Powell, A; Hassan, T; Dainty, A and Carter, C (2007) Strengthening women’s participation in construction research in Europe. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 23rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2007, Belfast, UK.
Abstract
Very little is known about the role of women in construction research and the factors hindering the equal presence of men and women, despite wider research addressing women’s participation in science and engineering generally. This paper reports on the development of the 'WOMEN-CORE' project, co-funded by the European Commission’s Research Directorate General under the Sixth EU Framework Programme (FP6). The project is focused on construction generally because of its important role in economic growth and also its male-dominated nature, with women only representing 10% of the UK construction workforce and 8% of the EU. WOMEN-CORE focuses specifically on construction research because of the sector’s poor performance in research and innovation and the cost of 'non-quality' as a proportion of total output. Furthermore, women’s growing role as decision-makers and buyers is not reflected by their input into construction innovation and creativity. The primary theme of the research is therefore to strengthen women scientists' participation in construction research across Europe. This paper indicates the significance of WOMEN-CORE against the current climate in the construction sector, the European Commission’s position on gender equality and wider research addressing women’s experiences in science. It then utilises this literature to develop the WOMEN-CORE research framework around two key themes: enhancing knowledge and strengthening women’s participation in construction research.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; Europe; gender; research; women |
| Index terms: | Europe, creativity, science, gender equality, programme, presence, strengthening, women, economic growth, construction sector, construction innovation |
| Subjects: | economic development, physical geography and landforms, structural engineering, building construction, social justice, sociology, project controls, innovation and creative processes, industry analysis, specialized education, environmental science |
| Topics: | Ethics, Design Practice, Time Control, Education, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here