Innovative Thinker | Laing O’Rourke’s Abigail Brierley on the need for female role models in construction

Laing O’Rourke graduate construction manager Abigail Brierley came face to face with the civil engineering and construction sectors’ gender imbalance before she even had her first job.

“When I joined my university course [BEng Civil Engineering at Northumbria University] there were 60 boys and five girls,” Brierley says. She added that during an internship with Ames Construction in California she was one of only three women in onsite or engineering roles.

These experiences led her to investigate the reasons for the gender imbalance and the experiences of women in industry in her final year university dissertation.

Titled “Deconstructing the gender split: a transatlantic study into the number of women in engineering and construction”, the dissertation entailed surveying 20 male and female engineers of varying levels of seniority in the UK and United States.

Girls don’t see enough builders and engineers like themselves

It included questions about the gender split in engineering, perceptions of opportunities for career advancement, experiences of sexism and what would encourage women to join the industry.

Key among the questions, was what inspired these individuals to enter the industry. Many respondents cited a role model, who was always male, for example a father or an uncle. This indicated to Brierley that the lack of women as civil engineering role models could be a key reason for the sector’s gender imbalance.

Certainly, it was reflected in her own experience. “There was nobody in my family in this industry, nobody who worked in construction,” she says. Careers advice for girls at her school did not cover pathways into engineering either.

One thing she is keen to emphasise is that inspiring very young girls is key. “We need to be getting out there earlier, telling kids what engineering is and at primary school age,” she says. “Girls don’t see enough builders and engineers like themselves.

“It needs to start as early as school. If we’re going out into universities or even colleges, it’s almost too late.”

Her employer is taking a leadership role in this area. Last year Laing O’Rourke set a target to ensure the number of men and women it employs is equal by 2033. It also runs school outreach programmes.

Brierley believes female role models are critical, not only to attract girls and women into the industry, but to inspire women civil engineers to think broadly about what female leadership can bring to the workplace.

She adds: “My last project leader was a woman. She was very keen on the ethos of a site and making sure that a site is a positive place to be. That is something I will take forward for the rest of my career.”

Brierley herself has demonstrated that success is increasingly within reach for women and girls and, having proved this to herself, her aim is to be a role model for others.

“I genuinely love my job. I think it’s the best job in the world. That’s why I’m passionate about getting more women into what I do,” she says.

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