Kate Bullen is the Commissioning Manager at Wessex Water, having moved through various engineering roles throughout her career.

With a passion for the environment and a commitment to workplace diversity, Kate is an inspiration to many. We sat down with Kate to learn more about her journey from a child interested in mechanical toys, to becoming an innovator in her field.

Early Inspirations

From a young age, Kate was interested in practical toys and building. “One of my earliest memories is my dad and I building Meccano…I played with very practical toys from an early age and that was very much encouraged.”

As she grew up, Kate recalls becoming passionate about the environment and points to David Attenborough as a key inspiration. “Those sorts of things made me want to do something better for the environment, to make the world a better place.”

She was also grateful for her exceptional physics and maths teachers in school, whose encouragement never made her question whether she wanted to take physics – even if it was a less common subject for girls!

Educational Journey

At school, Kate was initially unsure about what career she wanted to pursue, but has “always been passionate about water and passionate about the environment.”

This passion led her to study Environmental Chemistry at university. During her studies, Kate's enthusiasm for water-related subjects intensified. She reflects, “I'd done a huge range of different types of environmental courses and I really, really liked the water ones.” This growing interest also caught the attention of her professors. “The guy in charge of my degree sat me down and suggested I’d be very suitable for taking a masters degree.”

During her master’s, Kate discovered an interest for sewage treatment – and her hands-on experience during her summer at Eastbourne Sewage Works was particularly formative (albeit smelly!). “I spent my summer at Eastbourne Sewage Works looking at fat removal from municipal sewage which, despite being very smelly, I really, really enjoyed and that has set the path of my career.”

Kate’s First Engineering Job

Kate's professional journey began at Bechtel Water, where she was part of a structured graduate programme. “It was approximately 60 graduates a year across the business. So, there were 240 over the whole four-year training programme.”

She quickly demonstrated her aptitude for on-site work, noting “They very quickly found out that I was more site material than office material.” She enjoyed being out on site, but also began to experience the effects of gender inequality on-site. “Out on site was the first time I started to feel a bit different.”

Although the presence of female graduates in other departments at Bechtel was reassuring, there weren’t many female engineers around in Kate’s department – in fact, Kate was the only one!

Gender Inequality On-Site

On-site, Kate found that her male colleagues often did not respect her authority. “They struggled to take direction from me. Was it because I was female? Was it because I was very young? I should imagine it was a mixture of both. Was it because I was quite loud and bossy? Possibly that as well.”

Despite these challenges, Kate found support among many of her colleagues, who valued her presence and contributions. She reflects, “A lot of the guys quite liked having a woman on site because it's a different sense of humour.”

Transition to Wessex Water and Leadership

After her role at Bechtel Water, Kate moved on to agency work, taking on several different positions. Her expertise and adaptability eventually led her to Wessex Water. “I took an agency position with Wessex Water, to commission chemical dosing plants for phosphorus removal.”

She was then offered a job as a staff engineer, working her way up from senior engineer to Commissioning Manager.

Although Kate was hesitant at first – “most engineers I've spoken to don't have any desire to be a people manager, and I certainly didn't” – she quickly found a passion for leadership and management, realising that “a good manager can make a massive difference to somebody's life.”

The Impact of Menopause

One of the drivers for Kate’s transition from engineer to manager was the menopause symptoms she began to experience. “The brain fog for me was the worst thing I've ever experienced, and it threw me. I'd be mid-conversation and my mind would go blank, or I'd be in a meeting with people looking at me and start thinking, oh my goodness, what's wrong with me? And I didn't know that was even a symptom of menopause.”

She also suffered from bad fatigue – “What I'd be able to do normally for several days in a row, I'd do it once and it would take three or four days to recover.”

Kate stresses the significance of vocal advocacy and support for women experiencing menopause in the workplace. She described one of the supportive measures implemented in her organisation: “We call them menopause coffee mornings, where you can go along and have a chat about it.”

Empowering Women in Engineering

“I love the idea of doing research,” Kate shares enthusiastically, highlighting her commitment to innovation in her field. “It has to continue because the technology we have at the moment doesn't meet the treatment standards we're going to have to achieve in the future.”

She’s also passionate about using her experience and position to empower the next generation of engineers. “Something I feel I'm now able to do, and something I want to do over the next few years, is help people - especially young women, maybe from disadvantaged backgrounds,” she says.

Kate leaves us with this powerful message: “Gender should be the last thing people worry about when they look at where they want to go. Look at your personality, look at your capabilities, look at who you are and what you want to achieve. Never turn around and say, as a woman I don't think I should be doing that.”

Women in engineering are shaping the future of the industry in the UK. If you're looking to explore more opportunities in this field, or would like to access career resources for female engineers, reach out to Alexander Associates – our team of experts would love to help.

Starting Out in Hospitality Management

After completing her A-levels, Justine completed a degree in institutional management in the 1990s, specialising in hospitality areas such as hotels and catering – an industry she would remain in for “decades”.

As the years wore on, she started noticing signs it was time for a change.

Trying on Other Roles for Size

Eager for a fresh start, Justine dipped her toes into recruitment for a few years before realising that industry wasn’t for her, either. “I'm just not a salesperson,” she notes. From there, she tried her hand at office management at BP, before deciding she was ready to try something new.
 
But soon, another challenge appeared on the horizon.
 

Battling Illness

“I had a period of time when I was unwell, so I had ME [Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic fatigue syndrome] for three, four years and I was actually wheelchair bound — my life changed,”Justine explains.
 
It was a chapter of her life that was “stressful and daunting”, but helped shift perspective on her professional aspirations. “I just thought, 'life is short, Justine'. I went to a couple of interviews for office management again and I thought, I just can't sell myself here.”
 

Discovering Her Calling

At this point in her life, Justine considered what aspects of work appealed to her most. “I love hospitality which is hands-on,” she says, and “I don't want to be desk-bound. I enjoy problem solving. I enjoy people”.
 
Ultimately, Justine wanted a career where she could make an immediate impact and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done whilst steering clear of ‘office politics’ environments.
 
“And I just said, you know what, I'm going to retrain and I'm going to become a plumber.”
 

Starting a Plumbing Apprenticeship

Keen to start her pivot into a plumbing career, Justine began with three-month fast track plumbing course whilst working at BP, with the understanding that gaining hands-on work experience would be the biggest challenge.

Justine applied to women-only plumbing company Stopcocks, but was told she didn’t have sufficient experience. Fortunately, a colleague at BP discovered Justine’s plans to become a plumber, and said to her “you need to speak to my mate Fred”.

A gruff Irishman in his 60s, Fred was initially reluctant to take on a female apprentice, Justine says. But her determination was obvious, and Fred took her on. “He taught me so much”, she says.

Making Inroads into a New Trade

Working as a plumber’s apprentice was a test of Justine’s resilience and confidence, as she worked with no pay and received no support to succeed. “I did a lot of self-talking to myself, going into work,” she says.

“I remember going like, just, you can do this, just be calm, watch and learn and just accept you're not going to get your hands on the tools.”

Justine carefully watched and listened, absorbing all she could about plumbing techniques and know-how. Professionalism — including safety standards — in domestic services environments is less of a concern compared to commercial plumbing work, she notes. But the experience as a domestic plumbing apprentice strengthened her resolve.

The Dynamics of a Male-Dominated Workplace

Working in an all-male environment, Justine said she was referred to on-site as ‘Doris’, simply because she was a woman. Prejudice is still an issue for women in male-dominated workplaces, and is especially prevalent when males group together. “When I was away from Fred, the guys, one-to-one, it was very, very different, with really open conversations [with male colleagues],” she says.

Another Door Opens

Eventually Justine was approached by a friend about another apprenticeship opportunity specific for older or female workers. Whilst the timing was seemingly perfect, Justine had put in years of effort just to get her foot in the door. Now was her chance to shine in an engineering role where she could “really start to fly”.

The Plumbing Industry is Evolving Fast

 There is a real need to change perceptions of disciplines like plumbing to not only attract more women in engineering but young people more broadly.

“I think they need to move away from always seeing as engineers hard-hat, high-vis, goggles. Because at the end of the day, people think, oh god, it's a dirty environment I'm working in.

“But if you go into a new building now, everything is operated with [digital] technology.  All the valves open with technology,”she says. Far from being a fully manual role, plumbing and related engineering jobs are becoming increasingly digitised.

She adds, “I think it's a fantastic industry and there's so much diversity and scope out there.”

Take The Next Step

Ready to start a new career path in engineering? Our core missions at Alexander Associates are to champion women in engineering and connecting engineers to their ideal roles across the UK. To discuss the broad range of opportunities on offer, contact the team today. 

Louise Beale is Technical Director in the Land Quality and Remediation Team at SLR Consulting Limited. A role model for women in engineering, Louise shares her story, from wandering the Shropshire hills exploring old mines, to championing women in leadership.

The Inspiration for Becoming an Engineer

Louise grew up on a farm in the countryside, so always liked working outdoors. Her favourite subject at school was geography and she’d hoped to follow that subject through to university but didn’t get the A-Levels she wanted. Instead, she chose to study Geology and Geography.

“I absolutely loved my degree. Being around the sort of people who were motivated by the same things I was”, she said.

“I got a job after my degree at an environmental consultancy, and I spent all summer wandering around the hills of Shropshire looking for old mine entrances. And I thought this is this is what I want to do.”

Heading Back to University

Encouraged by colleagues during her summer consultancy job, Louise returned to university to complete a Masters in Geochemistry.

“My Masters gave me another year of experience, another year being out in the field and lots of opportunities to learn. I think a Masters demonstrates your credentials, that you can write reports, and you can do the analytical processes. I definitely think it is worthwhile.”

Straight after obtaining her Masters, Louise attended a Careers Fair and landed a job at an environmental consultancy. This started her on a career path working in contaminated land assessment that she’s followed for nearly 30 years.

Unearthing New Skills and Passions

Working in contaminated land assessment involves collaborating with clients who have a piece of land or a site they want to buy or develop.

“You start by knowing nothing about that piece of dirty derelict land. It’s really grotty, but you do the investigations, you research its history, you look at the potential for contamination, you take samples, and you analyse the data.

“And ultimately, you determine what the problems are and what needs to be done to bring it back to being a safe and beneficial space.

“I really love that process and the feeling that I’m helping to improve the environment”.

Early Inspiration

Louise was lucky enough to start her career in a supportive environment where everyone “mucked in together”.

During her second job, following a move to London in 1998, she continued to find role models and someone whom she refers to as “my best boss ever”.

“He had an excellent attitude and was all about doing the right thing, doing it well, and enjoying your work while you did it. He really motivated and encouraged us to be one big team. I think everything I know about leading and managing people, l learned from him.”

“And I was working with a lot of female engineers who were my grade and level of experience. Our team was 50/50 male to female split and we just kept growing as a team because it was such a great place to work.”

Breaking Glass Ceilings

When Louise’s manager and mentor left his role, she decided to apply for it in a job share arrangement with a female engineer colleague. She’d had children by that point and had returned to work three days a week.

“There were a lot of us working part-time and the company made it happen around us. It was still very possible to do the site work and the office work around our working hours.”

Louise and her job share partner were offered the role, which was the first time the company had appointed a job share to lead a team.

“It worked brilliantly. We complemented each other so well – we were better than the sum of our parts. I’m a lot better in the mornings, she was better in the evenings. I’m more ‘big picture’, while she had a lot more attention to detail.”

Louise believes that having a family means you learn to work differently. In her experience, before you have children, you focus on whatever hours it takes to get the job done. Whereas afterwards, you have to leave at a certain point in the day, so you become much more efficient.

A New Direction

Louise’s career changed when her company was acquired by another. At nearly 20 years into her career, she thought she was on an ongoing trajectory where she’d be moving up the ladder and taking on more and more senior positions.

“I think that was the first realisation I had that it wasn't as straightforward as that,” she said.

“I was applying for a promotion, along with a couple of male colleagues. When they got it and I didn't, I was told it was because I didn't have enough hours in the office. So I was encouraged to increase my days.

“Not long after that I moved on from that company to the company I am at now.”

Managing Menopause

It was around this time Louise became perimenopausal.

"I cannot believe the impact that it has had on my life in the last two years.”
Louise experienced around 10-12 different symptoms but attributed each to something else in her life. A stressful project, not stretching properly after a run. But poor sleep, anxiety, not being able to multi-task anymore, and aches and pains in her body were taking a toll.

“I got to the point where I lost quite a lot of confidence in myself. I remember I was going into a meeting with a lot of my peers who were all male. And I was scared about saying something stupid. I thought they could all see through me and think that I didn't actually know how to do my job anymore.”

A colleague suggested she speak to another woman in the company who was having similar experiences. Following her advice, Louise decided to speak to a few of her male colleagues about how she was feeling. It was amazing, and she suddenly felt she had permission to be open about it.

Overcoming a Career Plateau

Louise acknowledges there is a correlation between the lack of women in leadership roles and menopause, which she has observed from her own experiences.

“I just thought, do I want to do a role and take on extra stress and responsibility? Or do I just reduce my hours, do my job and go home again?” she said.

“I was at the point where I was seriously considering asking for a reduction in hours and accepting this was a this was as good as it was going to get.”

It was only through talking to other people that Louise realised she could get help and there was support available. She believes a lot has changed for the better over the last few years, with more people being open on social media about the impact of menopause.

Her company has embraced this trend and started initiatives such as menopause awareness training for all staff, and management training for supervisors.

“It’s changing and I would love that to be our legacy. People come to our stage in their careers and don’t even have this blip. They recognise early what it is, that there is support in place and not have to think it’s the end of their careers.”

“And what a win that would be — all of these women 20 or 30 years into their careers, staying in the business and moving into a leadership role. With all of that empathy and awareness.”

What’s Next for Louise?

After starting HRT, Louise got her confidence back and applied for the Deputy Chair of the Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC) Professional and Technical Panel. She got it!
“SiLC has been around for more than 20 years, but it's historically championed by a lot of senior men in our industry. So when I joined, the current incumbent and I decided we wanted to work hard to increase diversity within SiLC.

“We now have an EDI subcommittee who look at ways to improve diversity within our network, increase membership and demonstrate more value of being a SiLC.”

Interested to learn more about opportunities for female Engineers in the UK? Contact our teamof specialists at Alexander Associates and we’ll connect you with the industry’s best engineering roles. For more inspiring stories on women in engineering, read our articles https://www.alexander-assoc.co.uk/women-in-engineering.

A well-respected and highly sought-after Engineering Contractor, Sharon Walmsley, talks to Ruth Parker, about her early days and the career path she has carved in engineering after sitting her A-Levels.

Sharon speaks to us candidly about the challenges for women in engineering, the roles available, and why the industry is a great option for anyone who wants to be a part of it.

Making her mark in Engineering

After receiving my A-Level marks, I saw a job advertised for Fox’s Biscuits. I was just 18 years old at a time when the factory was very traditional in its genetic makeup. It was mostly males doing the engineering and mechanical work, while women generally worked on the factory floor.

I didn’t see engineering as a career then, and I’m not sure I do now – it is more of a vocation that I love to be a part of. I found it quite challenging at times, and extremely rewarding. No day is the same, particularly when you’re working on a project. It is the job I love to do.

Fox’s Biscuits gave me an opportunity to train, and learn the manual skills on the job, following on to complete a three years at college to learn the theoretical componentry of engineering.

Moving onto Water and Electrical Engineering

I spent three years at Fox’s and then moved on to Aughton Automation to work in the water industry with Northwest Water now United Utilities in Birchwood. I thrived learning about the world of water and building new water treatment works, and I worked predominantly in this sector.

I enjoyed this time and learning the core discipline of electrical with MCC designs, electrical designs, PLC software, and everything else. I was fortunate to have a lot of people I could learn from, and work with some great engineers. We were using new technology and, most significantly, our project was the first to use this new tech for Northwest Water. It was the 1990's and I had a big desktop computer for running the cable calculation software and we had agreed with the client to use this software on the proviso that we could do a percentage of calculations manually to verify it.

A natural progression into Project Management

It was a natural progression into project management with more people giving me responsibility. If you take the lead in these roles you can have a lot more say, influence and control over the outcomes of the project. I could then concentrate on the end product and outputs.

I think I would be lying to myself if I said I didn’t come across people who found it difficult to work with a woman in engineering and project management. But I have worked for 30 years in the construction and water industry. In that time, I have been fortunate to have only dealt with a handful of people who made me feel that way. Maybe it is my strong-willed personality but I am not afraid of the job, and what we have to achieve.

Women in Engineering in the UK

If I am going to take a view, I think in the UK, we are not championing women in the industry as much as other countries do. But when I was working in London on the Lee Tunnel with international parties involvement – with French and Spanish parent companies – women were seen as equals and would take on jobs as they came, just like men. That project had a huge amount of women involved in many different roles and levels.

From my perspective, working with foreign companies and people, there has been more equality shown and more women in the industry seen as equals. The UK doesn’t seem to be as progressive or focused on growing the roles of women in the industry as much as some of European counterparts.

I remember a meeting I chaired while working on the Lee Tunnel project. There were seven people present, and of those, five were women. They held senior positions in heavy construction roles so it was an incredible project to be involved in. That is the one experience I can say I have had where women were prevalent and seen as important.

Apprenticeships as a Great Route into Engineering

An apprenticeship is a great avenue because you learn by doing the work without having to wait to experience it after studying. It could be a game-changer for industry growth in the UK and for neurodiverse minds who may have been labelled as not having Maths as a natural strength. Even though I now have a Masters degree, as an apprentice I worked harder because I saw the value in it, and how I could apply my learning whilst working and earning.

Hopefully with more companies offering apprenticeships, people will fall in love with engineering when they gain those crucial early experiences.

Career Pinnacles and Aspirations

I’ve had many pinnacle jobs in my career – and I’ve been lucky enough to learn from all of them.

And something I have learnt is this: If more people believe they are going to make a difference and not rely on a company to open the door for them, we’ll make more progress. You might have to knock on a few doors and get rejected a couple of times but eventually, someone is going to crack open a door for you to squeeze through. But we shouldn’t rely on others doing it for us. Just open the door yourself and then hold it open for others to follow.

When we are doing a job, we are representatives for others - female leaders in engineering and their respective fields who help other women to achieve the same.

Summary

At Alexander Associates, we believe anyone can have a place in the construction industry. We specialise in engineering recruitment and can help you with your next project or career path.

Contact ustoday to discuss engineering as the ‘it’ industry for you, and be inspired by more of our #ShesanEngineerblog series.

Each June, we celebrate International Women in Engineering Day here in the UK, recognising women's inspiring and ground-breaking work in this largely male-dominated field. Well, we firmly believe women in engineering should be celebrated always, so we recently spoke to Pamela Hardie, ISS’s Key Account Portfolio Director for Technical Services..

An ambitious powerhouse in her field, she worked her way up the engineering ladder from Apprentice to Regional Manager in just six years and has been with ISS for over two decades. Here she shares a little about her background, the challenges she’s faced along the way, and her hopes for future female engineers.

The Only Female Apprentice

Pamela encountered a fair amount of opposition to her desire to follow in the footsteps of her electrician father and grow her career in a technical field.

“I took technical studies at school, and I was actually told I shouldn't go ahead and learn a trade because I wasn't confident enough about the tools we were using in class. I was talked out of it for a more academic route, to be more like my sister. I ended up doing a lot of subjects like her and felt like I was sort of becoming a clone! She’s successful and has a degree, but I wanted to take a different route,” she says.
At 17, Pamela enrolled in the same apprenticeship at the same company as her brother.

“I was the only female on the tools in the company, and I was the only one on the college course as well. We had to stay away six weeks at a time at the college and it was pretty tough. But it was (also) a good time, and I made some real friends,” she smiles.

Pamela successfully completed her four-year apprenticeship, with plenty of support and encouragement from both her father and brother, even though she worried her sibling would “hate having his little sister in college” with him!
She remained with the same company and stayed ‘on the tools’ for a number of years before making a move. Throughout this time, she continued to be the only female working outside the office.

“I was really determined to prove everybody wrong. Many people thought I wouldn't be able to do it, that I'd quit in the first week or be on the tools for a month and I'd be off doing something else. I was a rebel - I just wanted to do something completely different and get in amongst a male industry and push the agenda.”

A Move Into Management

In speaking to Pamela, her ambition and determination is evident. This is reflected in what she did after working onsite.
“I used my apprenticeship as a stepping stone as I’d always wanted to become a contract manager, like my father. I wanted to be the first female contract manager, well, the first female everything within the company, really!” she laughs.

“I’d expressed an interest in becoming a manager and at the time, the woman that worked distributing the jobs went off sick leave. My manager asked me if I'd like to step in to get used to the office environment,” she explains.

“I found that really invaluable because I learned how the business worked, especially as I got to complete a lot of quotes and things like that. I used it as a springboard to keep moving up in the company.”

After being in that role for a year, the business underwent some changes and they were looking for managers to oversee employees. That was when Pamela landed her first management job.

In this role, she managed an all-male team, including the tradespeople she’d worked alongside while on the tools.

“Obviously there was one or two who wanted to write me off but overall, they were actually incredibly supportive. I built up a close relationship with many people, and they wanted to see me do well,” she explains.

But the contracts manager role wasn’t her end goal. After a year, she applied for the regional manager’s position and secured it successfully, once again the only woman at that level.

“That was a tough one to manage. I think many of my peers I’d worked alongside at the management level wanted the role for themselves and thought, as a man, they're more qualified than I am to get it.”

To cope with that, Pamela says she focused on doing her job as well as she could, aiming to manage as reasonably as possible. She was lucky to also have her manager as good support, as well as her father to ‘sound off to’.

Challenges Aplenty

Pamela is well used to being a lone woman, having been one at every stage of her apprenticeship and engineering career. And of course, with that comes some challenges.

During her apprenticeship she says, “It was just a group of young boys (and me). Every day I had doubts, thinking that I couldn't do it. I'd often go home frustrated because of my experiences.”

“But I did have my dad as a sounding board … he’d mentored other apprentices within the same business and I think he knew that I was as good, if not better than the others. It had nothing to do with gender … he always believed in me and pushed me on. My biggest reason for completing my apprenticeship was my father, honestly.”

Role models make a real difference, for as the saying goes, ‘seeing is believing’. But for Pamela, she had none, from lecturers to working onsite to upper management.

“I didn’t have any female mentors to look up to ... and it’s not something I thought about until I had children. When I had my two young girls, I thought, ‘No, I don't want them to struggle the way I did’.

And then of course there is the juggle of motherhood and work, as along with her twin daughters, she also has a son.

“Women take on most of the childcare duties, so many of the men I was working with would stay away all week and then go home at the weekends with everything done for them. But I was trying to run a house, look after kids and work full time. It was tough.”

“When I went off on maternity leave for four or five months to have my son, I came back and we’d changed over to ISS. It was a whole new company with completely different contracts to deal with. I found it hard to adjust to coming back to work. But I did have the support of a colleague who helped me through and brought me up to speed,” she says.

Pamela also had support at home, with her mum helping with childcare.
“I knew the kids were fine. I wasn't leaving them at nursery or with strangers, so I was lucky I had my mum. I was phoning her every 10 minutes the first day or so, though!” she laughs.

The second time she returned from a more extended maternity leave with her twins was more challenging.

“It gets tougher the older they get, (particularly) when I'm missing out on things like school plays, especially if I'm travelling. I try to be at as much as I can but you've got to sacrifice some things.”

Looking To The Future

Not content with her current achievements, Pamela wants to make a difference for the next generation of women in engineering.

“At the moment in mobile engineering, we've got about 250 engineers and two of them are women. Part of my role is looking at taking on women in apprenticeships to try and increase the diversity within the team,” she explains.

“ISS is focused on gender balance and improving it across the industry. I think they are leading the way with lots of great activity around returning to work from maternity leave and implementing a proper return-to-work process, as well as ‘keeping in touch days’, where you're coming into the office to get back into the swing of things.”

We hope you enjoyed learning about Pamela’s journey as a female engineer. You might also like to read Chelva Nava and KatParson’s stories, two more highly successful and inspiring UK female engineers. 

Danny Clarke is the Commercial Director of the National Federation of Builders (NFB) and he speaks with our very own Ruth Parker about how to inspire change and the importance of Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity (EDI or ED&I) in the workplace and, specifically, in the construction industry.

Danny is a Diversity Champion within the construction industry and his knowledge is insightful and unique.

What Does It Mean to Be a Diversity Champion?

To be a champion means more than just ambassadorship; it means that you walk the walk and talk the talk because it is a mindset and integral to you as a person. It means that you provide a safe space: someone that others can trust to talk with about any concerns. Above all, a champion makes sure that people:

·        Have a voice
·        Have the space and confidence to speak
·        Know they don’t need permission to speak
·        Feel valued
·        In the room are listening
·        Are being heard.

Read on for a thought-provoking discussion about EDI in construction and the workplace.

Three Concentrated Areas of Diversity

Danny concentrates on three areas of diversity:
·        Women in Construction and Engineering
·        What diversity looks like
·        The different facts of diversity

In Danny’s experience, organisations and job seekers often think recruiters are motivated to present a candidate because of their personal demographics or characteristics.

“In my view, this is a misconception. In actuality, a candidate is recruited for their skills, experience, and knowledge and who happens to also have diverse characteristics. In other words, it’s the competency as well as the characteristics combined that make the diverse candidate who thinks differently to achieve the same goals.
Thinking differently about diversity is the only way we are going to generate innovation and promote creativity”

What Made You Realise That We Need Diversity in Construction?

“When it has always been men as the norm, it can sometimes be a leap to think, we need diversity here.”

When Danny started at NFB, he set up a women in construction networking group, and soon uncovered some harrowing stories from females in the wider industry. Some of the things women deal with in construction are harrowing, but they don’t often get the opportunity to speak up within their organisations. Within a networking group we create that opportunity, and only when we hear their stories, can we create the possibility for change.

When Does Talking Need to Stop and Action Need to Start?

There are too many group forums, working groups and subcommittees who are just talking. Danny shares the analogy of the bandwagon and ‘International Women’s Day’, which consists of

“Let’s do a social post, pull out the token female who works in the organisation again for her annual outing, and put a poster on the wall so we can say look how good we’re doing. We’re doing great things.”

The most important thing he noticed was there is so much talk and inaction. Now is the time for action.

The Construction Industry Is in Crisis

We are going through a massive skill shortage, and Brexit has also had an an impact – the number of engineers and others leaving the industry for care and parental responsibilities (both male and female) is astronomical. So encouraging the industry to review and revise how we look at and do things is crucial.
The amount of workers leaving the industry are more than those entering it. We need to recruit an additional 45,000 people into the industry every year for the next 5 years so we can grow. You wouldn’t be wrong to say that withouth changes to recruitment and retention construction is going to continue to be a challenging industry.

What can we do to create change?

We need to enable choice from as wide a talent pool as possible – that’s what recruitment agencies are trying to do, but too often get resistance to perfectly good candidates that don’t have the ‘look’, therefore they don’t ‘fit’.
Companies, with the help of organisations like NFB, can raise people’s voices, and provide mentoring, master classes, training programmes, networks and community groups that bring people together, to make people feel they are not on their own but are a part of something. This isn’t a concept just for women. It should be for everyone equally.

The whole point of inclusion is that you take everyone with you on the journey, so that you don’t have anyone feeling segregated. The more we do that, the more we are going to get the negative behaviours out of the industry.

Are You Concerned About Those Who Abuse ED&I as a TickBox Exercise?

Yes, there are those who have the conversation about ED&I and then don’t do anything with it, except to tick the box. They may want change but aren’t actually ready for the change.

I am often approached to discuss implementing an EDI programme for an organisation. However, when asked to explore what they want to get from it, they aren’t sure what that looks like for them. My advice is to know what you hope to achieve before trying to roll out an EDI programme, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.

He says the answer should include “Because it is the right thing to do. If it doesn’t include this, then they might be missing the point.”

It should never be a tickbox exercise to ‘keep up with the Jones’, a PR stunt, a poster on the wall or talk about ratios. These reasons drive the wrong behaviours, set the organisation up for failure and allow them to say “Well, we tried.”

If an organisation doesn’t have its heart and soul in an EDI programme, they should pause. If it’s not the right thing to do, then don’t do it at all, because it will set the industry’s initiative back even further.

The Good Work Being Achieved

There are groups, councils and panels doing something about EDI from a ‘women in construction’ perspective, not just talking about it. Danny sits on several of these groups where some have the overriding rhetoric, ‘there are not enough women in the industry.’

This sends out the wrong message that the women in the industry aren’t enough, or that the work they do isn’t enough. We have great women in engineering and construction.

But the right message to send out to women is we need more great women who are great at their jobs.

The Top 100 Awards

That is why NFB launched the 100 Most Influential Women in Construction Awards. Women were nominated for their skill sets, great behaviours, accomplishments, and more. These women provide inspiration for others to follow them on their journeys.

The Top 100 Legacy Programme

The Legacy Programme offers mentoring, masterclasses, monthly peer groups and fully funded ILM training. Last year, NFB ran a masterclass on Finding Your Voice in the room, physically and face-to-face, and online. The point is that you do not need permission to speak up.
 
Mentoring and Promoting EDI in Construction

People often ask Danny why men should be talking about EDI in the industry? His answer is “For the same reason women should be talking about it, it is important for the workforce. It isn’t enough for a they/them attitude – look at it as ‘us’ – what are we doing in the industry? How do we fix it?”

NFB offers mentoring and training for organisations and individuals to challenge their current mindsets and learn strategies for success and inclusion in the workplace.

Summary

Our team, at Alexander Associates, agree that ED&I is the only way to strengthen the workplace and to ensure a successful tomorrow. With the world in flux, we need to go forward with the right strategies to safeguard against instability in the global market and inspire change, and we do this because it is the right thing to do.

Check out our blog series #ShesAnEngineer and contact us today to speak with our specialists in recruitment consultancy in construction and engineering. We will share our core values and how we implement ED&I in our services for you.

Inspiration and Early Years

Chelvi spent her childhood living in university quarters in Kuala Lumpur – her father was a Professor of Civil Engineering and her mother was a Maths Teacher. Her parents encouraged her that she could pursue any career path that she desired.

“When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor or a surgeon but this changed when I was ten during a family holiday to Europe. We were travelling around by train and while passing through Austria, I saw these beautiful bridges linking remote communities that would otherwise be completely isolated. I was awestruck by the nature and the human spirit of it, and this stuck with me.”

When the time came to go to university, Chelvi’s parents asked her what she wanted to do, and she chose to study engineering at the University of Southampton. 
“There were around 40 students on my course and just four of us were women. However, one was an exchange student who just came for a year, so for the remainder of the course we were just three!”

Working as a Woman in Engineering

After graduating at the top of her class with a first-class honours degree, Chelvi accepted a job with a British company in Singapore. Here she discovered that proving yourself is key to developing a career in the industry.

“I was brought up to be fearless, so I never go into a situation expecting a problem but that doesn’t mean problems didn’t happen! What I found in the East was, they look at you with a bit of trepidation initially, but once you’ve proven your technical abilities, then that’s it and your gender doesn’t matter, which is what all of us want. I’ve worked in the UK, Europe and South-East Asia, and I’ve had the least number of female colleagues when working in the UK., We have to question why that is.”

As a woman of colour in engineering, Chelvi has endured and overcome a number of different challenges. Some of which were harder to resolve and adapt to than others.
“Before I left Singapore, my mentor – a Senior Engineer at the company I worked for – warned me that I would encounter racism while working in the UK. This was unfortunately the case but I’m a resilient person and would usually try to laugh it off. For example, people at work would often comment that I’d be making curry for dinner that night, and I would just tell them that actually we very rarely eat curry in my house”
But there were other practical issues Chelvi faced.“A practical issue that I experienced early on – and one that I still see people talking about on LinkedIn – is that they never had boots in my size for when I was on site.

“I remember once we were clearing an old burial site and I had to wear two or three pairs of these welly-type things over my shoes because I couldn’t fit into any of the boots. As I tried to walk across the site, I sank into the mud and two men had to pull me out and carry me across. This was in 1989 and still today women find it hard to get appropriate site boots in their size.”

With more women being encouraged into engineering these days, many businesses are attempting to become more inclusive employers, with some setting a target of hiring 50% female employees.

“When I entered the profession, I would say women made up 10 - 12% of the workforce and today it’s only improved to 16%.”

Workplace Discrimination

“A huge barrier I faced was that I needed one year of on-site experience to become a Chartered Engineer. Every time I approached the training manager, he’d say he couldn’t find a suitable placement for me, but I would tell him that I don’t care where I go, just get me on site.

“When I left university, I was voted the person most likely to get chartered first, but then I was left behind everyone else. This is what led me down the structural engineering route, which is just as rigorous, but they allow you to accrue site experience rather than having to go and do a full year.

“This was perhaps the most direct gender discrimination I experienced. I’ve had a pretty good trajectory in my career, so after that stumbling block, the next big obstacle was becoming a parent, and then becoming a single parent.

“Many women have to take on the role of the main carer. I was finding that I wasn’t often getting the roles that I was qualified and experienced to do. Or, if I did get these roles, then it was very difficult to get the flexibility I needed as a parent.”

“In the UK, my son’s childcare cost me just as much as my mortgage, so I ended up moving back to Malaysia for three years where I could afford childcare. But when we returned to the UK, I was back in the same situation.

“When I asked for a raise, a superior at work told me that I was unlikely to get a promotion until my son was a teenager because they felt I wouldn’t be able to put the hours in. It wasn’t until 1996 that I found a company to work for that paid for my son’s nursery and allowed me to work from home one day a week, which meant I could pick him up from school.

When her son was ten years old, Chelvi made the decision to give contracting a try.
“At this point, I’d been struggling for several years. In fact, I’d gone overseas to work because it was easier than trying to find what I needed in the UK. Contracting through Alexander Associates was key to my career because you got me into the right roles without wasting any time. Also, this allowed me to work a four-day week during a time when that was highly unusual.”

The work-life balance that Chelvi found meant that she could develop professionally and have more time to spend with her son.

The Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is still an issue in many industries, and Chelvi found accessing fair pay as a female Engineer wasn’t straightforward.

“When I was reading my Master’s, I was offered a job at good pay, but I didn’t take it because I felt morally obliged to go back to the company that had given me the scholarship, even though I wasn’t actually tied to them in any way. Here I was offered terrible pay but when I challenged it, it was just laughed off. The implication was that I should be grateful, so I accepted that.

“Later in my career, I was overlooked for promotions because I was a single parent, which meant my salary wasn’t increasing. This is why contracting was such a breath of fresh air for me. With contracting, you have your pay per hour and you get paid for every hour that you work. But on the other hand, if you don’t work, such as if you’re off sick, then you don’t get paid.

“When I made the decision to re-join a company in a permanent position in my 50s, I requested a figure but was turned down. I soon discovered what other people in the company were being paid and could see that I was very underpaid. That was a horrible feeling because I’m a very technically-competent Engineer and I have years of excellent experience, so I didn’t understand why I was being undervalued in this way.
“I decided to fight the company on this and some of my colleagues were willing to share their salaries and speak up for me. There was also a great HR person who mediated between me and upper management. This all started within four months of my joining the company and it took the whole year to get something, which even then was given in phases.

“People have said to me, do you think you’re being discriminated against because you’re a woman or because you’re a woman of colour or because you’re a parent? My answer is simply that I don’t know, it could have been anything.”

Giving Back to the Engineering World

As an established and highly-sought after Engineer, Chelvi enjoyed an exciting career and worked on a number of different projects before deciding she wanted to inspire others.

“I decided that the best way to give back was to work at a company on a permanent contract and to do mentoring and training. I re-joined the firm that was actually my first employer. I was 51 when I did this and within a few years, both of my parents, who were living in Sri Lanka, became quite frail. It was decided that they’d go and live with my brother in Singapore and I knew that I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.
“I wanted to go to Singapore, but I wasn’t able to make this work with the company I was at. However, I was in touch with my old mentor and he invited me to work with him in Malaysia, which is just an hour’s flight from Singapore. So I resigned at the age of 54, even though I knew coming back and looking for a job in the UK would be difficult due to ageism.

“I knew that if I didn’t go then I’d regret it, so I went to Malaysia to start my new job in June and my dad passed away in August. I was able to see him every weekend during those months and to be present to support my mum afterwards.

Engineering Everyone

Chelvi is undoubtedly a trailblazer in her industry. Her story will be an inspiration for countless women today who are working in traditionally male-dominated industries, not just engineering.

“I’m sad to say that sometimes I find women don’t make it easy for other women. One of the things I always say is that we should all lift each other up, especially women. We all have our unconscious biases and it’s up to us to challenge them.”

These days, Chelvi is still determined to encourage more people, especially women, to consider a career in engineering. She set up Engineering Everyone to raise awareness of how integral Engineers are to society and to inspire people from all walks of life to enter the profession.

“I’ve got my objectives of educating the public and supporting Engineers, and I also think it’s really important to introduce the language of engineering to kids.
“I’ve taken lectures that I used to deliver at London South Bank University and simplified them to create a series of children’s books – The Language of Structures.
You can watch the full interview with Chelvi on YouTube or check out Engineering Everyone for more details on her mission! 

Kat Parsons is the Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging UK and Ireland at ISS Facility Services, a position earned after a successful, and hard-won engineering career.

But perhaps, more specifically, from the experiences and lessons she collected while travelling this path. One not unfamiliar to many female engineers. In this blog, we learn more about what she has overcome to get to where she is today as a woman in engineering.
 

What Was the Spark that Lit Kat’s Engineering Bug?

When Kat began looking at her university study options, she tried to find something that sparked her academic interests while being connected to her desire to have an active career. 

“As I was having a flick through the prospectus, I saw an image of a consultant taking water samples. I was like, that’s me!”

She enrolled at Lancaster University to study Environmental Science: a nice mix of all her interests. 

During her studies, Kat did a couple of work placements to gain some experience. She used this time to refine the vision she held for her career, or as she put it, apply a “temperature check”. On a 6-week placement with an Environmental Consultancy, Kat thought, “I really see myself here – hard hats, overalls on. This is what I want to do.”
 

The Work Begins

After graduating, much of Kat’s work focussed on flood risk. But when her role started to touch on work with contaminated land, she got excited. At this point, Kat joined a bigger firm and moved into Project Management in land contamination. "I was in the field, five days a week. I realised that this was the work I really enjoyed, that ‘logistical, last minute, quick we need someone’ work.” 

What became apparent was that she was more valuable in the office, working on the backend of site management, so she embarked on a route that would see her attempt to ascend the company ladder, one that she had to work hard to climb!
 

Challenges of the Climb

Kat managed to move from her graduate status to a more senior position quickly, citing her logistics and project management skills as having supported her progression.
Over the course of 10 years, Kat reached what she describes as a plateau, trapped in middle management with no clear sign that she would get to where she wanted to despite demonstrating her worth over and over. 
 

Goals and Visible Role Models?

When considering goals and role models, Kat acknowledges that “It was quite tricky. Female engineers already in the business were very technical, but I was more of an all-rounder. It almost felt like my skill set was holding me back because I wasn’t ticking the technical box. Men with fewer skills would always get promoted ahead of me, which was quite frustrating.”
 

Coping With Gender Inequality

Kat admits that she opted to get tough to match the nature of the male-dominated sector, reflecting that she went to great lengths to demonstrate her capabilities above and beyond what was expected of others. Kat realised she would need to move on to find the promotion she deserved. 
 

Fighting for Equal Pay

When we raised the topic of equal pay, Kat faced this issue a lot.“Whispers of what people were being paid versus what I was being paid. That was always pretty tough.”
To ensure she’s being equally paid for her skillset, it’s one of the first things she looks into—an unfortunate reality for women in engineering and a product of being a victim of pay inequality.  

Kat eventually moved and embarked on a different career path, feeling she got pushed to make the decision by the limitations of her Engineering career. “I reflected on my career and realised I wasn’t happy. I was very stressed, and my work-life balance was horrendous, so I decided to change industry completely and move into Facilities Management.”
 

Appealing Factors

Kat entered Facilities Management in a Health and Safety role. She knew nothing about the industry but found space she enjoyed. 

As part of this new role, Kat worked on some health-focused projects, including her acclaimed project on Menopause. “That got picked up and I was asked to be the Head of Diversity and Equality for the UK and Ireland. A position I originally said no to! I thought I couldn’t do that. This new role required empathy that I thought I didn’t have. With some self-reflection, I realised I had bucketloads of empathy. I knew I could make a real difference.” 
 

Dismantling an Ingrained Culture 

Discussing that much needs to be done to change how companies support their people, Kat notes, “It’s very much cultural. Working on construction sites, it was either men swearing their heads off or refusing to swear in front of me. Either way, I would do something to fit in.

It was difficult at the time, but I think it’s quite a skill to adapt how you talk to a group of people. Going onto a site, my whole demeanour would change. In the first few minutes, I knew I needed to say something to prove I wasn’t a feeble woman. Something to prove I deserved to be there.”
 

Has it Changed?

“I always remember the toilets being horrendous. A surveyor I talked to last week said she doesn't drink from when she gets up to the end of her shift so that she doesn’t have to use the facilities. Essentially, women’s basic needs are still not being met."

On the flip side of that, a company Kat worked for implemented a Menopause policy, which is new and fantastic for the business and the women who come after her. Women in senior positions leave the industry because they’re not getting the support they need to deal with the anxiety, stress, and depression associated with fluctuating hormones.

Honest Reflection

So, what does Kat think about the industry as a whole?

“Looking back on my career in Construction and Engineering, I remember the good bits. I absolutely loved it! I got to see parts of the country I never would’ve seen. I met thousands and thousands of people. I wouldn’t change it. Yes, it was hard, but I think that’s made me who I am today.”
 
Women are a force of nature in the engineering world, and if you want to find more opportunities here then speaking to the teamat Alexander Associates could be the best thing that you do for your career.

Emily Owen is a Hydrologist with an Environmental Consultancy. Her focus is flood risk assessment work and surface water drainage design, many of which support planning applications, whilst some involve retrofitting for insurance purposes. With an appetite for acquiring new talents and diversifying her skill set, she has been developing her water management portfolio. Recently, she moved into mine water management and water resource modelling.

“Water management is as it sounds – in terms of a site, water comes in and out. If you get it wrong, you get flooded or run out of water – particularly at sites with high water use. Mine sites need to look at water use in depth. A lot of the time, they're in water-poor regions but use a huge amount of water. Water use now feeds into the ESG journey. Mining is probably one of the earliest industries to adopt ESG from a functionality and future-forward perspective.”

This work started for Emily at the very technical end, doing things like water balance modelling and looking at how water moved through mining systems and processes. Now, Emily is moving into water security and more sustainable water use.
 

The Engineering Idea? 

Emily felt almost felt like engineering was not a choice, but where her studies and interests were always going to take her.

“Going into A-levels, I still loved physical Geography. I was getting frustrated by the end of A2 with Geography being a bit wishy-washy. I wanted to do the sciences behind it. I felt like I should be able to apply what I was doing in the other sciences to my Geography work. So I went and studied Science as an undergraduate. From there, the water element really interested me, so I did a Master’s in Hydrology and Water Resource Management within the Engineering department at Imperial. This brought me into the Engineering world and was probably the point that I realised that what I was doing was actually Engineering.”
 

Women Represented in Study

“I went to Durham for my Undergraduate course, which was probably male-dominated because it sat inside that traditional field of study like Geology. I went on an exchange for my second year. When I returned, I was free to do what I wanted because I wasn’t enrolled in a traditional course. You definitely got changes in the gender mix depending on which modules you took. The more environmental courses tended to draw in more women. Maybe because they're newer, less rigid and are constantly evolving.”
During her Masters, Emily reflects that females and multinationals predominantly represented the group and affirms that her overall study experience was positive. She felt well supported by other aspiring female Engineers throughout her studies.
 

Female Role Models and Representation

When discussing the outward-facing persona of a business and what people – particularly women or those from a diverse group – want to see reflected back at them, Emily agrees it’s not a board or interviewing panel of white middle-class men.
Reflecting on her personal experience with female Engineers and access to senior women or mentors in the industry, Emily shares that shehad a lot of strong male managers, but they’ve always been very comfortable with telling her to seek advice and support from other women where possible so that’s helpful.

“As our company has grown, we have more women in the office, which has helped to bring in more women. Having these female contacts on the bad days and having someone you can talk to is important. Sometimes you don't know if it's a discrimination thing or just a life thing. When you're the only person who meets the female criteria, you don't know the difference. Sometimes you just want to call someone up to cross-check it.”
 

Personal Experiences with Discrimination

“I’ve definitely had moments when I thought I’ve been discriminated against, but I do’'t know that’s been a clear-cut case. Some personality traits that have naturally been encouraged in me have made it difficult to tell. I will always offer somebody a cup of tea or coffee when they arrive somewhere because that’s what I'vebeen brought up to do. But then I found that I was always being asked to make the cups of tea even when I had a male colleague of equal status sitting next to me.”

Was Speaking Up an Option?

“Sometimes I would speak up, but that often made it worse because it made people feel defensive. I reached a point where I spoke to someone in the office and told them how it made me feel. They intercepted the requests and offered to make the drinks.” 
Emily struggles to determine whether the issue was gender or personality based as it was clouded by the circumstance she had always offered in the past. Nonetheless, the request was always directed at her. 

“It's a difficult one because we had no admin support. The truth is that 90% of admin staff are women. So, when you’re the young female in a room, the assumption is that you’ll make the tea. It was something that when I was more junior would really get me going.”
 

What can Schools in the UK do Better to Encourage People into Engineering or Other Expansive Careers?

“Encourage students to go out and look for things they haven’t thought of. There's a lot of information out there. Almost every profession in the UK has an institution that goes with it. They would love to do more with young professionals and students, but the gap between them is quite difficult. They can’t force themselves into a school environment, so maybe the solution is encouraging the interested kids to speak to these groups.”
 

What’s the Biggest Misconception About Engineering? 

The practical misconception

“I think it’s what’s included in engineering. My preconceptions were people sat doing calculations and tapping away at a computer all day. But obviously, the job relates to so many other things. Particularly for graduates. A large proportion of it is site work where you’re out and about interacting with people. I don't think people realise this is a huge part of being an engineer.”

The gender misconception 

“Some of the worst discrimination I’ve faced was while collecting bore water samples. A farmer approached me and asked, “What do you think you're doing young lady?” That phrasing, while quite common, makes you feel like you are five years old with your hair in pigtails. I’m obviously collecting a water sample, doing my engineering role, but there’s this whole misconception that you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing because you’re a woman.”

When asked whether Emily felt this was a public misconception or if she felt the sentiment is echoed on site too, she shares, “I think you are treated differently some of the time. Partly because it’s a bit more unusual, and they don’t know how to interact with you. But I think some of it is a lack of provision for ladies coming to the site.”
Aside from less-than-ideal facilities, the provision of female-sized safety gear on site has also been an issue historically. According to Emily, this is getting much better. However, things often need to be made to order to accommodate the many variations of the female form.

There can often be a lag time of up to six weeks between placing an order and it arriving. These delays prevent female graduates from being able to get onto site as soon as they hit the workplace, limiting their real-world exposure in the initial stages of their careers. Ill-fitting gear makes it difficult to carry out your work comfortably but also lines you up to be the butt of someone’s joke. And whilst Emily acknowledges that humour and taking the mickey is effectively the love language on a site, it can also make the person on the receiving end feel a bit awkward, especially if this person is a young female graduate.
 
Finding the Right Opportunity

Women can make waves in engineering, and with strong women at the forefront of change, it’s important to know where to find the right opportunities. With the help of our team, you can find your next engineering role that’ll make you feel included and supported. Contact us today and learn more!