The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose to Challenge.” Quite rightly we should celebrate the achievements being made here in Wales, yet we also know that to achieve gender parity across our built environment we need to challenge the continuing causes of inequality.
Talking with businesswomen Clare Jones and Amy Beachman, who are also the former and new Chair of the South Wales branch of the Association of Women in Property, we discuss how women are being supported to progress their careers in the property and construction sectors, and the barriers that need to be challenged.
International Women’s Day on 8th March 2021, marks the start of a week of activities that celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Importantly it's also a call to action for accelerating gender parity, and in the built environment achieving gender equality is particularly important because it frames how we all live our lives. Whilst the Equalities Act 2010 provides the legislation needed to support the progression towards equality we need to acknowledge that significant work still needs to be done in order to achieve gender equality.
The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose to Challenge” and in Wales, as with many other countries, there are plenty of things that need to be challenged, including:
- The Gender Pay Gap
- Gender stereotyping
- The underrepresentation of women in:
- senior roles
- professional roles
- the construction industry
- public life
- Gender bias
Whilst we still have a significant distance to travel before we come close to achieving gender equality in Wales, we are making positive progress. For example; since 1992 Chwarae Teg has been working to help women develop their skills and careers, at the same time the Charity works with employers to help them embrace equality, diversity and inclusive working practices. In addition, by undertaking research and policy work Chwarae Teg has become a highly regarded and much respected expert source of information for decision makers across Wales and beyond.
If we look back just a few decades we can also see just how far we’ve come. In the 1970s built environment I grew up in it was still very much the norm that the father would go out to work and the mother would stay at home to look after the family. As the children grew up, mothers would look to enter the workplace but predominantly to undertake work for what was commonly called “Pin-money”. At this point it's worth remembering that in the 1970s, one average salary was sufficient to buy a house and pay the bills associated with raising a family. However, parents didn’t feel they had a choice as to who would be the principal breadwinner, instead it was expected that it would be the man. Of course there are exceptions from this era, but in the main that’s how our built environment operated.
From the 1980’s onwards we saw a significant shift in attitudes, and the number of women entering the workplace rose exponentially. However, unlike the 1970s, today, it's virtually impossible for anyone on an average salary to even come close to being able to buy their own home and raise a family. Instead for couples and families both partners routinely need to enter into full time employment if they want to achieve home ownership and a decent standard of living.
This in itself highlights just how fundamentally important it is for women to have equal choice when it comes to their careers, and equal opportunities to progress their careers. Of course, it's not all about couples and families, and for women who are single the lack of gender equality serves to make it harder for them to achieve their full and appropriately rewarded potential.
The progression of women in the workplace isn’t a standalone subject. Many factors need to be taken into consideration to fully understand why, for example, we still have a gender pay gap of 17.9% and I encourage everyone to read Chwarae Teg’s 2021 State of the Nation report, that “outlines the progress made in Wales in terms of becoming a gender equal nation and explores the experiences of women in the economy, their representation and those at risk.”
With the property and construction industry being one of the largest sectors in the economy, it has a key responsibility to ensure that women can enter into and progress their careers across the diverse remit of roles the sector encompasses.
Clare Jones, in addition to being the founder of Grasshopper Communications Ltd, was until recently Chair of the South Wales branch of the Association of Women in Property and explains how the Association is helping to transform the industry:
“This year’s International Women’s day theme, Choose to Challenge, has really strong resonance with Women in Property’s aim of inspiring change for women working in the property and construction industry – through a combination of CPD, mentoring and providing local support networks for women as they progress through different stages of their careers.
“The last year has been a struggle for many working parents, but what has become clear is that a large proportion of childcare still disproportionately falls to women. For example, ONS statistics from the first lockdown demonstrate that in households with a child aged under five years, women did on average 78% more childcare than men.
“Having spoken to many women within the industry over the last year, it is clear that there was a wide variation in how organisations responded to lockdown in terms of staff well-being and the support and flexibility offered to parents. This has made the support of Women in Property even more invaluable, in terms of providing a support network to members through challenging times.”
The new Chair for the Association is Amy Beacham, Associate Director at WSP UK , and looking to the future Amy outlines her key priorities as Chair:
“The organisation sees the year ahead as providing opportunities to build upon and re – establish networks that have paused over the last 12 turbulent months. We recognise that a career in the construction industry can be daunting for women and that over the last year, responsibilities outside the workplace have made advancement in the industry more challenging. My focus will be on providing more networking opportunities for our members, collaborating with business to provide CPD events and develop skills, and help people get back on track with our fantastic mentoring programme which has now expanded nationally”.
“We are also looking forward to kick-starting our Outreach programme, involving local schools, colleges and Universities. Highlighting the variety of careers that exist within the built environment and opening the sector to be more inclusive and accessible.”
It is encouraging to see the continued drive towards achieving gender parity across the built environment by organisations, charities and associations across Wales, along with the continued support of the Welsh Government. However, it's important to remember that individually we can all play a positive role to accelerate the rate of change, provided we “Choose to Challenge.”
