On 20th February, Jo Strange was invited to the launch of Construction News ‘Inspire Me’, a campaign across the construction industry to show women that construction can be a long-term career choice and to demonstrate that women are, can and should be leaders. This objective is that the industry embraces gender diversity reflecting the aims of The Women’s Business Council, set up in 2012 by Theresa May.
Women’s Business Council aims to:
- Accelerate the pace of change so that barriers for women in the workplace are systematically removed and best practice is emphatically endorsed.
- Increase and support the executive pipeline by encouraging women and girls at all ages and stages.
- Enable women to be able to make informed choices about where and how they work, in sectors and companies that nurture their talent.
- Harness the experience and talent of women by demonstrating the tangible benefits to business and best practice examples.
- Promote equality through a conversation that includes, embraces and celebrates male leaders who are champions for change.
The keynote speaker, Rick Willmott, chief executive of Willmott Dixon, advised that they have set a 2030 target of 50/50 gender split (from current 25%). A short Q&A session followed with three female ambassadors- a construction manager, someone who has designed PPE for Muslim women and is developing PPE for pregnant women, and a crane driver. The event was rounded off with a networking/ discussion session.
https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/events/inspire-me-cn-campaign-launches-in-london/10028390.article
“It was a pleasure to be able to discuss with others how CGL have already achieved and maintained gender parity without ‘targets’ or positive discrimination to achieve such.”
Jo Strange, Technical Director
