CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRODUCTION OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (ProBE) SYMPOSIUM:

Women in Construction:

no more softly, softly; it’s time for real change

DATE:       Thursday 18 June 2015, 10.30am -5.30pm

VENUE:    University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW, Board Room

(Oxford Circus underground, north Regent Street exit, west side)

 

For more information: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/women-in-construction

To reserve a place please contact: Linda Clarke: [log in to unmask] (020350 66528) or Christine Wall [log in to unmask]

 

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

This symposium, organised in association with the European Institute for Construction Labour Research (CLR), will identify - with the help and active participation of researchers, academics, employers, trade unions, and those from women’s organisations, local authorities etc. from Britain, mainland Europe, US, Canada and Australia – what can be done to increase the participation of women in the construction industry. We have seen a lot of tinkering and tailoring over the past decades in an attempt to improve the situation, but there has been little change, whether in engineering or in the operative workforce. The symposium will provide an opportunity to present projects across the world which have shown some success, examine the reasons for this and discuss what is needed to shift an exclusive male-dominated industry with its entrenched white- and blue-collar structures to become inclusive, diverse and composed of a range of green-collar professionals, ‘manual’ and ‘non-manual’.

 

The symposium offers the opportunity for an informed, critical, open and international discussion with a range of professionals, employers, employees, trade unionists, academics, researchers and all those interested to participate. It is an old subject, but one which does not go away and is becoming ever more urgent, and we hope that the outcomes of our discussions can inform policy and challenge the current unsatisfactory system.

 

PROGRAMME

We have organised the day around three key problem areas:

·         Strong measures and international perspectives

·         Increasing participation

·         What can be done in the workplace

The symposium will conclude with a platform discussion with invited panellists, intended to bring the different themes together and to discuss how best to ‘raise the bar’ on women’s participation in construction

 

ABOUT ProBE

ProBE (Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment) is ideally placed to organise this symposium as a joint research centre between Westminster Business School (WBS) – this event being within its regular seminar series - and the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (fABE). ProBE is committed to the development of a rich programme of research and related activities, including projects, oral history, film, exhibitions, and seminars. The Centre provides a research hub, a forum for debate and discussion, and a focus for interdisciplinary and international activity related to the production of the built environment, as a social process, and its members have long experience of research on social and labour issues in the construction industry in Britain and abroad.

 

Professor Linda Clarke

Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE)

Westminster Business School

University of Westminster

35 Marylebone Road

London NW1 5LS

Tel: 0044 (0)20350 66528

email: [log in to unmask]