When Joanne Farrell began her construction career in 1996, she was always the only woman on the site. Sites which never had toilets for women but had ample sexual harassment and misogyny.
While all her friends went to study at universities, the Wollongong-raised ACT Australian of the Year was knocking on doors of construction companies and builders asking for apprenticeships.
"All of them would say that they don't employ women or that they don't want girls on site, that girls are a distraction, or they can't do the work or they're not strong enough," Ms Farrell said.
She believed she contacted more than 150 companies and was rejected by all of them but one.
That employer told her she could work for him for free to prove herself. It was only three months later that she was put on as an apprentice and paid for it.
"I just really loved the work and being able to build things ... so I just blocked out the behaviors and just kept going knowing that it was the only way I was gonna learn," Ms Farrell said.
Almost 30 years later, not much has changed.
Ms Farrell said young women participating in her not-for-profit program Build Like A Girl faced the same comments today. She said they would apply for apprenticeships but never get a call back or an interview.
"There's still a stigma or stereotype that employers have where they don't even look at a female candidate," Ms Farrell said.
"They just think 'oh I will have to have a female toilet on site' or 'I have to make some concession'.
She found these attitudes "incredibly frustrating" because she heard employers consistently complaining about skills shortages and lack of apprentices.
"Here are all these women putting their names forward and applying for jobs and you're not even interviewing them. You're not even giving them a go," Ms Farrell said.
She also said it was very difficult for gender-diverse and trans people to have a voice in the construction industry. She said those whom she knew preferred to remain invisible to maintain a level of safety and support in the workplace.
"If it's hard enough for women to gain a foothold, for people who are more diverse on the gender spectrum it would be absolutely frightening to step out and start having those conversations," she said.
As general manager at Kane Constructions, she said the company's ACT branch had achieved a unique gender parity in the male-dominated industry, with half of their 30 employees being women.
At the helm of the team, Ms Farrell is joined by operations manager Philippa Seldon.
"We don't just have women in administration roles like many other companies do, on the ground we have engineers, site supervisors and safety managers," Ms Farrell said.
"There's no other company in Canberra, and I don't think there's too many companies in Australia, where that's the case."
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