When 19-year-old Babes Woodbine decided she wanted to work in construction, the reaction from her peers was predictable. She was told it was a man’s world and not a job for girls. But this knock-back only strengthened her resolve to succeed in the industry and prove her friends wrong. After seeing an advert for Construction Youth Trust’s Budding Builders course, she jumped at the chance to pursue a career as a quantity surveyor – and hasn’t looked back.
The Londoner, who is currently on placement at Graham Construction, says that she originally wanted to study business management and finance but didn’t feel it would lead to a clear career path. She explains that construction is more than just manual labour and there are a diverse variety of professional roles available. Woodbine admits, however, that the perception of women in the industry as “tomboys” and the predominance of male workers is off-putting for many girls her age.
“When I first started the course they were all male and it was a bit awkward. Even on the placement I am doing now there are only three women.
“Everyone has a prejudice about the industry. But once you get into it, it is fine. It’s the perception of the industry holding people back.”
Women make up just 11% of the entire workforce in construction and on building sites it is estimated that 99% of workers are men. The UK has the lowest proportion of female engineers in Europe and only 14% of entrants to first degree courses in engineering and technology are women.
It is a problem, however, that the industry recognises – and the green shoots of change within construction are starting to appear. Networking group Chicks with Bricks is working to promote female role models and make women more visible in the industry.
Founder Holly Porter claims the best way to bridge the gender gap is to focus on the achievements of women in construction rather than dwelling on negative perceptions. She says women will be more inclined to pursue careers in the industry if they can see a route to success.
Porter points to high-fliers such as property development consultant Sarah Fox, who worked on London’s iconic Gherkin building and Anna Stewart, chief executive of Laing O’Rourke, the UK’s largest private contractor. Porter says the image of the industry valuing brawn over brains is hard to shake, but the reality is that construction techniques are rapidly changing.
“Construction is not the old-fashioned world of bricks and mortar any more,” she says. “Everything is getting made off site. It’s about problem-solving and developing intelligent solutions such as 3D modelling. It’s no longer as much of a physical industry as it used to be.
“The more that perception gets put across in the industry, then it will change the perception of women and show that it is something that they can enter too.”
Christine Townley, chief executive of Construction Youth Trust, joined the industry as a civil engineer more than 30 years ago. She admits that although the pace of change within the sector may differ depending on roles, more and more companies are taking diversity seriously. She believes that the discussion about closing the gender gap has shown young girls that there are career opportunities for them and has led to clients putting pressure on contractors to change.
History shows that women haven’t always been marginalised in the construction industry. During the second world war, they famously took on many of the manual labour jobs needed to keep the country ticking while the men were fighting on the front line. Dozens of women, for example, were involved in building London’s Waterloo Bridge from 1937 to 1945. It is estimated that as many as 25,000 women worked in construction in 1944.
Townley is calling for women to reignite the passion for the work that their forebears relished. She says: “Women were doing great jobs and nobody batted an eyelid. We engaged women and gave them the confidence that they could do any work. Women played a vital role and somehow we lost it. The thing we need to latch onto now is the fact that women have done it and can do it again.”
Construction Youth Trust is therefore running two programmes which they hope will play an important role in encouraging more young women into construction. Budding Builders is aimed at providing young people aged 14-30 who are not in education, employment or training (Neets) with the necessary skills to get into the trade. And Budding Brunels is a three-day course for year 12 and 13 students interested in finding out more about working in the construction professions.
Townley says both programmes are helping girls to see the career opportunities for them in the industry more clearly and believes it is vital that we do so in order to solve the UK construction industry’s worrying skills shortage.
“If you are only fishing from half the pool then you might be missing the real answer that solves the problem to building in the 21st and 22nd century,” she says. “I hope that our programmes are helping employers project themselves better to communities and schools and that we are enabling the latter to see that construction could be for them.”
