Women in Construction

Where would I be in 5 to 10, 15 years from now? I hope to have my own building company running fully, or possibly being shown on The Block. I've watched The Block for years with my family, so being the first female builder to attend The Block as a contestant would be a bloody good achievement. My name is Felicity Pettiford and I'm a fully qualified carpenter and builder, and what I do day in, day out is general carpentry needs and building construction. 

So building homes, renovations, extensions, anything in the carpentry industry is what I do. So high school, I chose construction as an elective and absolutely loved it, was really good at it. Top of the class. So yeah, done work placement. Lined myself up an apprenticeship and got straight into it. I’ve experienced a lot of challenges throughout my apprenticeship and in the industry. 

One would be, being a female, the stigma on site. So women can't do this. Women can't do that. But as the years go on, we’re in 2025, women on construction is a normal thing as it should be, really. I love the industry because it's just good to be outside. I love working outdoors. Mentally, I think it's just such a refreshing job to do and being able to create something so amazing at the end and be able to walk away at the end of the day and be like, wow, I did that.  

To complete my Cert IV and then be titled through Master Builders the youngest female to complete the Cert IV, I was gobsmacked, but also I was happy to think that if I could do this, anyone can do it. And if I'm setting in an example of: it's a challenge, everything's always challenging, but never impossible. Other women can do it as well. Over the years I have seen a lot more females on site, but not as much as I want it to be. 

I do know that EWIT are doing a 30 by 30, so they want 30% of women in the industry by 2030. So that's a big jump considering I think we're at 6%, but I'm pretty positive of the changes. If we've got really good trailblazers and leaders in the industry, it will definitely help the next generation come through, want to pursue a trade. 

The first step to get into the industry, especially if you're still in high school, is do work placement through school for a large variety of industries, and then go out there and get an apprenticeship and absolutely smash it and enjoy it. I say this over and over again, but don't give up. And don't let anyone tell you no, because the only person who's going to say that to yourself is you. That's it. No one else. If you want to do something, go get it. 

I've always loved architecture and I love maths and science. I'm a bit of a nerd. So putting those two together into engineering felt like an awesome career option for me. I'm Isabel, a structural engineer and one of the business owners here at Northrop. Structural engineers work with architects, builders and land owners to essentially figure out how strong the different elements of a building needs to be.

I started my career about 13 years ago now, and I really started working with a technical focus. So on projects like schools, residential towers, houses, hospitals. As I progressed through my career, I started working a little bit more on business initiatives. At the moment, for example, I'm helping pull together a strategy for which projects we might get involved in for the Brisbane Olympics, which might even include the main stadium.

My favourite thing about working in the construction industry is how tangible and impactful it is. Whether you're just designing the gradient on a ramp or a piece of glass for a facade so you can reduce the air conditioning required in a building. You get to walk past that building or that ramp, or that place or that road and think, look, I had a part of making that a reality. And that's really cool. 

Having female leaders in the construction industry is so important because you can't be what you can't see, right. And having those role models you can aspire to and who can provide that really important mentorship and community has been really impactful to me in my career. ‘Tomorrow's Women In Construction’ was founded to inspire more girls to choose careers in construction.

By breaking down that idea, you can't be what you can't see. And sharing stories from women who love what they do. We're a volunteer group with the backing of 15 companies from the industry who've helped us launch a website that profiles over 150 women doing jobs from being a crane operator through to landscape architecture, structural engineering, everything. We really want to be reaching girls in that year, nine, ten period where they're starting to make decisions about subjects for their HSC and their careers.

When I first started in the construction industry, I definitely felt a little isolated. There were fewer women around, and sometimes it kind of felt like you were the only woman in the room. 13 years later, it's a lot better, Northrop has over 30% women in our business, and that's pretty similar in a lot of other engineering construction companies.

I kind of thought construction wasn't that professional or you didn't need to be maybe that smart, but actually were solving incredibly complex problems all the time. And it's a really well-paid, stable industry with amazing career prospects.

All my life I've loved to sleep in. When I realised I had to get up some days at 3:30, 4am, I was gobsmacked to say the least. And soon enough, you learn to just wake up with the sun, fist pump the birds in the morning and get stuck into the day. I'm Brooke Douglas and I'm an Apprentice Electrician with MDE. 

After school I went straight to uni and I lasted four months and I realised, whoa this is not for me. I can't be strapped down to a desk all day. So then I took a bit of a break and then I got diagnosed with ADHD, which answered a lot of my questions, as why I can't sit down for two minutes. 

And then I spoke to my uncle, who is a qualified electrician, and he said to me, why don't you start an apprenticeship? Now I'm at The Cutaway in Barangaroo. I never thought I'd be an electrician, but here I am. I'm loving it. No two days are the same. Some common tasks for me throughout the day will be light switches, GPOs. 

You know, just your basic power and lighting. We can also branch out and do cable tray, switchboards, which is like so fun, but also very scary because there's a lot to do in it. Honestly, there's endless opportunities when it comes to electrical, especially now that there's always new technology and electrical coming out. There will be new jobs forever and ever and ever. 

I also love the fact that you can walk past a job and you can do the classic, oh, I built that. Being an electrical apprentice, you're obviously in a male dominated industry. There will be challenges, but you just got to stay strong and know why you're here and stick to it. I never would have even touched a drill before I got to my apprenticeship. 

It's awesome to be hands on with everything, you know, you get to move around. I just love coming to site and I'd rather be here than in a classroom. 

I'm really passionate about architecture and bridges actually. I love architecture and bridges, and the built environment generally. I've learnt to kind of bring those two architecture and engineering together, and really now I just summarise it - I like to make things. It's great to just have something that you build and something that comes together in one piece. I'm Nicole Waterman, Project Leader at Laing O’Rourke.

Following university, I graduated from architecture and engineering from Newcastle University. I love the built environment and that's what led me into construction. I spent ten years overseas working for a consultant, engineering consultant working in the UK, Europe and the Middle East before coming home to Australia in 2012, where I joined Laing O’Rourke. I'm currently working on a footbridge at St Marys in Western Sydney, and that footbridge will constitute some escalators, lifts and stairs.

When the new airport is open, the Metro trains will come to St Marys and everybody will come across our bridge and onto the heavy rail and then into the city. I'm the recipient of the NAWIC Executive Leadership Scholarship for 2025. The benefits of these scholarships are endless for our industry, particularly for women. It's fantastic to have the opportunity to do something new, to do something that's well outside our skillset, and to just really expand our knowledge.

I haven't had too many challenges in the industry, and as a result, I would love to have more women see that opportunity, that there isn't many challenges or barriers into the construction industry. The improvements I have seen are exactly that the improvements in workforce policies and procedures. Amazing leave for parental care now for both male and female in the construction industries really started to level the playing field, and particularly in the gender space, which has been really fantastic.

The key to attracting more women is getting high school age girls, where they're making the career decisions to see what they can do in construction, what's available to them, but also educating parents, so parents know there's a real viable career and then also come and have a look at how exciting and fun this is. There is so much you can do and it is so, so rewarding.

I'm on permanent night shift doing 4:30 to 4:30. I actually really enjoy it. I'm a bit of a night owl. They call me Night Owl Nellie. My name is Channelle Nicholson and I’m a Stores Assistant. We help with inventory, anything incoming, deliveries, outgoing. We supply all consumables, materials and tools to everyone on site. I'd been in my previous job for about 20 years, and I was a bit stagnant. 

I felt like a bit of change. I've got family that have been in the industry for 30 years and to be honest, from a financial perspective, they're doing quite well and as a solo parent I thought that this would be something good for me, and actually came across the Gamuda website that was advertising the Women In Construction Pre-employment Program. So I completed an application and applied and was successful. For the training 

I was amongst 15 other women. We did a range of things. We completed some units which would actually go towards a Cert III in Civil Construction, which is quite significant for getting into this industry. We learned how to use certain and tools and make things as well, which is great. And we learned a lot about health and safety. 

It was a good intro for me. It's never too late to change your career. You don't even need to have any skills in the construction industry. Training is provided as well. As a parent, I've got a young daughter that's nearly 18 years old that's now interested in this industry as well. What I love about working in the construction industry is the support that I received since being in this space. 

Leadership's been amazing and even though this has been a male dominated space for everybody for so many years, all the men have actually been really supportive that I've worked with and just the experience and knowledge that they have. It's a huge advantage to be able to learn from someone that's been in this space for a really long time. Coming into this industry 

I lacked lots of confidence. I didn't really know what I was up to, but now I'm nearly two years in. I have a lot of confidence and knowing what things are, I can identify materials, I can identify tools. It's just a really good environment. I wish I had actually done it earlier, to be honest. It’s something I would highly recommend. 

While I was studying architecture, I worked for a small builder during the whole time I was studying. I really loved the practical and problem solving aspects of the building side. So even though I loved my degree at the time and what I was doing, I felt very passionate about moving into the construction industry post my degree. My name is Stephanie Graham and I'm the managing director of Lendlease Construction Australia.

I've been in the industry just over 22 years. I started as a graduate and over that time I have worked on many, many different projects across multiple sectors with many different people and in lots of varied roles. My favourite thing about the construction industry is the legacy we get to leave. Most of the things we do in an industry like this is deliver projects like the one I'm at today, the Victoria Cross Project and the communities that we leave these legacy projects for and the impacts that they have. 

In this industry all kinds of leaders are very important, including strong female leaders. But the best kinds of leaders are the ones that can adapt their leadership style depending on what's needed at the time. The key to attracting more women is always about having women visible in the industry, whether it's onsite in trade roles or whether it's CEO roles. We need to have more women across the industry in all of these types of roles that will then attract further women into the industry.

There have always been many role models and mentors throughout my career. Some of them have been with me for the 22 years I've been in the industry, and there are others that come and go depending on the needs that you have at the time throughout your career. So the most challenging aspect, but probably the most rewarding aspect, is the management of people.

We have such a diverse range of people within our industry and a diverse range in age groups. We have some of the youngest, at 16, who start as apprentices right through to even 70 plus year olds being employed. That's a lot of generations to integrate within an industry. So quite often there are challenges that come with that, but it is also our biggest strength.