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While women have made substantial gains in the workplace, a group of female construction leaders say there’s still more to do.

The Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) and Canadian Construction Women (CCW) held a panel titled Sisterhood at Work at the LEAP conference, held March 7 in downtown Vancouver.

The panel was moderated by CCW president Stephanie Hun with panellists EllisDon director of business development Keeli Husband, British Columbia Institute of Technology master electrician and instructor Anna Lary, Pattullo Bridge Replacement Project executive director Wendy Itagawa and Bird Construction vice-president of major projects Pat Duggan.

The panel agreed one of the key factors affecting women in the construction industry is juggling work responsibilities with other aspects of their lives and the effect that has on their mental health.

“There needs to be more flexibility in the workplace to let people have balance,” Itagawa said. “We don’t resource projects properly and there’s (often) redundancy in the staff. People don’t need to work the long hours they are.”

Reducing hours worked won’t raise costs, she added, and longer hours can be more expensive “because high turnover means the cost of training new people.”

“Health and wellbeing has to start with you and you have to be able to say no. If you can look after yourself, you can look after someone else,” Duggan said.

Lary added for women working with tools, “health can be ‘do we have toilet paper in bathrooms, PPE that fits us, and are we safe?’”

Hun asked the panellists what organizations and companies could do to amplify women in the industry and Duggan pointed to a continued commitment to diversity.

“We have to encourage leaders within an organization to understand it makes a difference. We need an awareness and education, both upstream and downstream,” she said.

Itagawa also stressed the importance of mentorship within a company to uplift women starting their construction careers.

“I’ve really benefitted from having that internal support network and understanding where you want your career to go. It’s important to the culture of a company,” she said.

Often companies are still staffed with old men who don’t understand challenges women face such as caregiving because they lack such experience, Lary added.

“Companies need to invest in this, with resource groups and take time to connect with women and gender-diverse individuals,” she said.

When asked what advice they would give their younger selves, the panellists responded with a broad range of encouragement.

“Stay persistent and resilient. Recognize support when it comes your way and use it as much as you need to,” Husband said.

“In this industry a lot of people have a certain facade and it’s OK to let that go more than we might be comfortable with.”

“Keep your integrity and values, understand yourself and what’s important to you. Be assertive, but don’t lose the kindness and compassion,” Itagawa said.

Lary said she’s always battled self-doubt which was compounded by hearing her male co-workers touting excellence in the lunchroom.

“Then I saw their work and saw it wasn’t quite as awesome as they were saying,” she laughed.

“It’s OK to be unfamiliar with things and learn. In fact it’s desirable to challenge yourself,” Lary said. “Enjoy what you’re doing. You have a limited time on earth and if you keep looking for negatives you’ll find them.”