Repost: First step towards attracting more women into construction

Published for Sanctuary Housing Association
Wednesday, January, 15, 2014

Keen to play its part in attracting more females to work in the construction industry, Sanctuary Group invited its contractors to a meeting at it offices in London to learn more about the Women into Construction Project.

The Women into Construction Project is a CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) Construction Skills scheme run by the organisation Be Onsite following a successful initiative by the Olympic Delivery Authority at Olympic Park in Stratford. The project aims to create a more balanced work force by removing barriers that might deter women from entering the construction industry.

Committed to attracting more women to work at its developments across London, Sanctuary Group hosted a meeting with Women Into Construction at its offices in Wood Green, where the Group’s development team and some of its contractors (including Ardmore Construction, Bennett Construction Ltd & Bugler Development) learnt more about the initiative.

They heard about the range of options available to women through the scheme, such as work placements on site, apprenticeships, access to further training and careers advice, and the funding available for childcare costs etc to help facilitate women taking up these opportunities.

Janet Mussington, Sanctuary’s head of development for London, said: “There are relatively few women working in the construction industry and Sanctuary is keen to play a part in redressing this imbalance. The presentation from the Women into Construction team was very informative and we are delighted that three of our contractors have already given a commitment to offering work experience placements through the Project.”

She confirmed that Sanctuary Group has female apprentices working in its maintenance team (Sanctuary Maintenance) and via some of its contractors – such as 20-year old Chantelle Wrightson who is doing a carpentry and joinery apprenticeship with Keepmoat at Sanctuary’s extra care development in the north-east.

She added: “We are determined to see many more female apprentices taken on by Sanctuary and our contractors, and more training and employment opportunities created with women in mind to ensure more females can progress a career in the construction industry in the future.”

Visit www.beonsite.org.uk/women-construction-project for more information on the Women into Construction Project.

Visit http://www.24dash.com/ to view the original article.

Repost: The forgotten heroines of London's 'Ladies Bridge'

Historian reveals how women were drafted to construct Waterloo Bridge during WWII but never got the credit they deserved

• Records of women who helped build the bridge have never been found
• Could have been thrown out when construction company folded
• Female workforce ignored when the bridge was opened in 1945 but male workers were thanked
• By 1944, 25,000 women were working in the construction industry

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 17:26 EST, 15 July 2013 | UPDATED: 08:34 EST, 16 July 2013

It was a time when London was being pummelled by the Luftwaffe, causing mass destruction to buildings that had stood for centuries.

Undeterred by the nightly raids during the Blitz, however, a group of women who have largely gone ignored until now never lost their resolve to build what is now one of the city's most important bridges.

Their work on Waterloo Bridge left it with the moniker of Ladies Bridge, but this fact has been ignored by all but a few.

There is no remaining photographic or written evidence of the women building the bridge, indeed many people who saw the construction efforts say they cannot recall seeing any women there.

Wartime effort: It is well known that women worked on farms when the nation's men were sent to war, but the accounts of women building bridges are largely untold

Undervalued: Women were put to work on the understanding that they would give up their temporary job when the male workforce returned from the war

Their work is now being recognised after construction historian Christine Wall worked with filmmaker Karen Livesey, looking into the reason why they have been ignored.

'The Ladies Bridge' reveals that their absence from historic records is put down to the liquidation of Peter Lind, the construction firm behind the bridge.

Peter Mandell, manager of the company, explained: 'The difficulty with the Peter Lind records were that when the company went into liquidation in the late 1980s, a lot of their information was kept or pillaged by people who wanted a keepsake of their time with Peter Lind.

'But it was generally well known that, anecdotally if you like that there were women working, and in fact names of a particular lady was given to me at the time.'

Because of the lack of pictorial and written evidence, it is not known what work the women carried out on the bridge, but because many men were out fighting in World War Two, their effort is believed to be significant.

To read more or watch a clip from the documentary, visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news.

Re-Post: Growth Capital: All-girl team to put your house in order

We talk to Jo Behari, the entrepreneur behind tradeswoman business Home Jane

DIY women

Lucy Tobin

14 May 2012

Most Londoners have spent the past few weeks moaning about living through the wettest drought on record. But for Jo Behari, the deluge has been very good for business.

Behari is the entrepreneur behind Home Jane, a tradeswoman business that hit revenues of £320,000 last year. And the rain is causing a surge in the number of clients booking her female plumbers to fix leaks and overflowing gutters. “Everyone seems to have leaky houses in London, which is great for business,” she explains.

“We rely on internet advertising, so when it started pouring we changed our Google Adwords from ‘female plumber’ or ‘female electrician’ to ‘roof leaking’ and ‘damp patch appeared’. It means anyone typing that into Google is directed to our plumbers, and business has gone crazy.” Home Jane was born in 2006 when Behari had what she thought was her dream job, working in marketing for an accountancy firm. “I thought it would be amazing, taking me all over the world. But I hated the long hours for very little reward. I became disilusioned and decided to start my own business.”

A few months later, she was having electrical work done on her bathroom. “I had to phone an electrician three times before he came, and when he finally did, he made such a mess in my flat,” she says. “Then he started asking if I lived there alone, and I felt a bit uncomfortable. I started thinking about being in a vulnerable position by inviting strangers into my home to get work done. That’s how I came up with the idea for Home Jane.”

Film: Raising the Roof- Home Jane

Have you watched this short video about an all-women property maintenance crew of tradeswomen? (http://blip.tv/visionontv/raising-the-roof-part-3-of-8-home-jane-759727)

Raising the Roof - Part 3 of 8 - Home Jane

a film by Anne-Marie Sweeney

This video was produced for JIVE at Oxford's Women Training (OWT)- a JIVE Partner at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College. JIVE is a program that runs mentoring and recruitment for getting women and girls engaged with non-traditional professions. According to Europe's analog of the EEOC, JIVE brings together regional and federal systems that support a diverse workforce such as: training centers, institutions of education, equal opportunity entities, and employers. JIVE has some transnational connections with Germany, France, Finland, and Denmark.

Can't see the link to the video? http://blip.tv/visionontv/raising-the-roof-part-3-of-8-home-jane-759727