The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) announces the launch of the 12th NAWIC International Women’s Day (IWD) Scholarship designed to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of women in the construction industry.
Open to all members of NAWIC, the 2021 scholarship with a $20,000 prize will be awarded to any eligible female member to develop and/or carry out research to challenge or change current industry thinking. The scholarship is extended to include all aspects of the construction process from improvements in construction methodology to the exploration of policy issues such as the participation of women in the construction industry.
“The now embedded tradition of offering a scholarship to a woman in the construction industry is one of which we are very proud to deliver each year,” NAWIC’s national chair, Kristine Scheul said.
“We approached the scholarship a little differently this year. We hope we can extend the reach of the scholarship to include the full range of diversity of our membership and ensure that it remains a vehicle for individual development as well as one for improvement of the construction industry as a whole,” Scheul added.
The International Women's Day 2021 campaign theme of #ChooseToChallenge is a call to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality.
Wholly embracing this theme, the NAWIC 2020 Policies are to be utilised to guide any application, with the topics including increasing women in leadership positions; education; advocacy for a minimum of 30% female participation in all construction projects; reducing gender pay gap; higher retention; and championing positive change.
“Collectively we can challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, celebrate women's achievements and improve the situation for women in the industry. A challenged world is an alert world. From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge,” Scheul explained.
“We have been consistently astounded by the calibre of the innovative ideas and critical thinking that this scholarship inspires in our members and we hope that this year’s recipient will follow the successes of previous winners.”
Scholarship applications close Friday February 19.
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