For this year’s International Women’s Day, the team here at Colas Rail Ltd. wanted to celebrate the hard working women that keep the cogs turning day by day. This year’s theme was “Balance for Better”, so we asked four Colas Rail gentlemen to tell us why it is important to strive for Gender Balance in the workplace. See what they said below:

“Meeting the demands of a challenging industry is tough, and we are only able to achieve this by recruiting the best possible team with a diverse range of thoughts and approaches to tackle problems.  The thought of ruling out up to 50% of the potential pool of talent is something I cannot begin to understand. The diversity in our team is something we are working hard to improve, and the strength that we have gained through our female engineers is proving invaluable on our journey to our success, as well as continually driving innovation and change in the ways we work.”- Gavin Jones, Head of Signalling-Infrastructure

“It is really important for us to support initiatives like International Women’s Day here at the Midland Metro Alliance. Whilst the Midland Metro Alliance is better than most with approximately 21% of roles staffed by women, at present, women represent just over 13 per cent of the total workforce in the construction industry. We’re proud to be highlighting the inclusive nature of our business, and the successes that our female staff members have had at all levels, in order that other women see construction as a career path open to them in the West Midlands.”- Alejandro Moreno, Alliance Director (Midland Metro Alliance)

“I’m a strong supporter of Gender balance and believe that everyone can make a difference, it’s the small actions, words that are spoken and the diverse and inclusive behaviours every day that make us stronger together, irrespective of gender. Gender balance is such an important issue, it’s a must have for people in their daily lives and can have so many positive effects in the world of business. I am an advocate for creating a balanced world for everyone.” -Peter Graveling, Plant Director 

“Gender balance will always, always be important to me. In order for us to ensure we are hiring the best people in the industry on an ongoing basis we must continue to support underrepresented groups and balance the scales. The diversity of experience and viewpoint that this provides will only benefit our projects and our organisation, taking our industry in exciting new directions.”- David McCann, Project Manager