Repost: Zimbabwe - Storming Into a Man's World

BY FORTIOUS NHAMBURA, 7 DECEMBER 2012

Charlotte Chani - clad in worksuit, helmet on her head and a trowel in hand - walks confidently to her workplace. It is 7.45am and Chani is about to start her day's work. She is bricklayer. As usual, she is the first to get to the workplace, something that even her male counterparts have failed to do. She has always accomplished her daily target of laying 600 bricks with ease despite being also the supervisor of the team.

Once her counterparts could not agree with Charlotte's choice to head the building brigade as they felt she was too young to lead them.

At 24, she commands a building brigade of 12 builders, with some men old enough to be her father.

But as destiny could have it prescribed, she has to lead and she does that with distinction.

For some of her workmates the hatred has now evolved into respect.

Charlotte is among the few women who have taken the construction industry by storm. They are bound not only to be part of the booming industry but to play a meaningful role in the sector that has been a male preserve.

That is the mission of the Zimbabwe Women in Construction Association, an organisation established with the primary objective of supporting women in the construction industry in Zimbabwe. The association is driven by the will to achieve more. ZWICA members are agreed that time has come to engender the sector and ensure more women participate fully in it.

Even companies with stakes in the construction industry are beginning to see the wisdom of bringing women in the sector and have started to contribute.

ZWICA president Mrs Elizabeth Chakadunga said years of working in a male-dominated environment had given her the zeal to open up opportunities for women in construction. As such she and others started the association of women in the construction industry.

Read the full article at allafrica.com.

Do Professional Women and Tradeswomen in the South African Construction Industry Share Common Employment Barriers, despite Progressive Government Legislation?

Do Professional Women and Tradeswomen in the South African Construction Industry Share Common Employment Barriers, despite Progressive Government Legislation?

Authors: Jane English , Karen Le Jeune
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 1 50 2011
Published online: 13 August 2011
DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000095

The post‐apartheid period in South African history will most likely be recorded as the most positive legislative period for women ever, yet the construction industry appears to exclude women, both professionally and at skills and crafts level. The paper aims to classify, list and discuss the common characteristics and affects of the barriers to women entering construction at all levels, professionally and in trades, or having entered the industry, retaining their employment. Besides cataloguing the barriers, initiatives to overcome or circumvent barriers are also investigated. The research paper reviews the results from four separate studies undertaken in Cape Town between 2005 and 2007, all of which used mixed‐method research design approaches. The conclusions drawn from the research indicate that South African women in professional and trade employment in the Construction Industry have many common barriers and these barriers are the same ones experienced by their counterparts employed in international construction industries. However, due to the paradigm shift in societal values brought on by the move from apartheid to democratic rule in South Africa, a platform for change has been created. This is strongly reinforced by legislation encapsulating the government's drive to include women in all aspects of economic activity. The legislation in question is the South African Construction Sector Broad‐Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Charter, 2006, which purports to bring about substantial change in the gender composition of the construction sector. It is imperative that in the future, the research monitor and plot the continued barrier breakdown progress initiated by government legislation to encourage further and other initiatives.

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Shaun added the following comment about the article:

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