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Type "Women in Construction" into any internet search engine and a multitude of discussion forums will be instantly accessible. But while people can talk endlessly about the merits of recruiting women into the construction industry, females still only account for 10% of the workforce. Michelle Barratt asks: Do women actually want the jobs? ASK JANET SHELLEY, founder of Women Builders, if women want jobs in construction and her answer is a resounding “Yes!” Three years ago Janet wanted a radical career change; after 15 years in IT she decided to retrain as a plasterer, but she quite literally hit a brick wall.  “I found that the training provisions for someone over the age of 25 were nonexistent,” says Shelley. That gap in the market spurred her into setting up a company that now employs the largest female construction workforce in the UK. “I set up Women Builders in the hope that I could learn from a couple of qualified individuals,” says Shelley. “I put one advert in the June 2003 Milton Keynes Citizen and within 24 hours I was contacted by 27 women wanting to know how they could get involved.” Shelley is positive that there are more than enough women out there who could fill the skills-gap in the construction industry. “There are definitely more women who want to move into the industry than jobs allow. The only way you are going to find out is by asking,” she says. “We have a forum on our website and the amount of women that say they want to work in the industry is immense.” The Department of Trade and Industry-funded UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, Construction and Technology (SECT) claims that the 2012 Olympic Games provides an unprecedented opportunity for women to make their mark on the male-dominated construction industry. With nearly 450,000 people needed over the next five years, they say it could provide the catalyst for change in the SECT industries and leave a lasting legacy for women. Shelley agrees the Olympics may be an incentive to recruit women. She says: “I’ve gone along to meetings about the Olympics and I’ve heard individuals saying: ‘If we don’t succeed, at least we can say we tried.’ To me that is not an option.” There is a lot of rhetoric in the construction industry regarding the recruitment of women, and “equality” is the buzzword, a fact that Shelley is all too aware of. “A lot of people say a lot of things but they’re not actively out there looking for something different,” she says. “I think that is the problem with the culture of this country. We are no longer a risk society and nobody will think outside of the box.” She is concerned that the industry is reliant on the excuse that women don’t actually want the jobs. “We know that they are going to promote the fact that women don’t want to get into the industry. What we need to do now is generate the interest of women and actually have them knocking on the door saying, ‘you’re wrong, we want to be in it and we will be in it,’ and that is the only way things will change.” Profit margins or political correctness? The Women and Work Commission claims helping women harness their full potential is worth up to £23bn a year to the UK economy. Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly agrees that improving opportunities for women to get on at work and encouraging a culture change within companies makes “hard-headed” business sense. “My message to business is clear, this is not about political correctness, this is about improving profit margins,” she said when the plans to help women in the workplace were launched in September. “The challenge now is to ensure we establish a long-term change in attitude and a major expansion of opportunities, with businesses helping individuals make the most of their talents.” Sandi Rhys Jones, corporate affairs advisor to the UK Resource Centre for women in SECT and director of Simons Group says that recruiting more women is not just a moral obligation but sheer common sense. “Profit margins are low and competition is fierce so you have to have a sound business case,” says Rhys Jones. “A mixture of people creates an interesting dynamic which is very beneficial.” But she also says that companies should employ the best person for the job, regardless of their gender. “Meeting quotas can create resentment, women should be appointed on their merit, not just because it’s the right thing to do.” The leaky pipeline So how can companies change their approach? Jonathan Harris, former Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors president, says that if the industry wants to increase its female workforce, the focus should be on the three Rs: recruitment, retention and respect. Getting women “into the pipeline” via education, training and apprenticeships seem o be a top priority and is the driving force behind many campaigns, including the ConstructionSkills Positive Image advertisement launched earlier this year. But recruitment alone is not the answer. Increasing numbers at the bottom will not necessarily equate to an increased number of women in construction. A report published by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) says that translating qualifications into employment seems to be the biggest barrier to entry into the construction sector. Andy Walder, commercial manager for the National Construction College thinks the main problem lies with the employer. “There has been good progress made in attracting women into construction generally,” he says, “but getting more employers on board is key for us at the moment.” The college has created a diversity course where employers can learn how valuable women and ethnic minorities can be in construction. The course uses case studies to show how companies have benefited from targeting females and ethnic minorities. “We are trying to get the message across to the employer to say your potential workforce is out there but you aren’t engaging with them,” says Walder. Rachel Kelly, the London and South East representative for the National Association for Women in Construction, says that women just aren’t aware of the different jobs available in the industry. “They get lots of information about trades like plastering or bricklaying, or on professional disciplines like engineering and architecture,” she says, “but what they don’t realise is the vast array of managerial positions in between.” Earlier this year ConstructionSkills predicted that the number of white-collar workers the industry needs to recruit every year to 2010 is forecast to be over 36,000. This means more than half of recruits will be managers. So, if the construction industry wants to attract more women, will managerial posts be at the top of the list? The glass ceiling The truth is that there are very few female chairpersons or chief executives of architectural, design engineering and major construction companies in the UK. If the industry continues to foster its male-only image, circumstances are unlikely to improve and women will be hitting their heads on what commentators call the “glass ceiling”; a situation where they can see, but not reach higher-level jobs and are prevented from progressing in their careers. The CIOB report suggests that the length of service seems to be a stepping stone towards career advancement but this proves problematic for women who come up against barriers such as the gender pay gap, work-life balance and provisions of maternity and child care benefits. The report recommends that companies should keep in touch with employees on leave, offering or assigning part-time projects of interest to them. considerable efforts should be made to offer re-training to bring employees up to the level they achieved prior to their break in order to update their skills. Employers should also offer flexible working hours and carer allowances as incentives. Rachel Kelly also thinks that more should be done to promote transferable skills. “In retail, department managers have the skills needed to run a team of people, to balance accounts, to not go over budget, to keep within time frames,” she says. “Maybe they don’t have the technical know how but the inherent skills are the same. But it works both ways. People need to realise that their skills are transferable but construction also needs to accept that other industries have got 90% of the skills they need.” There is still a long way to go and changes are being made. Shelley says the industry needs to be more open and embrace the change to encourage women into construction jobs. With more schemes like 50:50 Vision, a target set by Paul Hodgkinson, chairman of Simons Group, to achieve a 50% female workforce in the next ten years, then maybe women will be well on their way to building brick walls rather than banging their heads against them.       |
