Jelena Krsmanovic, Founder of Cyprus Architects
Doha: While there has been a positive movement in the construction industry with the arrival of more women engineers and women architects on board, the number of women in C-level leaderships is still significantly low. Experts believe that greater awareness and combined individual efforts need to be done to have more women business leaders in the construction sector.
“I met some amazing women leaders in Qatar, expatriates and Qatari ladies. Truly inspiring women leaders in medicine, legal, and accounting sectors. But I still haven’t met any woman climbing up the corporate power to become C-level in construction. I would be delighted to meet some,” Dawn Francis, Senior Contractual/Commercial Consultant at Quantum Global Solutions told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the ‘Women in Construction’ workshops held as part of The Big 5 Construct Qatar 2019 which concluded yesterday.
In her presentation earlier, Francis noted that her company, global construction support consultancy firm Quantum Global Solutions, has female employees in various departments. This includes women administrative staffs (50 percent), female planners (22.2 percent), commercial and contractual consultants (17.7 percent), IT section (20 percent), and director/executive level (22 percent). Its Jordan office also has 50 percent women in technical roles. However, it has zero percent women occupying the C-level post.
Dawn Francis, Senior Contractual/Commercial Consultant at Quantum Global Solutions
“My company has ladies at director level. But we’re few in far between. It will never be 50-50. Half the women in the world do not want to be engineers or work in the construction industry. But what troubled me today was hearing some of the examples from the younger ladies in the audience who cannot even get a construction job in this day and age, still purely based on gender. Gender equality is an individual responsibility. While we need more women who break barriers, there is sadness that there is still gender barrier that need to be broken in this day and age,” she added.
According to a study conducted by Holladay Construction Group, there are nearly 15 million people employed in the construction industry, and only nine percent are female. Of that nine percent, most of these women are working in administrative, office or support roles. The largest shortage of women in the construction industry are those working in Chief Executive officer positions, as well as those working in the field and on construction sites.
Abigail Greasley, Senior Traffic Management & Road Safety Audit Engineer at Century Time Trading Contracting and Services
Cyprus Architects Founder, Jelena Krsmanovic, who gave a presentation titled ‘Why There Are No More Women Leaders in the Construction Business in Qatar’, has conducted a research where she interviewed women in the construction sector. From the analysis of the interviews, she said that both native and expatriate women in Qatar are respected as women, and are not exposed to sexual harassment at the workplace.
“However, they face similar issues when it comes to gender discrimination. They are in many cases devalued and marginalised based on sex, and need to put more effort in proving their competence than their male counterparts. On the other hand, women business leaders should be connected and be willing to mentor others,” she added.
Abigail Greasley, Senior Traffic Management & Road Safety Audit Engineer at Century Time Trading Contracting and Services, in her talk, said companies need to introduce policies which address diversity for all staff starting at the top.
“Diversity benefits a country and an organisation. And women have very good negotiating skills. So when a woman is in a leadership role, she can negotiate the company into success. She also has the ability to nurture and a special way of encouraging people,” added Greasley
