An interview with Yvonne Pengilly, QBCC

EQUALITY IS EQUALITY

An interview with Yvonne Pengilly

Assistant Commissioner Technical, QBCC & NAWIC Member

As a child on a cattle and sheep property in Injune, Yvonne Pengilly didn’t do ‘girls’ work. It was just work, and everyone in her family did all the jobs that needed to be done, regardless of gender. “If dad was tinkering with the tractor, you were out there tinkering too,” she says. “You didn’t have someone else to do a job - you just did it.” Yvonne has spent about 33 years of her 40-plus-year construction industry career on work sites, but when she started in the 1980s, there were few women onsite. “Through the ‘80s I do not recall there being other females in onsite positions, other than in final cleans and administrative positions,” she says. After Year 12, Yvonne wasn’t sure what career path she would take. Later, when she married her first husband, who was in the building industry, she took on the roles that are especially important for a building business to succeed. “I did estimates, ordered materials, scheduled labour, managed payroll and office administration and I did labouring on weekends, even when I was pregnant in ‘83. “We think that there was a significant absence of women in the industry back then but there was a significant presence of women in family-owned businesses and they were influential on the industry. “They may not have been counted or measured but so many successful businesses were done while women balanced a home and children, and it was a role they did, not only because it was necessary but because they were invested in the industry.” Yvonne says that the late 1980s saw the arrival of women landscapers and women working as site clerks but that was usually at more progressive companies. In 1987, she took her first onsite job, as a business partner owning a subcontract business. When the need arose, she stepped into running the blockwork subcontract at a 15-storey high-rise development in Cairns. “That was probably the catalyst for me first being recognised. Business owners involved in trade contracting there recommended me to other significant builders as a result of my days on site and further work that I did.” She later took an administration role in a consultant arrangement at another construction project office in Cairns. “I realised people wanted to employ me but I didn’t want to be locked into the exact hours I had to work. They recognised that I needed to have responsibility for my children, so I worked in the capacity of consultant rather than employee. “I dropped my kids at school, went to the office, then picked them up after school, brought them back to the office, did some more work and then took them home later. This arrangement served well throughout the years whilst balancing being a mother, wife and progressing my career. “In the late ‘80s and beginning of the ‘90s, I did a Certificate in Building Construction at TAFE and a CAD (computer-aided design and drafting) course because I wanted work in high-rise construction and I knew that you needed to understand the principles of design as well as building.” Next came an engineering degree, from 1994 to 1999. “I went to QUT with my results from TAFE and I said I ‘want to do engineering’. They suggested I consider architecture but I wanted to be a project manager and I figured that if I had engineering and my CAD, I was well on my way.” Yvonne completed her engineering degree. “And I realised I still had a lot to learn but I also understood a lot about construction.” It was in the ‘90s that things started to change in regards to increased women’s participation in the industry, she says. “During the ‘90s, I worked on a project that had female representatives as the architect, quantity surveyor and myself as the acting project manager. “There were some forward-looking companies that often had a female director who was a wife or a partner, who was recognised as an equal, not in the background.” While progress was occurring in workplaces generally, significant challenges remained for women, including harassment. “Sadly, I don’t believe that behaviour, and a lack of action against bad behaviour, has changed very much in the industry.

“We think that there was a significant absence of women in the industry back then but there was a significant presence of women in family-owned businesses and they were influential on the industry.”

“I stood up and called it out when it was wrong. Probably to my own detriment at times but I had that resilience and that was built in by my family. Brought up on the land, resilience is something that is inherent,” she says. She adds that she has witnessed poor behaviour both onsite and in offices and it is not restricted to gender. “There will always be jerks on site acting in a bad way. I never took them as representative of the industry, or of males. They were representative of being brought up in a poor way and having no respect. “I also see some women whose behaviour is abominable, but they don’t see it. They need to consider that as much as men do.” Yvonne says boom times in the industry present opportunities for women and they need to grab them. “It’s a time when they can climb through the ranks, where they may have sat back previously but it’s a market-driven need. “I still get nervous when I walk into a room and don’t know anyone but it’s key to cross that line. By nature, I’m really shy and not confident but I make myself do that because I want to learn from those people and I don’t care if they don’t even remember my name.” Reflecting on her career and how things could be improved for women onsite now, Yvonne’s response is emphatic. “The most difficult thing in my career was the lack of toilet facilities for women,” she says. “For a multi-million-dollar job, it would only cost $7,800 per annum to cater for it. That’s nothing. “When I owned the business, we didn’t have that many women onsite because of the nature of the industry but we had female facilities equivalent to the men’s. “There should also be a breakout space if women don’t want to sit with men. There should be a quiet space and there should be a roughneck space,” she says. Yvonne says the industry has been slower than other industries in adopting flexible work arrangements for issues such as male responsibility for family commitments. Family is the most important thing in Yvonne’s life. She makes no apologies for pausing this interview to take a phone call from her daughter and later mentions that she is happy to structure the work of one of her team around his family’s medical and schooling commitments. “The thing I’m most proud of is being a mum and watching my girls grow up with the same qualities that I have - equality is equality. “To be a wife and a mum and to be a family member, there’s no doubt, they’re my proudest moments. Your career is not going to be written on your tombstone.” Yvonne says her career highlights include establishing Women in Construction Far North Queensland, which promotes engagement of engineers, architects and builders through educational events. She is also proud of her work with Queensland’s Safer Buildings Taskforce, as QBCC representative on the Building Regulators’ Forum, chairing other QBCC subcommittees and as a member of the QBCC Reconciliation Action Plan Committee. She enjoys her role as Board Member on the Board of Professional Engineers Queensland as the Building and Construction representative. “As a ministerial appointment, it’s a real sign of support for women.” What advice would she offer today to the young version of Yvonne Pengilly about to embark on her career? “Love what you’re doing. If you love something, you’ll succeed. It doesn’t matter what you haven’t succeeded at before. “And for mums and dads, if you’re playing with Lego, explain to your kids how it works, why something stays upright. Let them see the joy of starting something and finishing it. “That’s what you do in building. You start with a piece of paper and you end up with something that’ll be around for a hundred years or more. Something tangible. You’re just one cog in making that happen but you’re an important cog.”