If you’re reading this on Monday 8 March as intended, then you are reading this on International Women’s Day.
Now you might think that the very notion of a day set aside to empower women, to celebrate their accomplishments, and to challenge gender stereotypes is strange and even archaic. After all, the UK has now had not one but TWO female prime ministers. And here in the field of demolition, the National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC) has now had it first female president. (As an aside isn’t it a cruel twist of fate that, having devoted so much to the NFDC cause in recent years, her presidency was one of Zoom meetings and video AGMs and conventions? She deserved better than that).
But I digress. On the face of it, the notion of International Women’s Day – just like the notion of the Women in Construction movement – seems oddly out of place in these seemingly enlightened and progressive times.
Sadly, that is not the case. And while I find myself lambasted each and every time I raise the subject, the fact that women make up less than 11 percent of the construction industry workforce tells a very clear story. (Oh, and just to save some of you some time, please don’t bother emailing to tell me about the one woman that works at your demolition company. This is the same defence used by those accused of racism that claim to have a single black friend. I am not buying it)
Here’s the reality of the modern construction (and, by association, demolition) world. A young lady in this industry posted a photo of herself and her two female friends standing in front of a digger. She and they received a torrent of abuse that was borderline sexual harassment.
A female excavator operator regularly (and I mean REGULARLY) arrives for work to find sex toys on the seat of her machine or placed in her dedicated site toilet; or penises drawn in the dust on her cab’s window. The cab windows of her male colleagues carry no such artistic decoration or adornment.
Just over a week ago, one of my friends in construction journalism featured a female operator. The abuse she received was so bad that, not only did she ask for the feature to be taken down, she has since left social media entirely. (As another small aside, I followed the thread of abuse that this young woman received, and I had every intention of reporting the worst culprits to their company or their boss. But, having tracked down one of them, I discovered he was actually the managing director of an Australian construction firm).
To mark today’s International Women’s Day, I had planned a dedicated LiveStream show tonight with my regular co-host, Peter Haddock. By Wednesday last week, we had seven female guests lined up. By Friday morning, we had two. The rest had decided that they were (rightly) unwilling to expose themselves to the abuse and online backlash they would inevitably experience.
Nobody – not me and certainly not the women themselves – are asking for or expecting to split all construction and demolition jobs 50:50 according to gender. That is not the point. It never was.
All they are asking for is to be given a chance to prove themselves capable of doing the work; to be able to go to work in an environment that is neither hostile or toxic; to be able to post selfie photos online without receiving a torrent of abuse and sexual harassment.
I will leave you with one final thought. Just over four years ago, the US’ first black president left the White House. Yet we still require the Black Lives Matter movement.
The UK demolition industry’s first female president leaves office in just a few weeks’ time. But we still need the Women in Construction movement. And that is why we’re backing International Women’s Day.
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