Over 100 people attended the launch of the West Midlands Women's Alliance (WMWA) on 6 March, which was timed to celebrate International Women's Day and its 2020 theme: #eachforequal

The event, hosted by WSP at its headquarters in the centre of Birmingham, certainly achieved its objectives by providing lots of inspiration and encouragement to women in the transport, construction and civil engineering sectors.

In her welcome, WMWA Chair, Terri Seel, a Project Manager with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, explained that the Alliance had been formed to support the development and progression of women in a traditionally male dominated sector. Founding members include Women into Construction, HS2, CECA, BMV (BAM Nuttall, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, VolkerFitzpatrick JV), ICE, CITB, MMA, Women In Rail, WISE and, of course, Women in Transport.

In the impressive line up of speakers were Laura Shoaf, Managing Director of Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), Anne Shaw, TfWM Director of Network Resilience and, our very own Women in Transport Patron, Rachel Skinner, WSP UK Head of Transport and Senior Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

They each shared their success stories and experiences of dealing with challenges and seizing opportunities.

Photography courtesy of Morgan Sindall Infrastructure

Laura, whose current role includes overseeing the Midland Metro expansion which will triple the size of the existing network and provide a new and improved service to around 30 million passengers, offered the following advice.

Be pro-active and remember the Will Rogers quote– “Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.”
Surround yourself with people who are different but better than you. Don't think you have all the answers. Build teams that are a balance of people with different skills.
Trust your instincts. If you have a powerful feeling about something, explore it.
It's hard. If you are going to break the glass ceiling, expect to get cut. Build a network, join groups that will support you and bounce ideas off other people.
Be authentic. Do the job your way, don't follow the person who did the job before you. Don't try to be somebody else.
Bring passion to what you do and follow through on what you say you will do.

Anne Shaw has had many roles in the public sector, devising complex policies and projects relating to sustainable transport, including working on delivering an integrated, sustainable, transport solution for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. She had a very inspirational story to tell.

Although admitting that she hadn't always done well at school, she was inspired by her mother who became a police sergeant at a time when it was very unusual to see women taking on such roles. Although her Mum was required to leave the force to bring up her five children, in line with the policy back then, she passed on her determination and ambition to Anne.

Anne shared the challenges she herself had overcome and how, after getting a degree in Environmental Studies, she has progressed through a very successful career in the public sector. She attributes not being fazed by working in a male dominated environment to growing up with three brothers, and quoted daunting examples - such as walking into an awards dinner in the early nineties. She described it as akin to 'walking into a Wild West Saloon.' There was hardly another woman in the room and all heads turned.

Anne had nothing but praise for her male bosses who, she said, had been great role models and had given her the scope to progress and develop. She added that, by studying a technical course, she felt she had won the respect of all her colleagues – including the technical staff and the engineers.

Top tips from Anne included:

Learn from experience and see every challenge as a learning opportunity.
If something isn't quite right, make it work.
Build your networks.
When it comes to family and work commitments, do what you feel is right for you.

The final speaker, Women in Transport Past President and Patron, Rachel Skinner, told us how her career had progressed over 22 years with the same company, which had gone through a series of acquisitions. She is a Director and Head of the UK Transport division at WSP, leading a team of over 600 people and much of her focus is on future mobility and what's possible in automative connectivity.

Rachel is, indeed, a very inspirational woman. She was recently invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and has been awarded many industry accolades, including being named by the Financial Times as one of the UK's top 100 Women in Engineering. She is currently Senior Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and will become its President towards the end of this year.

Rachel also had plenty of invaluable advice, such as:

Get involved – sometimes you have no idea where things can lead. Get involved and you will find there are endless possibilities.
Don't be afraid to be different – she says she never felt the need to follow the crowd.
Take opportunities but also make sure you create opportunities for others.
Be socially aware in teams and meetings and consider carefully what you can do to be useful. It is important to contribute value – don't just make a noise.
Be positive and be kind.
Believe in your ideas and have the enthusiasm and passion to make them work. If you don't, how can you expect others to support you?
Try not to worry about all the things that might happen; save your brainpower to figure out solutions and find opportunities in the things that do happen. Worrying about things won’t fix them.

Rachel also talked about the value of networks and her involvement in setting up Women in Transport, fifteen years ago and becoming its President.

A very interesting Q & A session followed covering a a variety of issues that included: addressing bias and stereotypes, managing parenting and a career, the impact of maternity leave on career progression, women's networks, flexible working and quotas for women.

The final question was ‘How can more young women be encouraged into the transport and construction sectors?’ The consensus from the panel of speakers was that we need to stop thinking about nuts, bolts, tracks and chassis and highlight how transport affects lives and the economy and how a career in transport is working for the good of us all and for the environment.

The lively discussion was followed by networking and refreshments with the opportunity for attendees to get to chat to the speakers and members of the WMWA.

Our congratulations to the WMWA for hosting such a successful event and we look forward to more in the future. To follow the WMWA on LinkedIn click here

Members of Women in Transport will be kept informed of WMWA news and activities and will receive invitations to their future events.

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