Fortunately things are improving, although slowly, through unions such as Ucatt fighting for equality and diversity in the construction industry. Ucatt has recently introduced a women’s network and earlier this year it hosted its first women’s weekend school, which was a great success. The new Women get Women campaign aims to double Ucatt’s female membership by its next national delegates conference in 2016. To increase the number of women working in the industry I believe that Ucatt and a future Labour government need to ensure that all equality and diversity policies are pushed forward in the workplace and are not just seen as paper policies. We need to encourage the young women of today to see that there are other career options rather than just becoming stereotypical beauticians, nail technicians or carers who are mostly on the minimum wage — that they can fulfil any role as well, if not better, than their male counterparts in construction. Conditions and pay are coming into line with those received by male workers and the shoots of new growth for women within the industry are becoming visible. Due to the long-term failure to train enough construction workers, as the industry continues to grow in 2015, skills shortages will increase. These can only be dealt with if we train more apprentices, which must include more women. Construction managers need to understand that the best man for the job may very well be a woman.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 00:35:34 +0000
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