Sophie Conlon
After 25 years in the construction industry, a life-changing event led Lisa Anderson to a position that helps her empower women.
Ms Anderson grew up in a farming family and always knew she did not want a desk job.
“I grew up milking cows and putting up fences, it’s in your blood,“ she said.
“Once you start doing that sort of stuff, you don’t want to be sitting behind a desk.“
Instead, she found herself on the tools installing events and exhibitions like Formula 1 and climbed her way to supervising roles in the industry.
When she first started out there were not a lot of women in the industry and she said there would be comments thrown around, but stereotypes were “slowly getting deleted out of the construction industry“.
“With the 25-odd years that I’ve worked in construction, I’ve got a pretty tough skin so a lot of that sort of stuff just flies over my head now, just goes in one ear and out the other,“ she said.
“It happens in every worksite, I think it’s how you approach it, whether you want to be that level or just work better.“
At the top of her game, Ms Anderson had a stroke which she said left her feeling like she would never work full time again.
This is when she found WomenCAN, a charity that helps women get into – or in Ms Anderson’s case, back into – the workforce.
“I can’t even tell you how much they helped me in getting back into it, I don’t think I could have done it without them,“ she said.
“I had to learn to do a lot of things again, I had a bleed on my brain so all of a sudden I had to deal with these horrendous panic attacks that would just come on, and they were there just making sure that I was literally okay.“
Leaving a busy life in Melbourne, Ms Anderson decided to move to Mount Gambier/ Berrin and was honoured to be able to bring the WomenCAN brand to the city about six months ago.
She now works as a handy woman and helps empower women to follow their ambitions.
“I basically went from working on a construction site to standing up at the local RSL, to the Lions Club, to going into schools to doing the women in work expos and conferences, and it’s been different, but I love it,“ she said.
“I am not qualified in any trade, but I know how it all works, so for me being a handy woman is perfect because I can go into people’s houses and I can do things that normal people don’t really know how to do, because they’ve never had the experience.
“If I can go out and help and help the old lady down the road whose husband’s passed away and the kids have moved, if I can go and help her with gardening or cleaning or put in a light bulb or fix something in her house that’s been broken I’ll do it; I’ve got all the tools, I’ve got the means and I’ve got the know-how to do it.“
When it came to the future of women in construction Ms Anderson said it was bright.
“There are companies out there at the moment who are actually looking for women, especially in electrics and plumbing,“ she said.
“Because we’ve got an eye for detail and we’ve got little hands.
“So if you ever go past a switchboard or electrical box, and you actually look at it, people want girls to be doing that because they can do it because we’ve got little hands.“
She also said being told a job “was too heavy for you is a ridiculous statement“.
“There’s laws in saying that you can’t pick up certain weights, if you’re going to work for someone who’s following the right codes of occupational health and safety there is actually no barrier anymore,“ she said.
“We’re not expected to go out and throw a fence over our shoulders and walk halfway up the paddock, it just doesn’t work like that anymore.“
Ms Anderson encouraged young women to pursue apprenticeships and said it was something she wished she had done.
“If you are really interested in working in construction, the first thing that you need is your licence and you go and get your white card,“ she said.
“If you’ve got your industry white cards, red cards and your machinery tickets the sky’s the limit.“
