The first female president of the Hamilton-Halton Construction Association (HHCA) wants to use her platform over the next two years to promote the role of women in construction, but beyond that, Kim McCarthy hopes to break down barriers throughout the sector and work collaboratively with others to bring change.
McCarthy, vice-president of construction with Ira McDonald Construction and a 20-year veteran of the industry, was elected at the HHCA’s annual general meeting held late last month.
“I don’t want it to be the main platform by any means because women in construction is only one of many obstacles in the industry,” said McCarthy in a recent interview.
“It is going to be a combination of advocacy and education to the younger generation out there but also being an advocate for getting others to generally accept change, whether it’s women in construction or new Canadians in construction or young people in construction.”
“In general I want to focus on how we are going to bring innovation into construction. There are so many ways the construction industry can be changing.”
McCarthy comes from a construction family, with her father working as a construction estimator, and after considering a career in architecture she decided she wanted to be more immersed in the trenches of the industry, she said.
“I wanted to be in the nuts and bolts of building and constructing,” said McCarthy. “Not doing the conceptual or design component.”
She took architectural technology at Hamilton’s Mohawk College and joined Ira McDonald right out of college, starting as a junior estimator and rising through the firm with only a brief hiatus spent in heavy manufacturing, finally reaching VP.
A few years ago she turned her attention to association work, getting involved with the HHCA where she was a founding member of the association’s Young Leaders Group, chaired the Industry Practices Committee and helped build the Women in Construction Group.
Becoming president, she said, was the “next step, to get involved at a high level and facilitate potential change.
“Not only is it rewarding for myself, I am a type of person who always wants to push ahead, where am I going to take my next step, helping others to succeed, that’s where I am looking to help as well.”
Success will come as progressive thinkers and young people break long-maintained barriers, McCarthy said.
“In general construction is a close-knit community, not only in the sector itself but each company is tight knit,” she said. “Whether you call that the old boys club or that type of thinking, it is really difficult to break people out of a mould. Trying to bring young people into the industry, to get their feet wet and having employers embrace that, and for that matter getting women into the industry, it is becoming more and more acceptable for sure but it is still slow moving. It has a ways to go.”
It’s an exciting time to be in the construction sector in Hamilton, said McCarthy, with strong building permit statistics, growing interest from Toronto developers and the $1-billion LRT set to begin construction.
“Hamilton has huge growth potential,” she said.
“Hamilton is definitely on the rise and we are seeing that with the amount of construction. If Toronto was the major spot for tower cranes before, now you look around Hamilton and you see those tower cranes as well.”
Priorities for the HHCA president in her two-year term will be to focus on membership engagement, on young construction employees and on creating alliances with community organizations, said McCarthy.
She is also looking ahead two years to 2020, when the HHCA celebrates its 100th anniversary. The association is planning a legacy build project with Habitat for Humanity to mark the occasion.
“So I have two years to prepare for that and promote the HHCA, and promoting the industry in general, it is going to be fun,” said McCarthy.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed