Women in construction
Women have always been home-builders, so it makes sense to put them on construction sites
‘Women en-culture the site with politeness”: there is no such word as “en-culture”, but I knew exactly what this expressive project manager meant. If there is a workplace that is thought of as all-male, it is a construction site, heaving with traditional masculine elements — steel and noise, dust and machinery, sparks and hard hats, tempers and bad language. But out of such a site a home, school or factory will be built. It is time to put both genders in it and have present from the start the interpersonal communication skills women bring to the workplace.
Take a little girl, anywhere in the world: from an early age she plays houses, she makes safe homes for her toys or pets or even her imaginary friends. Whether it is with Lego blocks (now also in pink) that are wedged together, or clay moulded, or soft furnishing patted down, she is creating a place for communication. Does it not make sense for women to be involved in building, and make communication an intrinsic part?
I became involved with the construction industry through my core activity, which is teaching communication. In 1997 a large construction firm was dealing with postdemocracy labour issues. It aimed, through cultural diversity training, to improve management and site labour discourse. There were 31 different nationalities and ethnicities in the sample of 160 — but all were men. Not that it struck me as strange in those days. However, the problems which emerged were unexpected, as most related to inter- personal communication.
The workforce wanted politeness; courteous tone and manner of speech; no swearing; appreciation of different cultures; good manners; respectful body language and recognition of the individual.
All these qualities emerged 10 years later in a study on women in construction that canvassed 176 employees and employers (57% women: 43% men) and continue to echo.
The interpersonal attributes ascribed to women are also pertinent traits for site work: multitasking; quality finishing; courtesy; team-worker; reliable; as well as skills associated more with managerial positions such as clear thinking; motivating; organising; problem solving and analysing.
Here is the echo: these were the very qualities lacking and causing problems on the all-male sites in the 1990s. Here are some of the comments, from women in construction management: “women are better at detail; women are very dedicated, concise, work accurately; within our company the male counterparts are warming to the idea, particularly since they see that the women are more than capable of doing the job”. Comments from men included: “They bring complementary skills to men; women make good team leaders and players, [they are] used to keeping the family together; women are more reliable than men: if they have children they will take their jobs very seriously”.
Contained in these comments is the key: women are core players in strong communities. Women bring these community elements onto sites and enable a supportive environment to develop. An illustration of women being empowered to build their own houses and manage the finance thereof is the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project. A group of poor, rural women came to Cape Town seeking work and became a movement that self-built more than 5 000 houses. They accessed housing subsidies, created a joint housing savings scheme and maintained detailed records. An architect guided them with the design and costing, as most of them had little education. Salma Ismail’s book The Victoria Mxenge Housing Project on the association is inspiring reading.
There are growing numbers of women in construction but they tend to be in professions such as architecture, property and quantity surveying, as they increasingly enter such programmes in tertiary institutions. However, women now also apply for artisanal training in fields of construction like carpentry. Given education, training, mentoring and opportunity, women will develop in the skills area of construction and many will move into management and so contribute to economic development. They will be the role models for future generations.