Photograph: Leonie Thomas
Construction hoardings on a hotel site in Manchester have been condemned as “insulting” and “naff”.
The Malmaison project on Piccadilly is using images of scantily-clad female construction workers and bare-chested male models to screen off construction work.
But the hoardings around the boutique hotel project have been criticised for sending a damaging message about gender stereotypes in construction.
Kate Lloyd, fairness, inclusion and respect manager at the Construction Industry Training Board, slammed the images. She said: “The picture on the hoarding of Manchester’s Malmaison hotel was shocking, depressing and highly insulting to women working in construction.
“The picture on the hoarding of Manchester’s Malmaison hotel was shocking, depressing and highly insulting to women working in construction.”
Kate Lloyd, CITB
“Images like these are extremely powerful because they send damaging messages about women’s roles and their ‘place’ in the industry, never mind the fact that they are being used to represent an industry that is working to challenge the stereotypes.”
Leonie Thomas, a marketing professional working in construction who lives near the site, said: “It looks as though the hotel has tried to combine its perceived ‘sexy’ image with its construction works, and it has backfired spectacularly.
“The images are naff, but I’m not particularly offended.”
The images will add further embarrassment to the industry after last week’s Construction Manager of the Year Awards 2014 had no female nominations out of 95 finalists.
Chrissi McCarthy MCIOB, managing director of Constructing Equality, said: “For me the saddest thing about these highly sexualised images of women is how commonplace they have become, what should shock us and have us shielding the eyes of our children so they don’t view women in a hyper sexualised way simply has us uttering a sad sigh and mumbling something about lazy marketing.
“The fact that they are adorning an environment that has been unable to retain the low percentage of women it does attract only reinforces the message that not just women, but builders also, are seen as objects, not three-dimensional people with thoughts, skills and, dare I say, feelings.”
