ABOUT BOSS LADIES
Currently women only make 9 % of the Danish building and construction industry. The Boss Ladies project aims to motivate more young women to enter – and to develop their talent – within the building and construction industry.
By motivating more young women to enter the industry we aim to reduce the shortage of labour within the industry and thus create the best conditions of Danish growth: In just ten years Denmark will be in a lack of 17.000 skilled builders and craftsmen in the Danish building and construction industry. And by now a whole of 65 % of the industry’s businesses express that they have experienced a considerable lack of skilled labour within the recent year.
We know that one of the principal reasons behind young women not entering the building and construction industry is old conceived ideas of what ‘true’ work for (wo)men is. Women are not seen as ‘natural’ builders and craftsmen whereas men are.
The Boss Ladies project aims to break down prejudices and to expand the idea of what ‘true’ (wo)man work is, in order to foster the motivation of young women to develop their talent within the male-dominated building and construction industry.
ACTIVITIES
The project includes six different activities
Boss Ladies Ambassadors
Boss Ladies Ambassadors is an activity that consist in a corps of more than 300 young female builders and craftsmen that function as role models. They visit elementary schools, vocational schools, and other educational actors where they through their own stories give small presentations about the many joys and possibilities of being a woman in the building and construction industry. The presentations are accompanied by different exercises carried out by project-coordinators from Divérs.
Learning Labs
Through intense strategic workshops aimed at the vocational schools and the communal educational counsellors (in Danish “UU-centres”), we work on attracting and retaining more young women to the vocational school’s building and construction courses. We present the teachers and educational counsellors with the newest knowledge within the field and personal stories from our Boss Ladies Ambassadors, as well as guide them in making their own personalised strategies and plans of actions for their specific practices.
Boss Ladies Talent Development
The aim of this activity is two-folded: Developing good communication skills and evolving as young women in a male-dominated field of work. Through one annual introduction camp and three individual workshops we train our ambassadors in becoming (further) good communicators. We furthermore offer all our Boss Ladies Ambassadors a mentor who can guide and help with career choices, entrepreneurship, and how to handle being the only woman in a space dominated by men.
Girl Boss Garage
Girl Boss Garage is an offer presented to the oldest girls and non-binary students in elementary school. Our analysis shows that 90 % of the women who work in the Danish building and construction industry have either a dad or a grandad within the industry. Through this activity we give girls, who do not have a familial relation to the industry, a chance to try building and craftsmanship out for themselves. In groups of 10-20, girls participate in “building camps” where they learn disciplines within carpentry e.g., by building a smaller piece of furniture. Each workshop is facilitated by ambassadors in the corps.
1:1 Apprenticeship match
With this activity we guide and intensify the normal recruitment procedure, in which vocational students are obliged to find an apprenticeship in sectorial enterprises. Particularly women are challenged in finding an apprenticeship but offering personal assistance and facilitating peer-to-peer support through the Ambassador network, we offer “1:1 apprenticeship match” in collaboration with a range of enterprises.
A New Narrative
Through intensive media-coverage in national, regional, and local press we create a new narrative. We give a new voice to the women in the Danish building a construction industry and we give a new and more prestigious image of being a skilled builder and craftsman. Additionally, Boss Ladies is supported by a social media strategy particularly targeting Instagram and a younger audience, in which our ambassadors are the centre for personalised stories about their lives as craftswomen.
A BROAD COLLABORATION