March Challenge

Given that I am European, March 8th has always been a big deal. My entire life, I have known it to be a day which is celebrated. In Europe, women receive flowers from the men in their life on March 8th. When I say men, I don’t mean romantic relationships, this is not Valentine’s day! I mean from male friends and coworkers. 

When I moved to Canada, I noticed that most people didn’t know the meaning or significance of it. Other than my late father, there was only one man who got me flowers every year on March 8th, and he was one of my old bosses. I am really glad that in recent years, International Women's Day has gained momentum here in Vancouver.

Being a woman in construction, this month is bittersweet. The March 8th movement has been recognized around the world for over a decade, yet I look around me and we have barely made a dent in the construction industry to achieve equality or inclusivity. 

Recently a recruiter asked me, where he could find more women with my experience because many companies are now asking for women in leadership roles. I asked him, what do those companies do, to ‘grow’ women like myself into these leadership roles? I didn’t just become a leader. It took a ‘village’ to get me to where I am today. We are talking about two decades and many bosses and superiors who believed that I deserve to be where I am and to push me to move higher. You don’t just hire female leaders based on a corporate quota to solve your issues with equality and inclusivity. This is a process that takes years and requires buy in from all levels, in particular the top. You need to groom your team from the ground up and show them that leadership is not an old boys club anymore. 

I am very fortunate to be working in a company that never had a corporate quota to fill positions based on gender, yet based on our latest numbers: 

• Out of 32 staff, 19 are female across all levels (59%)
• 5 out of 8 departments are led by women (62.5% compared to 21.5% Canadian average).

Now here is my challenge for all of you! 

I am posting the Alabaster Homes summary and I encourage you to do the same for your company. I don’t want this to become a shaming game. I would like this to become an honest recognition of the current state so that we can change things together. Majority of you have women in your lives and I believe that all of us deserve to be happy, successful and have access to everything this world, and this industry in particular has to offer. So let’s do what construction teams do best - collaborate and succeed together!