Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Construction Equality Ltd

Executive Summary

The construction industry faces particular challenges when it comes to women in the workplace that run deeper than retention or progression issues.

In order for the industry to overcome these challenges there needs to be a move away from short term initiatives that can be forced on the sector through public sector clients requirements.

A joined up industry approach with a ten year plan for success needs to be implemented and controlled through a central trusted source.

The approach must demonstrate an understanding of the challenges, resources and motivations of different organisational groups in the sector in order to achieve success.

Construction Skills have been working on the development of a strategy to meet these aims, the result has been the development of the BE FaIR framework.

Introduction

Founded in 2007 by Chrissi McCarthy, Constructing Equality Ltd.’s aim is to improve equality and diversity in the construction industry.

Before starting Constructing Equality Ltd, Chrissi McCarthy spent more than 10 years at the forefront of the construction industry, first as a setting out engineer and then a site manager.

As a construction management graduate and member of the Chartered Institute of Building, she played an integral role in the delivery of numerous projects, including Peckham Library, Manchester Interchange, a range of BSF Schemes, and a school in Uganda for charity. Together, these projects helped Chrissi to develop a deep understanding of the day-to-day practical challenges faced by teams on site and at head offices around the country.

Passionate about the social and emotional effects of the construction industry, Chrissi went on to complete a PGDip in equality and diversity, and is now studying for her PhD. Considered one of the field’s leading exponents, she went on to front the Construction Skills’ positive image campaign on BEBO and become an Ambassador and Board Member for the Chartered Institute of Building.

Today, Chrissi is part of the Fairness Inclusion and Respect Strategic Group that leads the industry on diversity. She holds lectures on diversity and equality at Universities and conferences, writes for leading construction publications, contributes to Government papers, has spoken at the House of Lords and influences key industry figures on a regular basis.

Commissioned by ConstructionSkills, the construction industry Sector Skills Council, to design and then develop the BE FaIR framework for industry, Constructing Equality Ltd is at the forefront of realistic, affordable and attainable equality practice in the private sector.

In 2009 ConstructionSkills were relicensed to operate as a Sector Skills Council. Working in partnership with CITB-ConstructionSkills Northern Ireland and the Construction Industry Council, they deliver value across the industry, from the trades to professional sectors.

They work to:

reduce skills shortages;

improve business performance;

bring a diverse range of people into the industry;

improve learning for apprenticeships, higher and further education; and

develop professional occupational standards.

Do the Gender Equality Duty and the Equality Act go far enough in tackling inequalities, such as gender pay gap and job segregation, between men and women in the workplace? 

With a view to only the construction industry the acts are rarely used by individuals suffering discrimination. This should not detract from the importance of their existence as they are required as a deterrent.

Much of the discrimination in industry is covert and therefore unknown to organisations that are new to the concepts behind equality and diversity.

The legislation needs to be reinforced by procurement requirements which reflect the longer term needs of the industry. These issues are not a quick fix and last far longer than any individual project, therefore an agreed approach to the challenges faced by the sector and signed up to by public (and where possible) private procurement is the only option likely to support real change in the sector.

What steps should be taken to provide greater transparency on pay and other issues, such as workforce composition?

Any action here in the construction sector needs to be considered and stepped in order to understand and work with the differing bands of organisations. Education is key to companies realising the importance and therefore supporting any proposed initiative.

What has been the impact of the current economic crisis on female employment and wage levels? 

Some institutes such as RIBA have seen a marked drop in female memberships down from 24% to 10% in two years. Anecdotal evidence would support that this is a wider challenge across the sector but I have yet to see any real analysis.

How should the gender stereotyping prevalent in particular occupations, for example in engineering, banking, construction and the beauty industry, be tackled?

The UK construction sector accounts for between 5–10% of GDP dependent upon source and supply chain consideration. Only 13.3% of the construction workforce is female with 83% of that number in admin roles.

In the past two years that number has been decreasing with RIBA seeing a drop in membership of women from 26% down to 19%.

Research has found women to leave the sector disproportionately at various stages along their career, most often citing “work environment as a main cause”. With 2/3rds of women in industry having acknowledged experiencing sexual discrimination.

Public sector and other client attempts at embedding the equality duties into the sector have historically been short term and often damaging quite often derailing longer term initiatives. For example, attempts to increase numbers of women on site can lead to women being appointed into title without responsibility, numbers of women being employed short term to achieve a target or numbers dressed up setting unrealistic targets for future best practice.

The UK construction sector has a number of specific challenges it needs to consider when looking at underrepresentation of women in the workforce and these are often not appreciated by clients and consultants looking to comply with equality duties. With 60% of construction clients currently being public sector there is a significant opportunity to affect equality in the industry if the right steps are taken.

ConstructionSkills is working on a framework for industry that will enable the public sector to enforce change on the private construction sector at a rate that is both reasonable and achievable whilst enabling the equality duties to be achieved. As experts in this area we believe this is the only way progression will be achieved due to the complex stereotypes, project based work environments, client expectations etc. that challenge the sector.

What more should be done to promote part-time work at all levels of the workplace and to ensure that both women and men have opportunities to gain senior positions within an organisation while working part time?

There needs to be more education in general around the effects of subconscious bias in the workplace and organisations need to be putting measures in place to overcome this.

Positive action is poorly understood in the sector and the confusion with positive discrimination often leads to it not being utilised; again more education and sector specific examples.

In construction the challenges are complex and a wider programme is needed to help organisations understand how these issues affect the entire organisation, most importantly encouraging them to move away from standalone initiatives.

There is also an element of work that needs to be done to individually support women in construction roles. Previous programmes such as Women and Work were unable to support women without organisational commitment which proved a challenge for those unable to get time off work or the relevant employer buy in. An element of work around supporting women in the sector to help then negotiate the specific challenges they are likely to face is required in order to retain them and progress them to the next level. It is important that this training has an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by women in industry, the reasons these challenges arise and how to overcome them appropriately to the context they are presented in.

To what extent have the recommendations in Lord Mervyn Davies’ Report “Women on Board” (published in February 2011) been acted upon?

There has been very little movement within the construction sector and anecdotal evidence would suggest that executive recruitment agencies, nepotistic culture and subconscious bias remain the greatest challenges for board recruitment.

Why are there still so few women in senior positions on boards, and what are the benefits of having a greater number?

Research has found that 30% is the optimal number of women on boards. A concern is that with so few women on boards they will still be treated as tokens, conversely it is only by enforcing quotas and raising the number of women that you will see a critical mass change that sees the women on boards being accepted as individuals.

It has been found that women on boards are more likely to attend meetings, prepare and arrive on time. Importantly this behaviour positively affects that of the other board members.

Women have also be found to be more likely to take social risks, for example being willing to challenge points for the good of the organisation even where there is a risk of personal detriment.

21 December 2012