Taking a ‘man’s job’: 50 years as a woman in construction
After 50 years in the construction industry, Kathryn is now an Associate Director for NPS Leeds, a Property Design and Management Services company, and has no plans of retiring anytime soon. Find out what’s changed for women in construction:
It sort of began 50 years ago, when I was actually at an all-girls convent school in Leeds, a Catholic convent school. If you didn’t want to be a nurse, a teacher or a secretary, you got no careers help whatsoever.
I went to the Leeds Polytechnic to study quantity surveying and I was the only girl in a class of 25. It was quite a lonely experience for somebody from a convent school, and I was painfully shy.
No one could understand why a ‘nice girl’ would want to go and work on a building site. Some of the men asked “Why are you doing a man’s job? You’re depriving a man of being able to earn an income to support his family.”
It’s hard to know how much things have changed for women in construction.
People still don’t want to accept that girls can do this sort of career. When I talk to them, they feel they’re always having to prove themselves.
There were a lot of extra things I had to do because I was a girl. If we were doing a construction project and part of the question was ‘how do you fix this?’, I’d have to go back to basics in the textbook. Most of the others knew because they’d done bits of joinery with their parents or uncles. It was all completely fresh to me.
Even to open a bank account I had to get my dad to sign the forms for me. When I went to buy my first home the solicitor almost fell off his chair when my husband said he wanted it in joint ownership.
When you consider the percentage of women working, it’s not very good that there are so few women represented in construction and engineering.
There’s still an element of it not being seen as a ‘nice’ industry for girls to be involved in. I was talking to my daughter-in-law – my daughter got married last week – she was talking and she actually thought I would be shocked when she swore, and she apologised. After 50 years on a building site, I thought ‘I might know a few more swear words than you do.’
Then there’s this idea if you work on a construction site it’s dirty and muddy and horrible. Yes it can be cold and muddy, but it’s never made me think ‘why did I do this career?’ It’s like being a farmer, it just goes along with the job.
The number of men in construction who commit suicide or have severe mental health problems, it shows that macho image is just as damaging for men working on construction sites as it is for women.
I’ve always had this love of buildings. It’s a bit nerdy. I love looking at buildings and seeing how they’ve been put together. The enormity of these buildings, the cathedrals built 8–900 years ago. I still have that love and fascination for the whole process of building, and I think that’s why I enjoy my job still.
I’ll be 70 in September. I’m only working four days a week at the moment. I’ve got a lot of knowledge and information, and I like being able to be in a position where I can pass that on and help people.
I’ve always had flexible working. Even right in the beginning, we had core hours but you could start and finish when you wanted. That was really important when my children were younger, and it’s still that way now in NPS.
People have to accept that not everybody can work in the same way — it’s not just a woman thing. There’s plenty of single fathers out there who have responsibility for their children. Since working from home we haven’t missed any deadlines, sickness is down lower than it’s ever been — it’s just worked!
