Holly Sutton
Holly works in our Property team, and is recruitment consultant for permanent roles within construction consultancies. Holly is passionate about bringing about equality within the property and construction sector.
The facilities management and property sectors are undeniably male-dominated sectors. While the number of women in leadership roles within the built environment is steadily rising, it’s undeniable that men still hold the vast majority of decision-making positions.
This, however, continues to be a missed opportunity for FM and Property. It comes as no surprise that the biggest decisions about urban development are mainly made by men. But women’s influence can positively impact every stage of the property lifecycle, from building design to construction and then the ongoing property maintenance and management.
And it’s not simply because women are likely to improve team collaboration efforts, or because teams led by women are, on the whole, more productive with higher employee engagement levels.
Plenty has been written about the important soft skills women bring to an organisation, and the culture shifts that occur with more women in leadership roles. But alongside that, there are benefits to listening to women’s voices.
When it comes to building usage, the insight women can bring can help to ensure that buildings function seamlessly.
Inclusivity
From more accessible washroom facilities to air conditioning temperatures, including women in the design phase of buildings will inevitably lead to them being more inclusive. Swiss architect and Urban planner, Le Corbusier, coined the idea that building design should be based around human scale, but the figure he used to show this was six feet tall.
In the 1980’s, a group of architects banded together to create the Women’s Design Service, which began to question some of these assumptions.
Including women in building design ensures issues like queues for ladies loos and baby changing facilities are addressed before they become a problem.
But it’s about more than just toilets. Women in the property sector are often the ones advocating for a human centric approach to buildings. They are more likely to consider the needs of a larger variety of people, taking into account not just gender, but also ethnicity, age, and socio-economic background.
The impact of being a minority
Being a woman in the property sector immediately gives women an insight into different world view. The experience of being a minority, the experience of being pregnant or breastfeeding, the experience of feeling unsafe in dark or isolated spaces, the experience of being responsible for a young child’s needs.
These all give an insight into what it’s like to navigate the world with a vulnerability. As a result, women are more likely to consider the needs of a range of different voices.
Work/life balance
Traditionally, office building design makes the assumption that work takes place in factories and offices, and the home is for rest and recreation. But the truth is, a huge percentage of women are engaged in unpaid care work at home – childcare, household chores, cooking or looking after relatives.
This has meant, for decades, work life balance has been far harder for women to achieve – mothers in paid employment are 28% more likely to experience burnout than fathers, and 34% of women are likely to feel burned out at work, compared to 26% of men.
Interestingly, it’s the pandemic that has begun to address the balance. It perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise that it took men to be affected for workplaces to re-think their approach to work-life balance. And it’s unsurprising that as pandemic comes to an end, it’s women calling to keep the flexibility that came from WFH and then hybrid working necessities.
Recent studies have shown that meeting rooms, breakout areas and outdoor spaces are by far the most in demand workspace features. UK landlords have seen a notable shift in tenant needs since the pandemic, and many have had to make changes to the spaces they own to meet those demands. Studies show that women in the workplace are naturally more collaborative, and spend more of their working hours contributing to group goals and projects.
Had more women been involved in planning or part of the consultation, this need for collaborative space may have been already ticked.
Building management
Building management has yet to reach a place of equality, highlighting the need for more women in decision making positions within the facilities management sector. Despite women’s body temperatures being 2 degrees lower than men’s on average, workplace air conditioning units are set to temperatures that accommodate men’s comfort over women’s.
Women require more space and more time in washrooms than men due to needing to use cubicles, but the current laws in the UK require public buildings to have a 1:1 ratio of washroom space.
Despite both men and women being responsible for the care of their children, overwhelmingly changing facilities are placed in women’s washrooms rather than men’s.
Under-representation at work
Women represent 42% of the UK workforce, but their needs are under-represented in the workplace. Attracting more women to the facilities management, built environment and property sectors, especially in leadership and decision making roles will redress the balance.
But more importantly, it will make buildings more user friendly, more sustainable, and more attractive to a wider proportion of the working population – an absolute necessity when considering how to win the best talent and entice people back to the office.