Inspiring Women

Construction professionals are invited to join a free webinar in March on how moving to flexible working will help the sector tackle skills shortages – the first event in the 2023 programme for Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering.  Following on from the success of last year's programme, Construction News and…

Louise Hardy has joined the board of builders merchant Travis Perkins, adding this to a string of non-executive directorships in the industry. These include Crest Nicholson Holdings, Severfield and Balfour Beatty. Hardy is also chair of Oriel, the joint initiative between Moorfields Eye Hospital, UCL and Moorfields Eye Charity for…

Women in the industry have welcomed the introduction of guidance requiring sanitary disposal bins for onsite toilets, but questioned why the move took so long. Earlier this week the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published new guidance about welfare facilities on construction sites, advising site inspectors to check that disposal…

Melissa Barber is head of people and communications at Beard Construction If, like me, you’re a woman who’s been working in construction for a decade or so, your first experience of a building site was probably less about the job you were doing and more about a feeling of imposter…

Sarah Sidey is a director of Randstad’s construction division In the recent interim review into misconduct in the Metropolitan Police, author Baroness Casey identified the need for urgent reform from within the organisation. In a letter to Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, she wrote that the public “need to have…

There are still many barriers to women entering senior positions in the construction and engineering industry, according to leading female figures in the sector, reports Thomas Johnson. Speakers at the inaugural Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering conference last week shared their experience of gender bias in the industry and…

A female executive has been named among the best paid in the construction industry for the first time. Costain chief financial officer Helen Willis is the 15th best paid boss among listed building contractors, a Construction News analysis found. Willis, who joined the contractor in 2020 from bank note producer…

The winners of the first-ever Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering awards have been revealed at a ceremony in central London. Jointly launched by Construction News and its sister title New Civil Engineer, the awards celebrate the role models and organisations empowering women in construction and engineering. A total of…

Skanska has extended its maternity and paternity leave policies, increasing benefits for its workforce. In a step towards creating more family friendly policies for its staff, the tier one contractor announced improvements that will kick in immediately. Paternity leave, which was previously one week on fully paid leave and another…

More than half of young people consider a career in construction attractive, research shows. A total of 56% of young people aged 18-29 said starting a construction job was an “attractive” prospect, according to a poll by construction data platform NBS, while just under a quarter thought it was “very…