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International Womens Day 2024
Pink vs Blue Jobs - Fact or Preconception?
This year International Women’s Day focusses on ‘Inspiring Inclusion’. Whilst inclusion and equality are always a key focus for us at Lumensol, it’s great to have this annual reminder to think a bit deeper on the wider reaches and impact, and what we can do to make things better.
What does Inclusivity mean to you? Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the fact of including all types of people, things or ideas and treating them all fairly and equally” but is it really as simple as opening the door? We have been thinking about the theory, and perhaps actuality, of ‘pink vs blue’ jobs and if there is still a clear divide of roles undertaken by each sex, at home as much as in the workplace. If so, that in itself is a huge barrier to inclusivity. Just because we promote and strive for inclusivity, does it mean we succeed? It made us wonder if we need to do things differently to make sure women want to work for us, and if we as a society have an inbuilt preconception that there are jobs that actually are more suited to one sex or the other. If we do, how do we all feel about that and how do we change it?
CC
We all know that the building and construction sector are experiencing a skills shortage. On top of this it seems that the number of women that either currently work in or look to enter our sector falls severely short of what we think it should be. According to statista.com (UKconstruction workforce by gender 2023 | Statista) at the end of Q4 2023 there were 1,821,000 men vs 297,000 women in the construction industry. These jobs don’t specifically exclude women so what’s the barrier? Is it historic institutional behaviours that put us off? For example, what woman would want to work on a building site when she hasn’t, in the past, been able to walk by one without a wolf whistle or two……. Or are we even still living the past??
Similarly, if we look deeper into our own sector, where we work with Local Authorities and Housing Associations, there are jobs that are occupied with an imbalance toward one sex or the other. We think examples include Operatives vs Resident Liaison Officers, Building Surveyors vs Customer Service Advisors. Again these roles aren’t specifically designed to be more attractive to either sex, so is it us? Is it how we behave, how we treat people and the preconceptions we cast on others? Or as a product of preconceptions that people share, where job applicants cast their own preconceptions on what they apply for. Or is it a classic case of organisations demonstrating unconscious bias?
We consider it here at Lumensol in our Data Analytics Team, with a team of five and only one woman or on the flip side our Procurement Team is all women. We absolutely know it isn’t that men are better at Data Analytics and women are better at Procurement, nor do we think the roles are better suited to men or to women, but there has been a much higher volume of male interest in one and women in another. Did we do anything that influenced that? How can we do it differently?
Of course, we know there are many other factors that affect inclusivity being successful but is pink vs blue jobs one of those or not?
Our question to you is this: what do you think, what can Lumensol do differently, and what can we all do to make our sector better?
Who We Work With
Lumensol prides itself on servicing its client’s needs through the full property and asset management service lifecycle. Take a look at some examples of Lumensol’s work below:
“We have been working with them since the autumn of 2020 and during that time they have provided consistently strong services across a range of business areas. Their Commercial Management Team have provided both visibility and assurance to us for our main repairs contract.
As a result of this impressive range of work, and the resulting cost savings, we have engaged Lumensol on a new contract. We look forward to their continued advice and support in this critical business area”Elspeth Brown
Head of Contracts & Compliance
Town & Country Housing
“Mat Bishop is a Director at consultants Lumensol. He and his team have done some really tremendous work with us on our property services – basically helping us solve what was previously unsolvable – our commercial model. They have used their deep understanding of property maintenance – and the finances and commercials that surround it – to come up with a fantastic solution for us”
Simon Howick
Managing Director
ODS Group
“The Lumensol team have been incredibly supportive throughout this process, from helping shape and procure the JV arrangement, to establishing our DLO on short notice and without any drop in service, to now supporting the mobilisation of the new contract”
Bob Heapy
Chief Executive
Town and Country Housing
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