Are you a female construction profressional, or work in the construction field, how have you been discriminated against?

[Vanillazebra]

I'll start with mine, I am a Quantity Surveyor, I started my post grad job (2001) with high hopes and enthusiasm, however i was subtly and not no subtly discriminated against on many occasions...

Being made to sit on another floor from the other QS's, all of whom were male, I complained to HR they made excuses and then i was forced to measure every piece of rebar that came in on the trucks, I was still made to sit upstairs away from the others. A male lower grade QS starts... gets to sit down stairs with the men. Constant jibes about what i eat, wear etc, this is from supposed professionals, it wasn't just me it happened to others too. The tradespeople on site were lovely and would hand me tissues when i was crying in the rain.

I eventually left and went to another job, but my career feels constantly like i have to try 10 times harder than any man and its so disheartening

I've had friends who've had their jobs terminated when on maternity leave.

What is your Construction discrimination tale?

I misspelled professional, typical 🙄

I have also had the hairdryer treatment from men who don't believe I've certified the correct amount... i'm pretty sure they wouldn't try that with a man

I've been in construction for 15 years in a professional role and can honestly say I've never experienced anything like this.

I was once asked during an interview why the company should hire me (mid 20s) when I'd probably be running off to get married and having children soon. I obviously told them they could stick their job. That could have happened in any industry but perhaps not helped by a higher prevalence of some old fashioned types still hanging around in construction.

It's not like this everywhere and I hope you can find somewhere that values you and your experience. Nice to see that the construction worker emoji on MN defaults to a man though...... 💐

Thanks, I ended up leaving the country. I wouldn’t recommend UK main contracting to anyone

Interviewed at the engineering company H worked at. I told them what I wanted in salary and they said “we can’t pay your more than your husband” FFS. Stupidly I still took the job and left about 8mths later, told them I’d rather be in the gutter than work there any longer and never went back.

@HerRoyalNotness good for you

I’ve been in construction for over 20 years, in the U.K. and overseas, and apart from everyone in the Middle East assuming I’m a man when I send an email, I’ve not experienced any discrimination. In fact, I’ve see women progress far quicker and further than their male peers.

I’m consultant side rather than contractor.

I think I should have gone to the consultant side

I'm a Quantity surveyor - worked for both a developer now consultant - 20 years now - and never experienced any overt discrimination. Obviously there has always been "banter" but I wouldn't have it any other way and give as good as I get. I've consistently been promoted over my male colleagues even whilst on maternity leave.

Honestly don't feel I have been discriminated against.

Maybe it’s just me then.

Also in construction and also never experienced anything like that. I’ve experienced worse in car show rooms or while looking at houses to buy than I’ve ever had at work.

I’ve been promoted while on maternity leave and hold a fairly senior position now.

With your talk about rebar, did you work for a ground worker? They are notoriously brutal and backwards in their treatment of women.

I’m sorry this was your experience. Absolutely unacceptable.

Major main contractor, now bankrupt

I work for a tier 1 contractor, and all was great until I hit my 30s and had a baby.

I’m consultant side and can honestly say it’s been pretty good for me, about 20 years in the industry. I will say that the maternity and paternity packages have been woeful tho. I kicked up a big fuss with my first and got myself a better package with my company, and am pleased to say they have now rolled out a much improved package through the company (SME). I got promoted quite quickly and am senior management, so I think it’s part of my job to move things along where I can for other women in the industry.

Im sorry you have had that experience though, I would hope that kind of thing is less common these days. There have been a lot of improvements in the industry, when I first started there would be ‘girly’ trade calendars in all the site cabins, now I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those. And the big developers that we work with have very strict policy, eg. Instant firing for wolf whistling. We are still hugely male dominated as an industry tho, so I imagine these concerns could still be putting women off construction, so there is clearly still work to be done.

My daughter worked in engineering, also male dominated. She met with so much sexism as a young female graduate that she left to teach mechanical engineering at a sixth form college. 20 happy years later....

I worked in the site office of a construction company. I was the only female employee. I wasn't allowed time off for antenatal appointments, they marked them all as unauthorised. I was also told that I needed to change my hospital to the same city as where I worked so I wouldn't need as much time off. I took them to a tribunal and won.

Good for you @dampgreg . How outrageous that they even contemplated getting away with something so overtly illegal?!

I'm fairly senior in a tier 1 contractor and haven't really experienced anything particularly sexist. I got promoted whilst on maternity leave and have very flexible working.

I’m a QS but have always been either client or consultant side. Never had any issues.
Ive heard some absolute horror stories contractor side, especially from those that are sitebased.

Also consultant side. I've never faced much "obvious" discrimination but i think there's a lot of probably unconscious discrimination......things like being asked to make Clients drinks when they come in for meetings, book the meeting, take the minutes, never get asked to the golf days (not that i play golf but it's not the point!), visitors to the office often assume that you're admin staff, why do people assume I know where stuff is in the office (they never ask a man!) etc. I've had a couple of male clients totally mansplain to me although I've since discovered they do that to everyone! Also been to some sites and Contractor depots where they didn't have a female toilet.

I work in the construction ruin industry, consultant side but in bid / tender management. I've been doing it a looooooong time. When I first started my team was entirely male and there were two female surveyors.

Now I'm pleased to say that my firm has taken on more female than male grads for the third year running and the balance is being somewhat redressed. We also lots of female PMs and planners now.

I've never come across any discrimination nor anyone I've spoken too - apart from some of the doc controllers on site many years ago.

I work in the construction industry, as the only female on the team after the other two left.

I found I had to 'prove' myself to clients more so than colleagues.

I was also told to 'make sure you never have another one' after my DS was born (I was 20 weeks pregnant unbeknown to them at the time) as it caused them hassle.