Excellence has no gender, and the construction industry is no exception

“Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!!”

One of the most iconic photographs in athletics is of a man trying to grab the bib number of a woman running. It consists of the German marathon runner Kathrine Switzer, chased by one of the Boston Marathon race managers who tried to stop her while shouting a phrase that has gone down in history.

It was 19 April 1967 and the race only allowed for men to compete. Kathrine registered to run as KV Switzer, setting off with the number 261 on her back and, despite the attempts to tackle her, and that most people watching thought his strength would bring her down, she managed to escape his grasp and reach the finishing line.

From today’s perspective, the scene seems bizarre. But, even in surprisingly recent times, there are many sectors in which women have been excluded, or at least considered a rare presence.

Even today the role of women in construction belongs to the latter group. It’s estimated that only 8% of building industry workers are women, a small number compared to other workplaces. Then again, if we talk about female laborers, women in construction undertaking construction work, the figure falls to 0.8%.

Female bricklayers, form setters, plumbers, riggers… these are the rara avis on building sites. And yet the construction of the Marga Marga Provincial Hospital in Chile by ACCIONA will prove to be an turning point in this scenario, because for the first time we can say that a building has been built entirely by female labor. Here is the full story...

Concreting, steel-cutting, moving of assembly plates… work almost always featuring men as the protagonists. The scene is very different, though, at ACCIONA’s site to build the Sala Cuna facility in Marga Marga Provincial Hospital, Chile. All the workers are women, skilled and specialized in each of the tasks mentioned: flame-cutting ironwork, maneuvering metal plates, form-setting columns.

The image might seem odd given how rarely we’re used to seeing women perform manual work. And, for this, it has a hypnotic quality, perhaps for the varnish of sensitivity it adds to the dexterity needed for such tasks, and the determination of women in seeking to measure themselves in the tasks and demonstrating to the community, their families and the government that excellence in work is not defined by gender.

So it is that, since 8 March 2021 (International Women’s Day, uncoincidentally), 35 women are raising an annex at the Marga Marga Provincial Hospital in the commune of Villa Alemana, near to Valparaíso in Chile, which will serve as a kindergarten for employees at the hospital. Six meters high and with a surface area of 750m², the building, named Sala Cuna, is being constructed exclusively by women and will be the first infrastructure works in the country to be completed with gender policy in mind.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

The Sala Cuna project at Marga Marga seeks not only to become a benchmark in the fight for women’s labor rights in Chile, but also to set the bar over the long term for women skilled in manual work to have their presence accepted on other construction works. The idea is that, once Sala Cuna is completed, the same work gang can continue working as contractors for ACCIONA on other projects at the hospital.

In addition, ACCIONA offers an annual academic training scholarship, with one of the women funded to study a career in engineering at university.

These ACCIONA initiatives have won widespread recognition. The company was selected from all the major construction groups in the country for the 2021 Female Construction Award from the Chilean Chamber of Construction, winning two categories: “Outstanding Practice” by demonstrating how to incorporate women in the construction industry, and; “Best Construction Company”, for the positive gender indicators ACCIONA achieved.

During the second half of the year, the project received another distinction, this time from the Executive Women’s Network in the form of their 2021 Inspiring Organization Award, in the Large Companies category.

And, for its part, the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanization awarded the project its “Women in Construction” certificate.

FOUNDATIONS FOR A NEW REALITY

The idea of constructing a building from scratch with an exclusively female workforce is completely disruptive for the construction sector, laying down a challenge for it to incorporate the role of women in any construction works, and not only for engineering or administrative tasks. The building now in place represents a symbol for others to follow.

Going back to the image of Kathrine Switzer with which we began this article, it was taken by photographers who were both surprised and bothered by the incident, since they had to wait 4 hours 20 minutes for Switzer to complete the marathon In order to record her crossing the finishing line. It was a fairly standard time for completing the event in those days, but opened the floodgates for women athletes who today beat record after record in top competitions, often equalling and bettering men.

ACCIONA’s disruptive, pioneering project in Chile seeks to generate a reaction, such that this vision of a new, more open, workforce can become rooted in the sector’s culture, where women are free to choose the career or trade they want to pursue, even where in the past it has been the province of men.

When the day arrives it’s normal to see men and women form-setting side by side on construction sites, mission will have been accomplished.