Every year, people around the world come together on March 8 to celebrate International Women's Day (IWD). 

The theme of this year's IWD is #BalanceforBetter, and businesses and communities around the world – including IPWEA – are taking a stand to see gender-balanced boardrooms,  government, employees, wealth, sports coverage – the list goes on! Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive.

We asked the women of IPWEA why gender balance in the industry is important to them. 

Rita Excel, IPWEA's Vice President and Executive Director of the Australian and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle initiative, says: 

"This year the focus of International Women’s Day recognises that we have come a long way in understanding that different genders bring diverse views and opinions, to the board table, to the running of government and to how we solve problems," she says. 

"As a female engineer with more than 25 years experience, I have seen how the faces of engineers have changed and this is reflected in meetings and boardrooms. Our Board of Directors of IPWEA, while not yet at 50% representation of men and women, is getting there, not by quotas, but because our member divisions are also electing a balanced leadership group for their boards, to feed into our Australasian Board.

"For women, it is important to have visible female role models to promote engineering as a profession to women and while we have been working toward this for many years, there is still much to be done. There is no better evidence of this than the female influencers of today and the past and the impact they have on influencing behaviour and attitudes. Whether it is Kim Kardashian or back in my era Madonna, women look to other women as role models and this occurs at a very young age.

"This year our international public works conference will strive to have diversity and gender balance in the presentations on the program. I ask you to do your part by either nominating yourself to attend or support the participation of people in your organisation who may not have previously had the chance to attend an international conference." 

Seren McKenzie, IPWEA Queensland President and Manager Infrastructure Planning and Design at Lockyer Valley Regional Council, says: 

"Working in the public works industry, we all know there is a long way to go for gender balance in our work life. We can all help lead the way; women can put their hand up for positions that are not traditionally held by females and men can show their support.

"We already see it in action in our IPWEA family – there are more women on the IPWEA board than ever before, and in Queensland we have jumped from one to three female board members. We all have a role to play in gender balance, and it is so pleasing to belong to organisations that lead and support this." 

IPWEA NZ President and General Manager, Corporate Services at Greater Wellington Regional Council says she is an advocate of gender balance in general, and in the infrastructure sector in particular.

"In my role as President of IPWEA NZ, I come into contact with many women in all sorts of roles – but we’re still not generally as widely represented as men. It’s really important that women are encouraged into, and then to stay in, the sector. And not just engineers – across all disciplines." she says. 

You can get involved with IWD 2019 by using the hashtag #BalanceforBetter on social media. ​​