When I left university after my Part 1 in 2009, I spent the summer months searching for a job. Feeling a sense of the great unknown and a severe lack of confidence I enrolled my mum to help me. I’d hoped her Australian charisma and sense of conviction would help the polite and shy woman that I was. After weeks of researching practices and painstakingly applying for jobs, the director of the company who eventually hired me reflected that they had been drawn to my CV because of my name, Banksie. In a world where we now take names off applications in the interest of equality, I wouldn’t have the advantage now that I did then.
I joined a small team on a Building Schools for The Future project in Hackney which, unusually for a Part 1, I was on from inception until work started on site. After a year at the practice I applied for other companies, smaller practices than the 100+ person establishment I was a part of, and was offered a position with an aspirational practice I was eager to join. Two weeks into my notice period, the new job called to tell me they’d lost the project they had hired me for and could no longer take me on. They offered me a 2 week pay check.
I ashamedly approached the managing director with my tail between my legs asking to keep my job. The MD, perhaps unusually at the time, was a woman and gladly accepted my request to stay. Although the number of women in the practice were relatively high, the project architect, two part 2s, associate and director on the project were all male. So were all of the contractors on the job. Not having anything compare it to, it wasn’t something that I ever questioned at the time.
Staying at the practice for a second year gave me continuity on a project that I was lucky to be involved with although I didn’t realise it at the time. Back then late nights were common place when deadlines required it, which I had the energy and drive for at that point in my career. During these periods I would work regularly until 11pm and make my way home as safely as I could as a young women in her twenties, hoping I wasn’t followed into the external bike store.
After my masters back at UCL I found my way to Bell Phillips, coming up to twelve years ago this September. Having worked on a few schools I was fresh to housing and had everything to learn. After a few short years I was trusted with a project of my own to run.
Team
International Women’s Day: How much has the construction industry changed?
Posted on 10 March 2025
Part two by Associate Banksie Critchley
In contrast to the projects I had worked on previously, myself, the client, the development manager and the structural engineer were all female. It was something that felt quite striking and was acknowledged by the team as such. It was a positive experience, but I wish it wasn’t something worth remarking on. It should be the norm.
The project progressed onto site and I found myself in a brand new position of working with a contractor as my direct client. The main contractor was collaborative and respectful, making me feel at ease and welcomed my input. I know I was one of the lucky ones. Not all of the subcontractors were quite so accommodating. I remember vividly a male subcontractor asking me on the phone if this was the first job I had ever led on site because I had requested that he take a survey. I felt intimidated and ashamed, having suffered from imposter syndrome throughout a lot of my career. It turned out that I was right to request that survey, it was a complicated site and going without would have caused some serious issues. That’s not to say I didn’t make any mistakes on site because I did. But I wasn’t made to feel the way that that person made me feel. I couldn’t help but think he wouldn’t have said it if I was a man.
The 8th March is my birthday as well as International Women’s Day. It makes me even prouder to be female. Last week I attended a women’s only breakfast hosted by Planning Potential and was invited to a spin class by Iceni, both to celebrate the day. Many other events happened last week, including the Part W’s Built Barriers event at the ROCA gallery which my colleague Emma Carter is involved with. Bell Phillips are keen attendees at the Property & Constructing Networking Running events and are very proud to be hosting the women’s only run in May. Since the beginning of my career I believe the industry has made big leaps forward but it has further to go. We need to get to the point where we don’t have to hold these events specifically for women – we need to be an integral part of the industry where it is not unusual for five of us to be in a meeting room all together. We need to keep fighting for this future, together.