The 12^th National Association for Women in Construction (NAWIC) International Women’s Day (IWD) Scholarship is now open, with the $20,000 prize to be awarded to any eligible female member to develop and/or carry out research to challenge or change current industry thinking.

NAWIC national chair Kristine Scheul says the association is very pleased to announce the launch of the 12^th IWD Scholarship.

“The now embedded tradition of offering a scholarship to a woman in the construction industry is one of which we are very proud to deliver each year,” she says.

The invitation to apply for the scholarship is extended to include all aspects of the construction process from improvements in construction methodology to the exploration of policy issues such as the participation of women in the construction industry.

“We approached the scholarship a little differently this year,” Kristine adds.

“We hope we can extend the reach of the scholarship to include the full range of diversity of our membership and ensure that it remains a vehicle for individual development as well as one for improvement of the construction industry as a whole.”

The theme of IWD this year is #ChooseToChallenge. It’s a call to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality.

As a reflection of this theme, the NAWIC 2020 Policies are to be utilised to guide any application, with the topics as follows;

• Increase women in leadership positions
• Focus on education
• Put gender on the tender (to advocate for minimum of 30% female participation in all construction projects)
• Reduce the gender pay gap
• Increase retention
• Champion positive change

Scholarship applications close Friday February 19. Please visit this link for more information and the application form.