International Women's Day 2017
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th March. It is a day to celebrate the contribution women make to social, economic, cultural and political achievements.
However, the World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. In 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the “already glacial pace of progress” meant the gender gap wouldn't close entirely until 2133. The organisation wants women and girls to achieve their ambitions and has called for flexible cultures to root out workplace bias.
For International Women's Day 2017, Julia Evans, Chief Executive at BSRIA asked whether we are doing enough to foster and encourage the excellence of female engineers. Julia said: “Diversity is clearly needed in the construction industry to shift the scales of ritual and tradition and turn the tide so that women are more fairly represented.
“Current statistics for women in the construction workplace is about 12% compared to 47% in other industries. This variation is undesirable. Women make up 52% of Britain’s population, so increasing the percentage of the female workforce in the industry must happen as a matter of urgency.
“Women have struggled to get an equal footing in construction, but the representation of women in our industry has waxed and waned in recent history, demonstrating that Government leadership is crucial in this important debate.
“There are plenty of different roles for women working in the built environment these days – from surveyors to construction site managers.
“In this specific respect, BSRIA continues to work with local schools and colleges, in and around Bracknell, to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects – not only at an early age – but to women – who have historically not always chosen this academic avenue.
“BSRIA is very supportive of women going into engineering and proud to be employing many female engineers itself who are flourishing. Engineers help make the future a reality.”
BSRIA is a non-profit distributing, member-based association, providing specialist services in construction and building services.
--BSRIA
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- BSRIA articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
- Building Services Research and Information Association.
- Celebrating women in engineering.
- Equality Act.
- Inclusivity in engineering.
- International Women in Engineering Day 2018.
- International Women in Engineering Day 2020.
- National Infrastructure Plan for Skills.
- Perkins review of engineering skills.
- Tackling the construction skills shortage.
- Skills to build.
- Boardroom to building site skills gap survey.
- Achieving carbon targets and bridging the skills gap.
- Why so many women leave engineering.
- Women's Engineering Society.
Diversity, social value and skills
[edit] Directory
- Diversity and inclusion
- Skills and careers
- Social value
- Academic research
- A-Z of EDI: Definitions
- Building People 'Network of Networks'
- Building People platform
[edit] Join in
Building People is bringing together the huge amount of resource that exists across the Built Environment industry, with a focus on diversity and inclusion, skills and careers, and social value.
We need your help to do this.
Have you got useful material to share? Do you know of information that would be helpful to others? If it is relevant to the Built Environment and to diversity, skills and social value, then it's relevant to others. Help them find it by using the guidelines below.
[edit] Add your own content
- For guidance about writing and adding your own content see Get started - top tips and help.
- Some articles are more popular and useful than others. This article explains more.
- Make sure you use the right title as this helps search engines find it. See here for guidance.
- Add your signature to link readers to your profile.
- Tick the 'People' box when you submit the article - that way your content will appear in this Building People microsite.
- Finding it tricky? Contact us for assistance.
