JOBS NEWS: The past few weeks or even months in our jobs and business news column, we’ve noticed a number of women rise in the ranks to hold more and more successful positions in the built environment industry. And workers are getting more flexibility to juggle the demands of parenting – who says parents can’t have it all?
McGregor Coxall is one of the companies strengthening its gender parity by bringing on another woman associate director to their landscape architecture team in Melbourne.
“We now have a team of three associate directors in landscape architecture in Melbourne, two of whom are female, which is a true credit to the inclusive culture McGregor Coxall is embracing now and into the future,” says Katie Earle, who’s joining co-studio leaders Miranda Wilkinson and Nick Griffin after relocating from the sunny shores of Sydney’s Northern Beaches for the role.
She’s ready and raring to go on our universal challenge: “I really don’t think anything competes more [for attention] than the imperceptible challenge of all the facets relating to climate change,” she says.
“All built professionals have a role taking control and correcting the trajectory of our planet. The techniques to do this are infinite and available, it just takes a matter of prioritisation.”
It’s great to see these strides forward are being made in an industry that traditionally holds a shocking record when it comes to gender ratio – both in the office and on the building site.
Check out this list from Parlour on the who’s who of women and gender-diverse people active in the Australian built environment disciplines. And its formidable.
But while this is good news, let’s not forget the mountain they’re climbing.
A survey in March from Dezeen found that although the percentage of women at the biggest architecture firms globally has doubled over the past five years, men still occupy four out of five key roles.
Figures from university admissions organisation UCAS show that while 51.5 per cent of undergraduate students enrolled in architectural courses are women, that number quickly drops off by the time they enter the workforce.
Only 29.6 per cent of registered architects are women, according to Air Conditioning, Refrigeration & Building Services (ARBS).
What’s holding women back from entering the workforce?
In the HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration) sector, women made up only around 1.2 per cent of workers in 2019!
And there’s bad news on the earnings side too, with Australian Institute of Architects former national president Tony Giannone telling us that women earn “$7.72 for every $10 paid to men, and women being paid on average $25,800 less than men” every year.
That means there is still a long way to go to reach gender parity. And that’s before we touch on the subject of the big drop off in women’s representation in architecture, engineering and construction in particular.
We’d like to know more about this trend in the industry, so please get in touch with us if you have some champions to showcase to the world, or some insights to share.
In other news from the architecture world, Matthew Gold has joined architecture firm GCCV, moving from Gensler and after experience at Koichi Takada and Hassell.
What happened at Roberts Co
Speaking of women leaders, construction company Roberts Co which expanded into Victoria earlier this year and doubled its size with new hires “overnight”, has appointed a new chief executive officer in Matthew Bourne who has been leading the NSW and ACT teams at John Holland as general manager.
The move was in order to keep up with the rapid growth, the company said.
Bourne, who starts in the job on 1 February next year, replaces Alison Mirams who has led the company since February 2017. As a woman leader, Mirams brought with her a reputation as a change maker, such as introducing a “mere” five day working week, that was actually hailed as leading to bigger productivity.
Bourne’s time at the building construction and engineering company has seen it become re-established as a leading builder in NSW, delivering several major projects including the Sydney Football Stadium Redevelopment (Allianz Stadium).
Bourne says he is also passionate about diversity, wellness, technology and encouraging the professional growth of his team.
It looks like Bourne will also maintain diversity and reasonable working-week goals in the new gig.
“Diversity, wellness and the continued push for a five-day work week across the industry are close to my heart and what I believe to be critical factors to ensure the long-term success of… our sector nation-wide.”
Workplace conditions in the construction sector have traditionally involved long work hours, often six or seven days a week.
Recent research from Optus has found 60 per cent of construction industry leaders are concerned about their health and wellbeing and 45 per cent say their employees reported mental health issues during the first two years of the pandemic.
Chris Lockwood, national chief executive of MATES in Construction says the industry loses workers to suicide at six times the rate of workplace accidents.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales are undertaking a two year study into how a reduced work week improves the health and wellbeing of construction workers and their families.
“It doesn’t sound like a huge change, but it’s significant for a sector where working Saturdays, and increasingly Sundays, is deeply entrenched,” Australian Human Rights Institute postdoctoral fellow Dr Natalie Galea said.
“In previous research about gender in the construction sector, we heard about the stress and fatigue that comes with the sector’s rigid work practices.
“This research aims to understand more about how existing work practices impact the health and wellbeing of construction workers and their families.”
This is another barrier to entry for women in the workforce and parents who are starting to ask for more flexibility to juggle the demands of work and home life.
Jobs board
Did you know that we have a jobs board? Our publication gets in front of the most qualified and influential eyes in both the public and private sectors.
Advertise your job with us and get on the front page – in front of the best talent in the industry.
All you have to do is send us your copy and a logo, we do the rest. Get in touch for pricing today: advertising@thefifthestate.com.au