It is a challenge: technically it’s a male dominated industry. It’s not for the faint hearted.

RLF has a moderate view – they’re ahead of a lot of firms. In the industry there aren’t many female partners. When I started as a surveyor 20 years ago, female QSs were very few and far between.

Thank goodness the industry has moved on, so you can have a good career. And women are proving they can do the job.

I think the construction industry should be publicised more, and more needs to be done to recruit women. If more companies shared the same view as RLF, the industry would be able to attract and retain more women.

It’s important women see that you can run a family and a career in parallel.

What work are you overseeing?

I’m responsible for QS delivery and oversee all of the projects in the Glasgow office. The highest profile job I’m on is Jordan Hill School for the Scottish executive. Plus there’s lots of Scottish Enterprise work. I have more to do on the management side now, but at the same time I have to be hands on. We look after the west side of Scotland while the Edinburgh office looks after the other side.

How did the promotion come about?

For a year I was being groomed, so it’s been a smooth transition. I’ve been in the Glasgow office for 10 years, so I’m well known. I was previously associate partner. I’ve always worked in Scotland and I’ve had a great team behind me. The back-up is great.

How did you enter the profession?

I did a quantity surveying BSc at Glasgow College of Technology – now Caledonian University. Quantity surveying was definitely a career choice. It’s also in the family: my father was a mechanical consultant, my brother is a project manager, my niece is studying to be an architect and my nephew is training to be an engineer.

You’ve said that as a women you have to prove yourself 20 times over. Why?

When I was in college, there were 60 of us in total, with just eight girls. So I’ve always been in a male dominated environment. After that I dealt with the fact it was unusual for a woman to walk on to a site. There’s that initial shock.

I don’t know how to say this, but men, by nature, might say “what do women know about building?”. But it’s only when you start to talk about something that they realise you know what you’re doing. On a recent job I was the QS, and the architect and PM were also women. The contractor didn’t know which way to turn.