Womans touch on the building

I have worked in construction for more than 20 years, gaining MCIOB status in Construction Management six years ago. I have extensively promoted women working on site and over the past six years have helped train 14 women apprentices to NVQ level in various trade disciplines.

When the women worked on site we found no prejudice against them from the men and in fact I felt the site became more organised, health and safety improved, and swearing and sexist comments decreased. There was no them and us situation and they all integrated well with the team. None of the women asked for special treatment and carried out their duties on the same level as the men.

Women can bring a lot into the industry, whether as architects or engineers, site or project managers and can make a site a better place to work. One of our female resident liaison officers has gone on to become a site foreman and has gained a lot of respect from the contractors working on site.

It would be interesting to have a site purely run by women from inception to the finished product and benchmark against a site run by men. Perhaps Mr O'Rourke would then eat his words.

Julia Tapp, MCIOB