Who said when a flower doesnt bloom you fix the environment in which it grows not the flower?

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a bitter-sweet day for me. It’s one day of the year when we raise up and celebrate women. It’s one day of the year where every company will post on socials their admiration and support of women and how they are doing wonderful initiatives for women, and that should be celebrated. 

But the following week, the socials will return to normal and gender equality will not continue to be shouted out, and that frustrates and saddens me. It feels like IWD has given companies permission to shout it out on one day, “tick the box” and then move on.

I believe this years’ IWD theme of “choose to challenge” is not just for women – it’s for men and women – it’s for everyone.

According to the WGEA’s ‘Australia’s Gender Equality Scorecard’ published in November 2020, construction is now the most male dominated industry in the WGEA dataset with it comprising only 18.1% of women and only 13% of women managers.

Growing up in the construction industry I always felt like we needed to fix the industry for women.

The industry has high divorce rates, high suicides rates and people proudly wear presenteeism as a badge of honour. It’s an unhealthy and unsustainable industry and it needs to change.

It wasn’t until my son was born that I realised how wrong it was to purely focus on fixing the industry for women. Whilst on my maternity leave my husband would leave for work each day at 8am and he was home at 6pm and I was desperate for him to come home by 6pm. It’s a long day at home with a newborn and despite having a perfectly healthy and happy baby I looked forward to a break each evening. 

It was during those long days at home that I realised that most partners of construction workers are single parents Monday to Saturday. The fathers get up in the dark before the children are awake and return home after dark, when the children are in bed.

In establishing Roberts Co, I was determined not to fix the industry just for women, but to fix the industry for everyone.

When we started the five-day week study at our Concord Hospital project, I expected the results to say men loved having a full weekend with their families and enjoyed watching their kids at Saturday sport. Which it has.

I expected feedback from the next of kin to say their husbands were happier, more receptive, less angry and more active with children and their families. Which it has. 

But I wasn’t expecting the next of kin to point out that the six-day working week perpetuates the gender stereotype where the father is the breadwinner and the mother is the carer.

They have rightly pointed out that the six-day week and the long and inconsistent work hours acts to constrain the partners careers and work opportunities (including promotions, type of work conducted, access to full-time employment), access to economic security (e.g. superannuation) as well as their own work life balance and well-being.

A point that is reflected in the WGEA ‘Gender Workplace Statistics at a Glance’ – report published in February 2021 which states that “women comprise 50.5% of the WGEA dataset but they dominate part time (75.1%) and casual (56.3%) roles. Only 38.1% of full-time workers are female.”

I know that I can only do my role (and enjoy my career) because my husband and I share the caring and household responsibilities 50/50. It is a daily question from our son “who is taking me to school today and who is picking me up”, and I think that’s healthy.

The construction industry is the third largest employer in the country. Not only are we poor at attracting and retaining women in the industry, we have proven that by our work behaviour we are stopping women from working in the economy, in all sectors.

I’m tired of people saying to me there are no women out there, “I look but I can’t find any”.

From the WGEA ‘Gender Workplace Stats at a Glance’ report:

·        “The workforce participation rate of women is 61.2%

·        More women (92.5%) attain year 12 qualifications or above than men (87.5%)

·        More women (48.3%) achieve a bachelor’s degree than men (36.1%); and

·        58.7% of domestic students enrolled in University or other institutions are women.”

There is no doubt that women want to work. But it is the working habits of men and the unequal pull of caring responsibilities that are stopping women from working. It is stopping women from holding key management positions (currently only 32.5% across all sectors combined).

Covid-19 forced the construction industry into the largest and fastest experiment on flexible working and it has been a resounding success. Businesses kept operating, construction sites kept building, and for many men they experienced for the first time, a glimpse of being able to have a career and spend quality time with their family.

We can no longer focus on fixing women. We need to fix the working environment for men and women will benefit. It’s simply a people issue. 

We need to stop wearing “I’m working late” as a badge of honour. We need men to finish work at 5/6pm and participate in child drop off/pick up and participate equally in-home life. We need men to consider their wives ability to work as equally as their own or we will not change the gender statistics and we will continue to lose women from the working population especially as they hit their child-bearing years and beyond.

Call to Action

The most significant changes in our history happened as a result of war. We haven’t had a war but for the past 12 months we have lived through a health pandemic that has affected the entire world. We have an opportunity to reset.

So, what will you choose to challenge and change this year?

Who said the flower that blooms in adversity quote?

Who said every flower blooms in its own time?

What happens when a flower doesn't bloom?

How do flowers impact the environment?