'Going on TV inspired me to help other women in construction'

Before Michaela Wain entered as a contestant on BBC reality show The Apprentice, she never considered herself to be a "woman in construction".

Michaela, from Bolton, had been the owner of a construction magazine since she was 25, but before appearing on the 2017 series of the show, aged 33, she hadn't considered herself a rare figure in the industry.

"I fell into construction after dropping out of university," she said. "It wasn't a lifelong ambition.

"But I had grown up familiar with the industry, and when I was there I didn't think of myself as a 'woman in construction'.

"It was only off the back of The Apprentice when people started telling me that is what I was.

"I realised I didn't actually know of many other women who do this."

As of 2026, there are 311,140 women, working in the construction industry in the UK, according to the most recent data from the Office of National Statistics.

And with more than 1.7 million men in the industry, women make up just over 15% of the workforce - which drops to between 1% and 2% for practical roles, according to the Construction Industry Training Board.

"After I was on The Apprentice I received tens of thousands of messages," Michaela said. "Some were just goodwill support, but I had loads mixed in there from women in construction.

"They were telling me their problems and the issues that they faced in the industry - from unconscious bias all the way through to sexual assault.

"Women have told me they have lost their jobs after reporting things like this.

"I didn't really know these women either - but they had seen another woman in construction on TV and felt like they could be open and reach out.

"People think this is something of the past - or just don't believe it if it hasn't happened to them.

"They opened my eyes to it."

Since then, Michaela, now 42, has founded an annual awards ceremony and network specifically to celebrate women in the industry.

Ahead of the launch of her North West Women in Construction Hub later this month Michaela opened up about her experience in the industry and the women she has met throughout her bid to make change.

Michaela said after listening to the experiences of other women in the industry, she began to notice instances in her career where she had been treated differently as a woman.

"It wasn't even a matter of looking back in my career, honestly, it was still happening," Michaela explained. "I went to a networking event, within the last two years where one man walked past me and said 'look at the ass on her'.

"I was like, 'Are you serious? I'm the managing director of a company.

"At the same event another man turned to me and made a comment about me wearing white, basically asking me if I was a virgin.

"It just made me feel so uncomfortable, like my skin was crawling."

Michaela said she then left the event.

Michaela recounted several other times in recent years she said she had experienced comments like this - some of which she said have caused financial loss.

"It's frustrating because it puts you on the back foot," she said.

"I have literally lost contracts because of the way I've been spoken to and my reaction to it.

"But I am able to completely disconnect from it and I have the power to do that because it's my own business.

"Other women do not have the luxury of that."

Michaela said she felt a responsibility to try and help the women who had reached out to her - and decided to begin monthly awards for women in construction, featuring in her magazine, Design and Build.

In 2021, Michaela expanded the awards beyond the magazine and created an annual event celebrating women across the UK within the construction industry.

"Women are just diluted in the industry," she explained. "So the chance of seeing a woman win an award is going to be slim because there's just not that many.

"And without shining a spotlight on these women, nobody else is ever going to be able to be inspired by them because they don't know about them."

Michaela also founded a free online hub in 2023, Women in Construction - hosting events across the country for women in the industry to connect and launching a Whatsapp channel.

"Some women who working on site in the industry can go two months without ever seeing another woman at her workplace," Michaela said.

"In the WhatsApp group we will talk about everything from menopause and HRT, to having children, jobs and networking opportunities.

"Women do want to build these connections and these friendships with other women in their industry."

Paula Chandler, 52, originally from Ashington in Northumberland, is a national design director for a construction firm - and is now a judge at the Women in Construction awards after winning the lifetime achievement award in 2023.

"From my personal experience growing up in the north east of England, I would say it was actively discouraged to for women to get into the construction and engineering industry," Paula said.

"When I was doing my work experience I was shipped off to a council office to answer the phones, despite me asking for an opportunity to go and get involved.

"In my first job interview, it was an all-male panel, and they had me running round the room asking design and technical questions, which I loved.

"And at the very and of the interview one of the panellists asked me if I could make a decent cup of tea.

"My whole world came crashing down.

"Because it hit me that in that one moment, with that one statement - they weren't taking me seriously."

Paula said she questioned the interviewer, and asked if he had asked the other candidates, who were all male, the same question.

She got the job - and said she "set about changing those perceptions from the inside out".

Both Michaela and Paula said efforts to aid women in construction were not attempts to "male bash" - with both women saying the majority of men in the industry do not behave inappropriately and a lot are active allies to their female-counterparts.

Both women also said they had noticed improvements in the industry - both as a direct result of networks and awards focusing on women - but also due to general societal shifts.

Isobel Gutteridge, 23, from Walsall, is a fourth year student completing a chartered surveying apprenticeship.

Despite entering construction in an era where women's networks and awards have been established - Isobel said the experience of working in the construction industry is still gendered.

"A lot of women I know are reluctant to go and do things that they enjoy, something simple as getting your nails done or your hair done because they know when they go to work next day it will be a joke," she said of women working on construction sites.

"They don't want to be told 'you're too pretty to be working on the construction site'.

"I do think that the casual flirty jokes are very still much a thing."

"I do think that when I go to site I'm very I am very conscious that I am a female," she added. "I'm lucky that I'm confident enough to say stuff, but not everybody is."

As gender inequality persists in the industry, Michaela is now lobbying for government level change in the industry with an equality accreditation she hopes to see enforced across the construction industry.

She is also launching her first in-person branch of the Women in Construction Hub in the North West later this month, with plans for more to follow across the UK.

The North West launch event will take place at Manchester Hall from 13:00 to 18:00 on 18 June, and admission is free.

Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.