Angela Rushforth (Construction Inclusion Coalition chair): “We need to change the perception of women in the construction industry”

Featured image of the article Angela Rushforth (Construction Inclusion Coalition chair): “We need to change the perception of women in the construction industry”
At the end of September, a coalition designed to strengthen equality, diversity and inclusion in the construction industry was launched. Called the Construction Inclusion Coalition (CIC), it was founded by the chief executives of nine groups* and those of two employers' organisations in the sector (Builders Merchants Federation and National Merchant Buying Society). Angela Rushforth, CIC chair and Managing Director of Toolstation, a subsidiary of Travis Perkins, spoke to mind RH about the origins of this coalition, whose members employ over 250,000 people.
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Why did you create this unprecedented coalition?

I’ve been in construction for quite a long time and one of the things that we were doing within my own organisation was establishing a women’s network. And when we were listening to women, and see also the challenges that they were having, a lot of people were saying “oh, it’s just the industry.” It was almost used as an excuse and therefore, for me, it was about: “Actually, we need to change the industry!” So, I had a look around in terms of what

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