Time to realise our full potential

Engineers Australia, the Australian Institute of Project Management and the Institute of Managers and Leaders joined forces to celebrate International Women’s Day at a breakfast event in Canberra on 6 March 2019.

Emceed by Greg Ewing, General Manager for Engineer Australia’s Sydney and Canberra Divisions, the event was attended by 145 enthusiastic members, employees and guests from each organisation.

This year’s theme was “Balance for Better”, a call-to-action for driving gender balance across the world.

The three guest speakers were Romilly Madew AO, CEO of Infrastructure Australia, Raelene Lockhurst, Director of the City Renewal Authority in Canberra and David Williams, 2019 ACT Local Hero and Manager for Technology Coordination & Collaboration.

David Williams who works closely with people with intellectual disabilities and encourages them to speak for themselves, highlighted that the inclusion of all people in the process is the only way to reach equality.

“The World Economic Forum estimates it will take 170 years to reach economic gender equality,” Mr Williams said in his address. “Our society will never realise 100 per cent of our goals if 50 per cent of our population cannot realise their full potential... We need to take young men along on the journey and effective mentoring for them is just as important as it is for women. 

Raelene Lockhorst, who has more than 20 years of experience in project management and the Australian Defence Force, spoke to the importance of changing the way we work to create a more inclusive space for all to have the best business outcomes.

“Whilst the gender gap is closing, female project managers remain under-represented in traditional industries such as construction and engineering. Historically, this could be contributed to: low numbers of female graduates (particularly in STEM), traditional nuclear family structures where men were seen as breadwinners and women were seen as care-givers, and traditional 9 to 5 working environments that lacked flexibility to accommodate women with care giving responsibilities,” Ms Lockhorst said.

“But our society is evolving… Recognising these changes and embracing new ways of working, from the top down, should enable our sector to attract and retain women in project management.”