Travels From ACT
Joanne Farrell
Founder of Build Like A Girl.
Jo’s career spans almost three decades and across multiple spectrums of the construction industry.
A qualified carpenter by trade, licenced builder, certified building designer and now General Manager of a multimillion dollar commercial construction company, she has literally worked from the ground up to be where she is today.
Jo’s journey started in 1996 as an apprentice carpenter and has seen her work in both commercial and residential sectors, as well as 3 years in Lithuania on a Nuclear Decommissioning project.
Jo is passionate about seeing more women in construction and leads a team in the ACT with a strong focus on mentoring women at all stages of their career.
She founded National Not-for-Profit Charity organisation Build Like A Girl in September 2020, as a direct call to action to help women gain apprenticeship employment, receive mentoring and support, and to combat the negative cultural experiences women face in construction every day.
Jo has served as a board Director for YWCA, NAWIC and Tradeswomen Australia, as well as being actively involved with Busy Sisters, MEGT, EWIT and Trellis collective to assist with grant approvals, funding applications and mentor program delivery.
Jo wants to ensure that the challenges and hardships she endured, are not presented to women wishing to enter the industry and her personal mission is to create pathways and opportunities for women of any age, social status, income level, and ethnicity to work in construction and know they have the full support and guidance of other women who have walked this path before them.
In 2021 Jo and her female team completed construction on the Strathnairn Charity House, a project which was designed, built and sold by women, which raised over $500,000 for local female focussed charities.
A landmark project in Canberra, the Charity House also generated apprenticeship employment for 27 women and has created a network of women supporting each other in trades. Since 2020, Jo has helped hundreds of women gain full time employment and regularly assists with programs, initiatives and services aimed at changing the 2% participation rate.
Her philanthropy and advocacy work have been widely recognised and awarded, and she now splits her time between building and speaking at public events to raise further awareness and action in the construction industry on the challenges women still face, and how we need to change the culture for women and gender diverse people to thrive.