Rail Minister celebrates contribution of women to Crossrail

Rail Minister Claire Perry has hailed the contribution of women to Crossrail at a special ‘Women delivering Crossrail’ event held at the House of Commons.

Ms. Perry praised Crossrail’s work in attracting more women into careers in engineering and urged the rest of the UK infrastructure industry to follow its lead on future transport projects.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Crossrail Chairman Terry Morgan, and leading women from the transport industry joined the Minister at the event, which was part of the 100 years of women in transport campaign.

Nearly a third of Crossrail’s workforce is women. The rest of the construction industry lags some way behind with women making up just 11% of the workforce, including thoseworking in office-based roles, and only 6% of engineers are female.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said: “Crossrail has led the way in getting more women involved in building vital infrastructure, boosting female representation in the construction workforce and creating role models to inspire the next generation of engineers and construction workers.

“The project continues to deliver huge economic benefits and create a trained construction workforce. With our investment projects like HS2, opportunities in construction for women will continue to grow, and I hope these build on Crossrail’s best practice.”

Crossrail, the largest construction project in Europe, has worked hard in its attempts to change industry perceptions and create a workplace environment more welcoming to women. This has included altering the language used on site, made Crossrail female role models available to meet with young girls looking to form their career plan and also visited schools and careers events.

The Young Crossrail programme has reached over 36,000 school pupils, teachers and parents, and a close partnership with the not-for-profit organisation Women into Construction has helped make construction an exciting and attractive career option for women.

Crossrail Chairman Terry Morgan said: “Crossrail has provided hundreds of young people with the opportunity to learn their trade on Europe’s largest infrastructure project, and will go on to build a fantastic career delivering the projects of the future.

“To deliver this unprecedented number of projects it is vital we increase the number of women in the industry. All of us, from teachers and parents to chief executives and industry leaders, need to do more to help women make the most of the exciting career opportunities on offer.”

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