Women in Construction, 1983

Here's a terrific glimpse into a piece of social history that is usually ignored – a film made by the much missed Inner London Education Authority in 1983 to encourage girls and young women to consider the construction industry as a profession.




In it they interview all manner of women, from student apprentices training in Vauxhall to established professionals working for private companies or local authorities. They interview bricklayers, carpenters, engineers, surveyors, administrators, painters and decorators, and their views are very interesting.

In most cases the only negative factor was men – the sexist jokes on site and the morale-sapping belief that women couldn't do the job. But on the plus side there's so much here about self-determination, a refusal to see barriers and a desire to use hard-won skills creatively.




It's the early eighties, so preoccupations include the huge level of unemployment at the time and the inequality of women and men in the workplace, particularly financially (which still hasn't changed as much as it should have). It's a curious moment for the construction industry too. Building projects are small scale – refurbishments, shop fitting, community work – as opposed to the giant 60s and 70s local authority schemes they might have once been working on.





This film is a bit of a treat, a subject that could have been dry enlivened by some great interviewees, leaving an enduring record of a moment in time and of an ongoing feminist struggle in the workplace tackled in a can-do practical way.

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