Inspiring Women

Women now make up a higher proportion of the construction workforce than at any time since official records began. The construction workforce was 15.8 per cent female in April to June 2023, up 1.2 per cent on the previous quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Before the…

Wates once again has a female board member, after appointing a finance expert as a non-executive director. Chartered accountant Rachel Addison (pictured) will chair Wates’ group audit committee, overseeing financial reporting, processes and regulatory compliance. Addison is already a non-executive director of a handful of other companies, including housing developer…

Former Construction News journalist Sandi Rhys Jones has been appointed president of the Chartered Institute of Building. Rhys Jones, who worked as a reporter at CN in the mid-1960s, takes over from Michael Yam as the body’s 120th president. Taking on her new role at the CIOB members’ forum this…

Skanska UK has appointed Katy Dowding as its new president and chief executive, effective from 2 May, making her the only woman currently running a tier one contractor. Dowding (pictured), a 20-year veteran of the company, has been promoted from her current role as executive vice president, to which she…

Hannah Mehr is an apprentice data scientist at Arup and won Apprentice of the Year at the 2022 Association for Consultancy and Engineering awards It is not news to anyone in the industry that there is a chronic skills gap in the construction and engineering sector. But the shortage will…

A Q&A for International Women's Day 2023 (IWD 2023) with Nicky Rance, project director at Sir Robert McAlpine Can you outline your career and how you got to where you are today? When I settled on civil engineering at school, I wrote to many engineering and construction companies and was…

Roberta Downey is a partner and co-head of the international construction group at Vinson & Elkins LLP in London As people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) today, it provides a welcome opportunity to focus on the importance of authentic leadership. Leadership isn’t easy, and it’s not a…

Chithra Marsh is national chair of Women in Property and associate director of Buttress Architects While International Women’s Day 2023 (IWD 2023) creates an annual talking point on gender issues, the conversation goes on 365 days a year – or should. And while there are still clear disparities for women…

Business leaders from Bam, Kier and flexible-working specialist TimeWise will join the panel for a free webinar on 8 March to look at how flexible working can help the sector address its skills crisis. The event is the first in the 2023 Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering programme –…

Major gaps remain despite small steps on diversity and inclusion in the built environment workforce, according to the results of a new employee survey. The survey from the Sustainability Tool and the Supply Chain Sustainability School’s Fairness, Inclusion and Respect (FIR) Programme covered 339,912 employees working in 270 companies in…