Men and Women – Equal or Different?

The pipeline of major infrastructure projects which the UK Government wishes to deliver in the next decade requires 100,000 new entrants into this business. The global demand for experienced project delivery people is in the tens of millions between now and 2020. If we only recruit from our traditional sources we will fail to deliver these projects. We must try harder to recruit and retain female talent. Even without the skills shortages we should be trying harder to engage women in our companies.

The topic of gender balance in major projects is one which is exercising many of our leaders. This evening debate, chaired by Simon Kirby, aims to unpick an age old question – do we achieve equality by treating men and women the same, or differently. We will be discussing the relative values of positive discrimination vs. a meritocracy-based system.