Work-Life Balance

09 September 2010

On Thursday, 9th Sept 2010, we were pleased to have author, engineer, mother and all-around advocate for women in construction, Valerie Francis come to speak to NAWIC. The event was hosted by Jones Lang LaSalle’s offices at Hanover Square, London where an interactive presentation and lively discussion was held over drinks and canapés.  Our speaker, who was on a speaking tour from Australia has been an industry pioneer and still is today. Valerie Francis is a civil engineer with over ten years experience in commercial, industrial, institutional and domestic construction as a senior structural engineer and project manager. Valerie also has a Masters degree in Project Management and worked as a Research Fellow for five years on two large ARC projects investigating construction efficiency prior to joining the University of Melbourne in 2000. Valerie’s research for the past ten years has been in the equity and diversity area and has resulted in the publication of a wide number of industry reports and papers in top tier international journals as well as local Australian journals.

She graduated from civil engineering at the University of Adelaide in 1982, the eleventh female to do so since the degree was inaugurated in 1913. Valerie has had lots of first, and lots of onlys, in her career. She was the only female in her graduating class, was the first female civil engineer to work in the private sector in South Australia, was the first women to serve on the Civil College Board of the Engineers Australia, was the only professional woman at every consulting engineering practice she worked for and the first female academic to work in the School of Building at the University of South Australia. She helped establish the first women in engineering group in South Australia in 1984 and went on to be its first convenor. She wrote the only history of women in engineering in South Australia in 1986. She is currently the only female academic staff member in the construction program at the University of Melbourne, where she is teaching in the construction management area and researching equity and diversity issues relating to construction. She coauthored the only book on managing work life balance in construction and is perhaps the only women in Australia to have a comprehensive understanding of women’s participation in the Australian construction industry. According to her daughter she is the only mother to warn teenagers about the dangers of balconies at parties (drug and alcohol having been well covered at school). She is apparently the most embarrassing mother ever as she is constantly talking to people about construction and engineering as a brilliant career choice!