Infrastructure and Equity

Infrastructure shapes the way we live, work, travel and interact with each other. In Leslie Kern’s book, Feminist City: A Field Guide she says it also has the ability to reduce over half the population to second rate citizens. I’ve spoken in the past of how European cities were designed after the war: Men designed the cities around the commute to and from work - seemingly oblivious to the activities of women during the day - primarily caregiving duties, shopping, and often travelling by foot. In fact, since the 1970s a movement of feminist geographers have been working to illustrate and change this. In an article on this topic, Christopher Cheung writes the modern city is “an environment made by men for men. That means that anyone who doesn’t have the body of a straight white guy will find it harder to do anything, from taking transit to eating a snack on a bench in peace.”

We need to build our cities, towns and communities to reflect the people who live in them - both now and in the future. To do this, we need greater diversity in those who fund, design and construct the spaces we live in.?

As Dr Alan Bollard says in the foreword of Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa, New Zealand’s infrastructure strategy, the choices made by our forebearers still shape the way we live today. “Their decisions, their labour and their foresight have built us a strong foundation”. Moving into the future we need to consider the choices we make and how that will influence society in Aotearoa in the future.?

So while increasing the diversity of our workforce helps address labour constraints and create employment opportunities, it also has an even bigger role to play, ensuring the infrastructure of our cities, towns and rural areas supports the diverse group of people who make up our communities.

The statistics tell a strong story, women make up only 13 percent of those employed in construction and only 2.5 percent of tradespeople. Māori and Pacific peoples are over represented in the lowest earning occupations. Only 1% of chartered professional engineers and 4% of architects identify as Māori and Pacific Islander.?

The Infrastructure Strategy highlights the issues and potential solutions with the use of case studies. Looking at the barriers to women in trades, one case study demonstrated a lack of opportunity to enter trades, a male-dominated culture that is not inclusive of women, a lack of flexible work practices and a physical environment that doesn’t support women. While women miss out on the opportunity to participate in construction, the industry also misses out on what women can offer. When more women were part of the workforce, improvements in work culture such as better behaviour, less competition and more collaboration were reported. Given the suicide rate is higher in construction than any other industry, a change in culture is required.

The report states that “If the infrastructure sector is to have a more diverse workforce, it needs to attract people with diverse backgrounds and create an environment that’s inclusive and encourages all those with talent to progress to senior and leadership roles. For example, one study found that around three quarters of female engineers in New Zealand thought there would be a time in their career when they’d have to choose between family and career. The provision of work arrangements, such as flexible working hours and part-time work options, was identified by study participants as a way to increase participation of women in the engineering profession.“

There are many ways we can work towards increasing the diversity in our sector. It takes conscious decision making around recruitment practices, the way we structure our workplaces, building inclusive environments, allowing for flexible working and actively pursuing diversity in leadership.

We know that what gets measured gets done - so putting objectives in place, measuring and reporting against these is absolutely mission critical to driving change.