Women in Transport is part of the Advisory Group for the Gender Balance Action Research Project led by Emily Miles entitled "Beyond Gender Balance: An exploration of gender in UK Major Projects using Action Research”. Emily’s ambition is to create a lasting legacy of collaboration to support diversity and inclusion in major projects.
Emily’s three year PhD research project examines the impact of gender balance initiatives and inquires into broader themes of social inequality using action research. As part of the project, Emily has established RECONSTRUCT; bringing together a community of research-practitioners to collaborate with the aim of transforming issues of gender equality, leadership and culture.
Emily states:
"The RECONSTRUCT project invites us all to question our default way of doing things, and to redesign a system where everyone can thrive."
Research plays a crucial role in helping us to better understand and shape our environment. RECONSTRUCT offers organisations and researchers the space to discuss research findings in relevant and meaningful ways – and to participate as partners in implementing the findings.
RECONSTRUCT has three strands:
• Community
• Research
• Creativity
The aim is to grow a network of amazing people who are passionate about making change. The website for the RECONSTRUCT includes a ‘Bank of Good Ideas’; a place to bring together interesting and brilliant strategies that are already out there and to see how they might work in major projects.
Community events will include a series of webinars and you can read the audience contributions from their last panel event “Building Equality: are megaprojects creative a better world?” here.
How you can get involved:
Ask your organisation to champion the initiative. This means agreeing to the ethos of the project, embracing any research findings, and supporting staff to work with RECONSTRUCT on the Community of Practice.
Spread the word and encourage your networks to sign up to attend events or join the Community of Practice.
Share your EDI stories on the Bank of Good Ideas (either proudly or anonymously).
Commission research topics that you would like to see, or connect other researchers who would like to participate in the Research into Action seminar series.
Find out more and get involved: https://www.re-construct.net/get-involved.html
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