Women on the march

Possibly no industry is more representative of a tough masculine image than the construction business. Building roads, bridges and other infrastructure sorts out the men from the boys – and there’s little room for women, right?  Well, there didn’t used to be. But the times they are a-changing and, increasingly, can-do women are filling mainstream roles that used to be strictly a male preserve.   GAVIN RILEY takes a closer look.

When Contractor visited the Conexpo international construction exhibition in Las Vegas in the mid-1990s we were surprised to encounter an organisation called the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC). We talked to the women enthusiastically manning the stand and they were emphatic that their sisters in the US construction industry were increasing in number and beginning to make their presence felt.

What we didn’t know until very recently is that NAWIC, which was founded in Texas in 1953 and gained a national charter in 1955, has been supplemented by identically named organisations in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa – and New Zealand.

The Wellington-based NAWIC (www.nawic.org.nz) was founded in 1996, coincidentally the same year we talked to NAWIC in Las Vegas. It is a non-profit organisation of women who work either in the construction industry or for business organsiations which provide services to the industry. It has a database of 300 women working in trades and as quantity surveyors, site supervisors, project managers, suppliers, designers, architects, engineers and lawyers.

NAWIC encourages women to pursue, establish and sustain successful careers in the construction industry. It holds regular events and publishes newsletters to inform and upskill women in construction and to promote networking and information-sharing.

Contractor did not know of the New Zealand NAWIC’s existence when it decided recently to profile six women in construction to illustrate the talent, skills and determination they are bringing to the industry in increasing volume – and to touch on the help, and possibly the hindrance, they have encountered from their male colleagues.

Significantly none of the six had heard of NAWIC, which indicates the organisation has some work to do. What we discovered in compiling our profiles were six impressively able people who, if they are representative of their gender, prove emphatically that women have many sterling qualities, which in the years ahead can greatly enrich our industry. Read on, and judge for yourself…