Perry salutes Crossrail for developing female engineers

Crossrail has been hailed by Rail Minister Claire Perry for its role in attracting more women into engineering, and she has urged the UK infrastructure industry to follow suit on future transport projects.

Speaking at a ‘Women Delivering Crossrail’ event at the House of Commons on January 19, Perry highlighted how almost a third of the project’s workforce is female (compared with 11% of employees across the construction industry, including office-based roles), and that 6% are engineers.

“Crossrail has led the way in getting more women involved in building vital infrastructure, boosting female representation in the construction workforce, and creating role models to inspire the next generation of engineers and construction workers,” she said. 

“With our investment projects like HS2, opportunities in construction for women will continue to grow, and I hope these build on Crossrail’s best practice.”

• For more on this, read RAIL 793, published on February 3.