Be my Guest…Victoria Badnell
MGF is launching a week of activities to celebrate the 26th annual Women in Construction Week (WiC) from March 3-9, coinciding with International Women’s Day on March 8, to shine a light on the construction industry and encourage more women to work in the lifting engineering sector.
The event started in the United States and has grown internationally, with this year's theme 'Keys to the Future', celebrating the strength and knowledge of women and the role they play in shaping the future of the construction industry. Seminar topics include advice on getting into construction, breaking stereotypes, workplace safety, leadership in the industry and a call to action.
MGF is also sponsoring Women into Construction not-for-profit organisation that promotes gender equality in construction.
Here to tell us more is Victoria Badnell, technical sales, MGF.
“Women in Construction has always been around and ties into International Women's Day, which is on the last day of the week and we as a business celebrate it through lots of different channels, through social media and LinkedIn. It's about celebrating all the women within MGF and our different roles within the business. So, it's really important for us to share those journeys and most importantly to encourage more women to join this industry,” she said.
“We kick the week off with ‘Meet the women within MGF’, highlighting our roles within the business, where we started, how we carry out these roles, where we've come from and where we are now.
“Then on Wednesday, we have a joint event with the charity Women into Construction and on Thursday, it's World Book Day where we will be sharing the books we are currently reading. Some of us read regularly and some of us listen to audio books and we think it's important to share that as part of our well-being and our personal lives because that's as important as anything.
“And then we finish on Friday, which is International Women's Day with a podcast where three hosts will be talking about their personal journeys within MGF, and how as women we think about things differently to men and how that has its own benefits.
“I've got 3 nieces, and I would love for them to follow in my footsteps. My advice to others who want to join this industry is ; ‘Don't be afraid, just go for it’. Never be afraid to ask questions because we can never know everything and there's always somebody out there willing to share. And I think that's really important and working with associations like LEEA is key to that. There's always somebody there that can share something that you don't know.”
Badnell has worked in the lifting safety industry for 14 years and started in a sales admin role before progressing in her career.
“My journey started with MGF just over 12 months ago. I've worked with them for a long time but stepped into the role of working for them recently. MGF is a family-owned business within construction for many years and lifting came into that as a result of customer demand. And that's when our journey with LEEA started and it’s grown from strength to strength.”
“It's important that we share information through the likes of LEEA and events like Women in Construction and just generally communicating with our customers.
“It’s not the first time we’ve celebrated this event. I think it's important to talk about how women think, feel and look at things differently to men. So sharing those understandings, we talk about that in the podcast, things that affect us differently as women, our feelings, our thoughts, our hormones and the menopause. They're really important for the industry to understand as well.”
Women into Construction is a UK not-for-profit organisation, which MGF is looking to work closer with and encourage other women, and young girls from school to get into the industry.
Click HERE to watch the video on LEEA YouTube channel.
For more information about Women in Construction Week visit https://wicweek.org
And The National Association of Women in Construction here https://nawic.org
