Westminster’s Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) is helping to bring more women into construction and shine a light on their past achievements.
Professor Linda Clarke, Professor Christine Wall, Dr Elisabeth Michielsens and Dr Sylvia Snijders’ influential research on women in construction is having a growing social, cultural and political impact.
#BuiltByWomen
You can’t be what you can’t see – and Clarke and Walls’ unearthing of women’s previously invisible 500-year history in construction is potentially game-changing.
“The exclusion of women’s history in construction may well have contributed to the shortage of women in manual trades today,” a Unite the Union spokesperson says.
This exclusion, they add, could even affect how women who do work in construction are being treated – “something Unite is working hard to tackle”.
Wall’s revelation – pieced together through interviews and photographs – that women really did build Waterloo Bridge (an age-old rumour) prompted Historic England to update the bridge’s Grade II listing, reflecting this.
This 2015 relisting also marked the launch of #BuiltByWomen – a campaign raising awareness of women’s role in building Britain’s listed architecture.
We want to see more women in the construction industry, which is why it is so important to highlight the role of women on iconic projects such as Waterloo Bridge.
Then-Heritage Minister Tracey Crouch, who spearheaded #BuiltByWomen.
Wall’s research also underpins Karen Livesey and Jo Wisers’ 2015 documentary The Ladies’ Bridge, which has also helped to change the image of women in construction.
Viewed over 4000 times online, the film’s public screenings have included Brighton’s Visionary Women event and a London event marking the centenary of women’s right to vote.
The accompanying Ladies’ Bridge website, containing the film and other educational resources, is also helping to inspire the next generation.
“My class were absolutely intrigued by the Ladies Bridge film,” says one primary school teacher. “It sparked off a fantastic discussion about equality and recognition of the work women undertook in World War II.”
Becoming a Times Top 50 Employer for Women
Tideway commissioned ProBE to recommend measures to improve gender equality and wider diversity, relating to its £4.2bn Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT) project, due for completion in 2025.
“ProBE made a number of recommendations that we have adopted over the last five years,” says TTT CEO Andy Mitchell.
TTT introduced compressed working hours, mentoring and other measures to promote fairer recruitment practices – all in line with ProBE’s recommendations.
Tideway also launched what Mitchell describes as “the first Returner Programme outside of banking”, in April 2015, to support women returning from long career breaks.
Following ProBE’s recommendations, TTT partnered with non-profit Women into Construction, in a scheme which led to 41 placements and 30 direct jobs for women in 2019 alone.
ProBE’s endorsement of employee networks led Tideway to relaunch and expand its diversity working groups focused on gender, disability, LGBT+ and ethnicity, in 2018.
TTT’s adoption of these recommendations has led to “exceptionally strong Engagement survey scores” from staff, Mitchell says. Specifically, “across all aspects of diversity, inclusivity and work life balance”.
He adds that these changes also led to TTT’s inclusion in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women, for the first time, in 2018.
Changing the agenda for gender diversity and equality
Clarke has spent decades working with unions to bring more women into construction.
Clarke has been a key person in policymaking for women workers in the building field.
the Women’s Head of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) says
ProBE’s research has “changed the agenda for gender diversity and equality” and modelled “guidelines to be applied in the collective negotiation and in the social dialogue, at both European and national level”, she adds.
Unite the Union’s Assistant General Secretary, who is now also President of the Trade Union Congress says: “Professor Clarke’s work provides insight, academic robustness and perspective which both informs and influences our strategic policy decisions and approach”.
This can be seen in the Unite-EDF “Women Building Britain” initiative, which “has benefitted from her research, attendance at meetings and input”.
“Linda's input provides the evidence base for discussion on future direction through research and best practice reports,” says the Head of Construction Workforce Capability for EDF’s Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C construction projects.
During the pandemic, for example, Clarke’s findings that women had insufficient PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) prompted a change in procurement strategy to address this, the Head explains.
Helping women rebuild Holloway
Clarke has supported the Community Plan for Holloway (CPFH) campaign for women to take centre stage in constructing the planned social housing scheme and women’s building at Holloway’s former women’s prison site, the largest women’s prison in Europe.
Clarke wrote a detailed proposal that has been “invaluable” in advocating for “each phase of the redevelopment respecting the legacy of the site”, the CPFH Chair says.
The Chair adds that Clarke’s “expert analysis” helped “ensure that the proposals supported by the Community Plan are grounded in evidence-based research and intellectual rigour”.
Her proposals are included in a paper outlining how Islington Council could simultaneously meet Section 106 requirements and climate emergency targets, while still respecting Holloway’s important female history.
Developers, the Council and the Greater London Authority have accepted and are carrying forward her proposals, which include ensuring 50% of the project’s trainees and 30% of employees are women.
Example testimonial video from CPFH on community needs regarding the redevelopment of the former Holloway Prison site in north London.
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