Founded in 2021, Girls Under Construction C.I.C is the Relatable bridge & supportive Community Network
for Young Diverse Women pursuing Construction & Built Environment careers. Our overall objective is to increase the number of young girls being enlightened about the industry and the number of diverse young women (from underrepresented social & ethnic backgrounds) entering careers across the Industry. We use various educational and inspiring initiatives to support these women as they journey down their career paths.
In this Era, young people cannot aspire to become something if they're not inspired. For an industry that has a great economic, social and environmental impact on towns + cities everywhere, it is still misunderstood and misinterpreted by young people, especially young women.
For young women, the problems our industry still faces today is:
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The ability to make the Industry and roles appealing.
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The lack of diverse female representation in ‘male dominated’ roles.
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Visibility of relatable examples to look up to (In the UK, women make up only 14% of the Construction Industry...5.4% of this are from a BAME background – shocking right).
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Access opportunities into their desired career area.
To successfully bridge this gap, relatable inspiration, education and practical insight access is vital. Construction isn’t just about hard hats and steel capped boots, It’s also about innovation, technology, great design, placemaking and much more! The problems we have identified provided the foundation for our mission to reach and support young women - locally first and then globally.
Services
How can we help your company?
Our first passion lies in supporting our network of diverse young women through initiatives, resources, events and more. Our second passion lies in helping companies across the industry ‘do better’ for the sake of the young women we have access to.
We are passionate about EDI & better workplace practices, cultures, environments and strategies for young women. Our access to and engagement with a vast amount of diverse women from grassroots level to entry-level + has exposed us to challenges, problems and struggles they face on a daily basis. Due to this, we created a list of support services for Construction & Built Environment related companies in a number of ways - if you would like to know the list of services we can offer your SME - Larger company: Get in touch by clicking here
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"Most of my passion stems from the absence of a tangible role model from secondary school through to university. Although I was self-motivated to join the industry due to my interest, along the way I lacked the external inspiration, guidance, and relatable examples that I could look up to within the Industry.
My personal challenges and barriers were just an avenue to create something greater that will be a guiding light for a new Generation of Young Women into Construction."
Barbara Akinkunmi
Founder
