In conversation last week with a colleague of mine, she happened to mention that her work was recently noted in a judgment of the High Court of New Zealand. With numerous qualifications in engineering and law, Catherine Williams is a project claims consultant specialising in delay, who also works as a dispute mediator and arbitrator. Intrigued, I Googled the case. In the summary of his judgment in Electrix Limited v The Fletcher Construction Company Limited [2020] NZHC 918, Justice Palmer stated that in determining the basis and amount of the award of $7.5 Million, ‘I rely primarily on the evidence of Electrix’s expert witness, Mrs Catherine Williams’. He noted that he was ‘particularly grateful to her for agreeing to give her evidence by [Audio Visual Link] days after giving birth.’ More remarkable is that the birth of Catherine’s daughter was not a typically smooth construction project ‘topping out’ event.
And yet, like so many of our women in construction, Catherine didn’t feel that it was her place to promote this achievement of being highly praised as the foundation of a High Court judgment. I beg to differ, which is what inspired me to write this post. A recent Forbes article highlighted how in the workplace, while men are rewarded for self-promotion, women tend to be punished – particularly in male-dominated fields. That is simply wrong.
We have some admirable organisations that challenge the status quo of a male-dominated construction industry. NAWIC is one, whose vision is of an equitable construction industry where women fully participate. It does a fantastic job of publicising the achievements of its members through its annual Awards for Excellence. But it is up to all of us – particularly us men, who need to step up and support the women in our construction industry. We need to actively promote their achievements and change the behaviours that seem to penalise women if they do so themselves. All of us hope to have our professional skills and efforts recognised by our bosses, colleagues, and our professional network. In this desire, we are truly equal.
For the past few years, I have been fortunate to work with some fantastic women in the Australian engineering and construction industry. They are an inspiration to me as they continually ‘punch above their weight’ in a male-dominated industry. Some are my junior and I have the honour of being a mentor and coach as they navigate their early careers. Some are my peers, and I relish the support we provide each other as we strive to deliver our best work whilst overcoming new challenges of a rapidly changing world. And very luckily for me, some have even been my boss, and they have provided excellent counsel and inspiring leadership.
Their influence was part of what inspired me to flavour the paper I recently wrote with Kiri Parr on whether COVID-19 might help cure the poor health of the Australian Construction Industry. We chose a female character of ‘Rachael’ to particularly highlight how our industry’s leaders struggle to deliver our projects not only successfully, but to do so whilst balancing the rest of the demands on their time. A real-life example, Alison Mirams, recently posted about her hopes for the construction industry post COVID and how our talented women in construction can feel isolated from their former working lives when they are on maternity leave. It is not surprising that a post from such an inspirational industry leader as Alison attracts hundreds of comments of support.
The women we have working in Australian engineering and construction are amazing. They continue to overcome gender obstacles formed from poor understanding, ignorance, and just plain laziness from the rest of us. They offer a diversity of thinking, an approach, and a philosophy of the purpose of work that we sorely need more of if we are to improve the way we deliver our projects. I am a better construction industry professional for my association with the women in my professional life. All of you will be too if you reach out, grow, and actively support those in yours.
Catherine Williams, your achievement in the High Court is amazing, and you truly inspire me to achieve more in my professional life.