MOVING BACK THE WALLS

Thirty years after the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) was introduced, sex stereotyping of career roles can still be found throughout society in the UK and Europe. Stereotyping can influence attitudes, expectations, choices and decisions made by girls and women, and unless stereotyping can be overcome the face of the construction sector will not change. The small numbers of female undergraduates entering architecture, building and planning (HESA, 2003) seems to indicate we have a long way to go. Yet there are a number of women who entered the sector in the past and have left it to have children or who work within the sector but in non-technical roles. Surely the built environment higher education sector should be working with this group of non-standard students and with employers to encourage them to either return to the sector or up-skill within the sector. At Sheffield Hallam University the Women in SET (science, engineering, technology and built environment) team have been working to facilitate entry for, and return of, this non-standard group of potential students to the built environment sector. This paper will discuss the experiences of the course team and highlight the evaluation findings from working with these students to inform others working to widen participation in built environment higher education