Rosemary's campaign

If Rosemary Tinker has her way, the next 12 months will be a kind of ‘year of the female QS'. She has just become the first qualified QS and practicing project manager to chair the Association of Women in Property (WiP).

QS and PM bosses should take note. With the profile of their female staff being raised, they will not be able to avoid the issue of the pay gap between men and women. The issue is still very much alive. According to a recent survey, the average man in the property industry earns over a third more than his female counterpart.

Tinker will also be shining a light on QSs and PMs within WiP itself, which has until now been skewed towards the interests of the property side of the industry, as opposed to the construction side. This is reflected in its membership, which now stands at 1,300, of which only about 20% are surveyors.

Tinker's comprehensive experience of the QS/PM world - having worked for both contractors and consultants - makes her well placed to balance out the WiP membership. She also has the ‘inspirational leader' angle covered, as she is now a director at consultant AYH and handles big name clients such as Prudential and JP Morgan Chase.

Despite her impressive CV, Tinker has a self-deprecating air when we meet in her AYH office in London and she has even brought along a spin doctor from WiP, as if she needs back up. Both are disarmingly warm and friendly, which, according to what I have read, reflects the atmosphere at WiP meetings exactly.

Tinker has no qualms admitting that she can't remember precisely why she went into quantity surveying. It was something to do with seeing people with theodolites and thinking that she wouldn't mind working outdoors, she says vaguely.

With these nebulous ideas in mind, aged 18, she answered an advert in a newspaper placed by M&E contractor Haden Young, which offered to take on and train young surveyors.

Man's world

Tinker says that then, as now, the construction industry had a problem with resources. This seems to have been the reason the contractor took the step of hiring a woman, which would then have been seen as a leap in the dark. But Tinker must have proved herself. Haden Young ended up sponsoring her right through to degree level at Trent Polytechnic, now Nottingham Trent University.

When she first went out on site, remembers Tinker, "I was the first girl they had ever taken on and people didn't really know how to deal with me". But she says she doesn't remember facing "negativity or discrimination".

It is clear Tinker is trying to to avoid giving credence to the worst stereotypes of male chauvinist builders. She seems like a natural diplomat but I also get the impression the WiP PR representative keeping a beady eye on us wants to quash any suspicions that the association is anti-male. She even interrupts us to point out that men are free to, and do, attend WiP events.

I thought at the time that contracting was a man’s game, particularly outside London, and I wanted to move somewhere I perceived there were more opportunities

Rosemary Tinker, AYH

But eventually Tinker admits that the first 15 years of her career were not always comfortable. For instance, "there were lots of girly calendars around". She is quick to add that "you still get them now, but not half as explicit, and the bigger firms won't have them at all any more".

Tellingly, her eventual defection to consultancy after 15 years with Haden Young in Nottingham and Warrington was influenced by gender politics. "I thought at the time that contracting was a man's game, particularly outside London, and I wanted to move somewhere I perceived there were more opportunities." This led her back to the capital, where she was born, and a two-year stint with Bucknall Austin.

Tinker's instincts seem to have been right because it was then that her career appears to have taken off. After Bucknall Austin she joined AYH as a QS but soon switched to project management. She has now been project director at the 300-strong firm for around five years.

Balancing act

These days she believes opportunities for women in construction are better, but admits that the well-worn mantra "women still have further to go" remains relevant. The average man in property is 37 years old and earns £53,830, while the average woman is four years younger but makes £34,310. In other words, women are taking home 64% of the average male salary, according to a recent survey by Estates Gazette and recruitment consultant PSD.

Tinker plans to raise awareness of the issue through the media. More surprisingly, she thinks the problem can also be tackled by getting more women into construction and property. "The more women that come into the industry, the less imbalance there will be in pay," she claims.

Tinker is running a WiP campaign to encourage schoolgirls to follow careers in construction and property. WiP is working on the initiative with JIVE (Joint Interventions) Partners, a group of European organisations aiming to attract women to traditionally male-dominated industries. The campaign has just received EU funding.

Tinker is also upping the 100 events WiP puts on each year. They range from a national conference to regional chocolate tasting sessions - for the purpose of networking of course. WiP might also add another two regional branches to the existing 10. These look set to be in the Midlands and Dublin, the latter marking the association's first international offshoot.

But it has to be asked why women would want to join an industry where they are in a minority and facing unequal pay. "Good question," admits Tinker, but then she becomes quite passionate: "I think this is a really exciting industry to be in. We are at work for a huge percentage of our lives and it's going to be even longer, so you need to enjoy what you do. I love the fact I can drive past a building and say, ‘I had an input in that'. We are delivering a tangible product."

She adds that men too would benefit from working with extra women. For a start there would be a better balance in the working atmosphere. Tinker says she recently worked on a job where a female-dominated project team appeared to have resulted in fewer rows.

We are delivering to the whole cross section of the community, so it’s important that we reflect it. We need to understand our clients and they are not all white middle-aged men

Rosemary Tinker

There would also be greater flexibility in working patterns. While it is women who typically demand this, it often appeals to men as well, Tinker says. "Many of the older guys want to retire and work part-time, so we need to be a bit more flexible if we are going to recruit and retain the best."

The industry also needs to reflect the demographic it serves, she says. "We are delivering to the whole cross section of the community, so it's important that we reflect it. We need to understand our clients and they are not all white middle-aged men."

The most obvious way women can help the industry is by plugging the skills shortage. "If you ignore 50% of resources, you're heading for a fall," warns Tinker.

Advice

So how can new women coming into this tricky industry best get on? Tinker says: "There are obstacles, but women, especially young women, don't always see they are there. When you're young, you believe you can do anything and you can. But it helps if you have an understanding of the obstacles."

Ever tactful, Tinker adds: "The obstacles aren't necessarily malicious. It's just that the industry has been set in its ways for a long time."

Accept the situation and develop ways to cope with it, she advises. "Be demanding and keep your expectations of others and yourself high. Make sure you ask for what you want. Women's expectations of salaries are often too low."

During her year as chairman of WiP, Tinker will be targeting younger women specifically. She wants to bring them into the WiP - only 20% of its members are aged between 20 and 30 - and she wants to help the construction industry retain them. "There are lots of female QSs and PMs in their 20s and early 30s now, but I want to see them still in the industry 20 years on, sitting on the boards of major companies."

It's an ambitious goal and the woman sitting opposite me with the friendly smile hardly has the air of a ruthless empire-builder. But then Tinker, right from when she first became a QS, has a history of quietly achieving the unexpected.