Kirsty
I came to New Zealand in 2014 to help with the earthquake rebuild, not knowing anybody. In 2015 one of my colleagues suggested I join NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction), because you get to meet other women in construction, and because there weren’t many female Quantity Surveyors at the time.
Four or five years ago I joined the committee, and then took on the role of branch chair. From there, I put my hand up and got elected as president. It is quite a full on role, a voluntary role in my spare time, if I did have spare time while being a full time QS.
The makeup of females to males in construction is definitely nowhere near 50/50. It’s probably 10 – 20%, it depends on the role. Women in trades is even less in New Zealand. There are such amazing opportunities in the industry to get involved – women are just as capable as guys.
I always found that you need to see somebody in that role to know that it exists, so more women in construction just shows that there’s opportunities for others to join in. And one of the things that I’ve been talking about a lot recently is retention. So many women do come into the industry, but then they’ll leave and have children and not come back for whatever reason. I want to make people more aware that they can come back and that businesses are, a lot of the time, open to flexible working or working from home. Just trying to keep women in construction once they qualify.
There are so many issues that I advocate for. One of the key things is site facilities – portaloos on site, having sanitary pods inside, making things nice, to encourage women to want to come to site and not having to pee behind a bush. Toilets are definitely a big issue, and I’ve had to change that on my own sites.
PPE is another, having the appropriate size jackets and gear. A lot of companies that I know and have worked with before, they’ve not provided female custom PPE. It’s always small men’s stuff that fits very badly and could be a hazard on site, because then you get it caught on scaffolding poles.
Being in construction for 20 years, I really enjoy the girly side of being able to dress up and the pin-up community is that outlet. I love the vintage aesthetic, it’s just another way to explore that femininity that I don’t get to use on site. And I have my classic cars, so classic cars and pin-up go hand in hand.
I have a collection of Volkswagens. So we have a 1975 Vee-Dub Combi that has a vintage caravan on the back. I have a ‘64 Karmann Ghia, a little ‘56 Beetle, and we have a beach buggy, and the list just keeps going. But my Karmann Ghia is my pride and joy. I love taking it out and showing it, it gets lots of comments.
10 years ago, I started a local group called East Coast Air Cooled, just so that we can get some like minded Vee-Dub enthusiasts together and go to events that weren’t just club runs. We’ve got a really good group of people. It’s good fun, we’ve created our little community.
I just can’t help it, I just have to keep planning events. One thing I liked about NAWIC, we used to plan events every month, and there’s a really good group of committee members from the Canterbury branch who are dear friends to me. Since I’m now looking after the advocacy at national level I can’t get involved in the day to day event stuff, so I kind of miss that.
At least I have the Vee-Dub outlet for planning events. I can’t sit still. If I have five minutes free, there’s always something to fill it in. If somebody wants somebody to do something, I usually end up putting my hand up.