Rebecca De Cicco, Founder and Global Chair of Women in BIM (WIB) reflects on a decade of action to improve diversity and inclusion in the construction industry.

As WIB enters its tenth year, I felt it was appropriate to reflect on the importance of the initiative and how far we have come in 10 years. I have to say that when WIB first began, I would never have imagined it would become a global initiative supported by incredibly passionate and like-minded people with such a drive for change.

A decade on and we have almost 2,000 Members, supported by 60 Regional Leads in 50 countries working in building information modelling (BIM) related roles.

Where it all began

When I started WIB, I was living and working in the UK, a region with a strong and active BIM community. Being in the UK in 2012 was a huge part of my career timeline, but also an important and fundamental time for WIB: this was particularly important because of the publication of the Government Construction Strategy in 2011 and the subsequent explosion of BIM-related events meant that we could drive and promote differing solutions to enable the digital reality the government required.

One key factor that was often neglected in the uptake of BIM in the UK, and indeed globally, was the lack of people we had in the industry to deliver these requirements. The lack of resources, in terms of diversity, was a huge driver in why WIB came into being and why it has become what it is today.

It has also become one of our core drivers, to learn from and educate each other and promote people from those who are generally under-represented, especially when considering a career in this space.

Through the years of being a part of this community, I am still confronted with questions, such as: Why is this important? Why do we need to have a group like this? What benefit does this provide to the industry? Looking at our growth, from being represented in one country to more than 50 today, my response is often simple: the community supports each other, learns from each other, collaborates and works together to help each other strive for the best.

We are learning every day

We are all learning every day what the changes in digital – not just on a technological front, but also in terms of process – will achieve, and having a support channel to enable this is crucial to us. The other very important consideration is that collectively we come together to support and learn from each other across multiple jurisdictions, which is crucial for the community as it allows us to grow and educate regardless of where in the world we reside.

As a community, we can also look at the wider social and economic issues, having become a group of not only women in BIM related roles, but wider digital roles, processes and ideologies.

The United Nations Sustainability Goals highlight gender equality, stating: “Women have played a critical role in the response to the pandemic as front-line health workers, care givers, and managers and leaders of the response and recovery efforts. However, they remain under-represented in critical leadership positions, and their rights and priorities are often not explicitly addressed in those efforts. The crisis presents an opportunity to reshape and rebuild systems, laws, policies and institutions in order to advance gender equality.”

To us, this means we are definitely working harder to support a greater and wider global dilemma, while also addressing critical issues in leadership among women.

Looking ahead

Sometimes I wonder if we didn’t join together, as women, would it really matter? For me the answer is yes, I am always going to be passionate about helping to support growth in our industry, in this space in particular because not only will we be able to celebrate in some time the equal representation of women across digital roles in the built environment, but we’ll also be able to work more collaboratively and bring in support from our industry across all genders, all backgrounds and all cultures to celebrate diversity and sustain the growth we will need across the construction industry.

As I look ahead, I can see more change, opportunity for enormous growth and support for our industry. Construction as we know it has fundamentally changed and will continue to do so. We need strong and diverse participants to support this growth. WIB will continue as we have in the past, to act as a key player, enabling an industry shift to occur. As a global community, we come together to ultimately drive positive change for a better industry, a better society and a better planet.

To everyone who has supported us along the way, from the very first Members to all our Sponsors, Partners and Core Team Members, you are an inspiration and are to be applauded for your contributio