50 research outputs found
Effect of attitudes towards creating women managers in the construction industry
The paper attempts to explore the issues associated with peoplesâ attitudes towards
under-representation of women at senior managerial positions in the construction industry through
a literature review. The construction industry holds an image of a rough natured industry
associated with difficult working conditions. The attitudes and stereotypes of society regarding
managing work and resources in that hard environment - by a woman, normally expected to be the
heart of the family scene, with social responsibilities and in the traditional motherly role - are
preventing the promotion of women managers in the industry.
Since attitudes are the people's biases or tendencies that influence their response to situations,
activities or the people, changing attitudes can be used as a powerful device for altering the pattern
of thinking and human behaviour. The construction industry will benefit with more women
managers if the unfavourable attitudes regarding the promotion of women managers can be
changed
Mainstreaming women into disaster reduction decision making in the built environment: Research methodological perspectives
The role played by the built environment in determining the casualties and monetary costs of disasters emphasises the need of reducing its disaster vulnerabilities to achieve a disaster resilient built environment. The decision-making process in the built environment thus requires integration with disaster risk reduction. This integration further requires identifying women?s specific needs and concerns related to disaster risk reduction in order to reduce women?s higher disaster vulnerabilities. A research aiming at mainstreaming women?s needs and concerns in to decision making process in the built environment to reduce their vulnerabilities is being carried out and this paper focuses on elaborating its research methodology. The methodology of the research will be discussed under three main sections in the paper. The sections will be, philosophical worldviews, strategies of enquiry and the research methods of the study. Having identified the study as a social research and believing in pragmatism the research takes an interpretivist philosophical stance and selects its research strategy as case studies. The paper explains the philosophical positioning of the research and its case study design in detail while justifying the suitability of the methodological selections of the research through various literature. The latter part of the paper will illustrate the choice of data collection and analysis methods with their suitability to the context of this particular research
Gender mainstreaming in disaster reduction: Why and how?
The significant losses in human life and livelihoods, the destruction of economic and social
infrastructure and damage to the environment caused by disasters in the past decade has
increased the necessity for proper disaster reduction and risk management strategies. A disaster
is shown as a combination of a trigger agent and vulnerabilities. Since vulnerabilities are the
dependant component of a disaster, they should be managed and minimised in order to reduce
disasters. Disaster reduction policies and measures, which ensure a decrease in vulnerabilities,
need to be formed and implemented to achieve a sustainable and consistent plan of disaster
management. Since women are more vulnerable in a disaster, their needs and concerns should
be widely integrated into risk reduction plans and procedures from both perspectives of women
as beneficiaries and decision makers. Gender mainstreaming is considered an important element
in disaster reduction policy making to integrate a gender equality perspective in all policies at
all levels. Gender mainstreaming in disaster reduction refers to promoting awareness about
gender equity and equality, to help reduce the impact of disasters and to incorporate gender
analysis in disaster management, risk reduction and sustainable development to decrease
vulnerability. This paper reviews literature on disaster reduction and gender mainstreaming to
emphasise why gender mainstreaming has become a necessity in disaster reduction attempts and
to highlight the ways in which it can be achieve
Enhancing capacities for disaster mitigation and reconstruction in the built environment: a case study from Sri Lanka
Throughout the recent decades, natural and man-made disasters have demonstrated the fragility of the built environment and its vulnerability to hazards. The destruction of the built environment caused by disasters impedes the regular functioning of the society while hindering all the other activities due to its strong linkages with other sectors. This emphasises the need of a disaster resilient built environment. Capacity enhancement within different sectors in the society such as governments, institutions and communities, in relation to the built environment enables to identify constraints and to plan and manage construction activities of the built environment effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Identifying capacity gaps in the context of disaster mitigation and reconstruction in the built environment is vital to identify any required capacity enhancement. In this context, this paper discusses such capacity gaps in Sri Lanka through a literature review. Sri Lanka is commonly prone to natural hazards like floods, cyclones, landslides, and droughts and has experienced low-frequency but high impact disasters also such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The paper identifies the capacity gaps in different sectors in the country such as national and local governments, non state actors and the private sector, local communities, policy and regulatory environment and human resource development in relation to disaster mitigation and reconstruction in the built environment. Problems in the regulatory structure, deficiencies in necessary laws and regulations including problems in their implementation, and lack of required resources and skills have been identified as the major capacity gaps in the paper
Social vulnerability and disaster risk reduction needs: perspectives of women
Integration of disaster risk reduction needs and experiences of different groups in the
community with the built environment is significant to achieve disaster resilience. It facilitates
identifying the nature of disaster vulnerabilities within a particular community leading to
achieve disaster risk reduction more effectively. Womenâs needs and experiences are
prominent in this context since women have been identified as a highly vulnerable group to
disasters. Womenâs higher disaster vulnerability is typically determined by their social roles
and responsibilities. Their responsibilities over production and reproduction frequently expose
them to different conditions in disasters with varying vulnerabilities. This paper is based on a
doctoral research that aims to investigate how womenâs knowledge, experiences and needs and
concerns in relation to disaster risk reduction can be identified and integrated with disaster risk
reduction in the built environment. A comprehensive literature review has been carried out in
order to explore various aspects of social vulnerability, disaster implications on women,
womenâs needs in disaster risk reduction and the means of needs capturing and integration.
Participatory methods such as public consultations are suggested as the most effective ways of
capturing disaster risk reduction needs of community women in literature whilst the significant
role of construction process and people involved in it is highlighted for integrating the needs
with the built environment
Meliorating women's representation within leadership positions in the UK construction industry
The construction industry in the North West of England is one of the region's largest industries and fundamental to all other economic activities. However, a scarcity of women in leadership positions in construction has persisted despite their increasing numbers in construction training. The lack of women leaders in construction has been a concern for many years, attracting government and industry wide attention. This issue has been made more prominent recently due to the potential managerial skills shortage facing the industry. Hence, a research project was carried out in order to study the underlying reasons for the scarcity of women in leadership positions in the construction industry, and to discover ways to improve the current position of women leaders in construction, with a particular emphasis on the North West of England.The research project conducted both critical literature review and case studies in order to understand the role of female leaders, the barriers faced by women in leadership positions, the present status of organisational policies and facilities and their suggestions for further improvement in construction and to provide effective practice guidelines. This paper presents the overall findings from this project and the recommendations to improve the current position of women leaders in construction. Although, the recommendations to organisations are mainly focusing on developing women leaders it recognises the importance of gender mainstreaming to facilitate all employees? career within the organisatio
Role of women leaders in the UK construction industry and their career barriers
The issue regarding lack of women leaders in construction has been a prominent concern for
many years because women in mainstream management reduces potential managerial skills
shortage in the industry and increases womenâs interest for construction related occupations.
This paper is based on a study, which was designed to identify the role of women in leadership
positions in the UK construction industry and the barriers confronting their careers. A literature
review has been carried out followed by four case studies that were developed around four
female leaders in the industry in order to identify the role and the barriers confronting them.
Results of this study revealed that role of women leaders in construction is yet to be improved
both in terms of number of leaders and the significance of their role. However, the findings of
the case studies show that the majority of women leaders do not find problems in their
leadership ability and the recognition which is received, however working in a site environment
brings additional inconveniences to women in performing their role as leaders. Further the study
revealed that women leaders in construction face career barriers which prevent them from
advancing towards leadership positions. The results from the case studies indicate that the task
of balancing family and work commitments, childcare problems and old boys networks are the
most common barriers encountered by women in leadership positions in construction