#BreaktheBias Taylor’s International Womens Day Breakfast
Your BEA President Stephanie Nguyen here…
We were able to join Taylor | Australia for a beautiful International Women's Day breakfast to discuss the bias' that are still being experienced by Women within the construction industry.
As a woman who came into the industry late because I honestly didn't even know there could be a career pathway for me here, it's been incredible to see more women enter construction, see more admirable women in construction leadership positions, and the % of female students studying construction career pathways grow.
But the raw and honest stories of the panellists made one thing clear to me. Discrimination, harrassment, and gender inequality still exists in our industry. It's not in direct and callous ways. Often in very indirect and subtle ways like inappropriate comments, not showing equal respect to everyone in the room, not acknowledging someone, leaving someone out of a conversation, not inviting everyone to an event - all these subtle actions need to be called out for what it is. I'm extremely grateful that I've not had to experience this yet, but it's disappointing that many women still have to.
Us women, we can't spread this awareness and champion change by ourselves, of course it needs to start from the senior leadership teams but more importantly, championed by the everyday men within our team. It's a cultural change that requires the help of everyone.
So next time, if a comment makes you feel uncomfortable, speak out against it. Explain to someone WHY it makes you feel uncomfortable. If you're too scared to address it immediately, share it with someone afterwards. The intention of speaking out is to inform and educate why such a subtle action might make someone feel uncomfortable. If you see bad behaviour towards someone else, stand up for them, be their voice, be the support that you will receive if it does (hopefully not) happen to you. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.
