WATCH NOW: Fearless Conversations – Amazing South Australian women discuss breaking the bias and pushing boundaries

Join a panel of fearless women as they discuss the importance of pushing boundaries, encouraging more female students to take up STEM subjects, and the pressures women face in trying to have it all.

Education is key to driving change in perceptions and shifting the gender balance in the building and construction industry, South Australia’s first female building inspector says.

Litsa Adamou, co-owner of House Inspect Australia Western Adelaide franchise and general manager of House Inspect Australia, said more needs to be done to encourage women to join a workforce which even today remains at around 90 per cent male.

“It is absolutely very heavily male dominated. I think we’re about a 10 to 12 per cent female workforce, with only two to three per cent on the tools,” she said.

Getting women to stay in the industry is also a challenge. “It’s still a man’s world,” Ms Adamou said. “Women just don’t have the appropriate support network and they have to work harder than a male to prove themselves and earn respect in the industry. That can be disheartening.”

Ms Adamou is calling on support from the education sector to attract more female employees into careers in building and construction.

Building inspector Litsa AdamouI is co-owner of House Inspect Australia Western Adelaide franchise and general manager of House Inspect Australia. Picture: Russell Millard

“Change is never going to happen overnight, but I think it needs to start from an education sector to shift the status quo,” she said.

“It’s the next generation that is going to make the change. We’re there to educate that next generation to create change and show that it is possible to have a successful career as a female in building and construction.”

Breaking the traditional gender bias is the subject of this week’s The Advertiser and Flinders University Fearless Conversation forum, which brings together leading South Australian voices in roundtable discussions about the big issues facing our state.

On Wednesday, Ms Adamou is joined by Melinda Parent, creative director and founder of the all-female led advertising agency Oranje Creative, and Flinders University Professor Maria Parappilly OAM, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics. Hosted by The Advertiser senior journalist Rebecca Whitfield-Baker, the panel will discuss challenges such as pushing boundaries, encouraging more female students to take up STEM subjects, and the pressures women face in trying to have it all.

Watch the conversation now: adelaidenow.com.au/fearless-conversations. Register for Fearless Conversations at flinders.edu.au/fearless/conversations