'As the only woman on a building site I was mistaken for the receptionist - now I run my own construction company'

When Liz Hartley was starting out in her career as a project manager in construction, she was mistaken for a receptionist when walking onto a building site of 120 men.

She felt that as a woman she had to go the extra mile to prove herself in the industry alongside her male peers.

Against the odds, the 40-year-old, who lives in Heaton Moor, went on to start her own business, and is now a managing director.

READ MORE: ‘I left school with three GCSEs - now I run multi-million pound businesses'

“In my first job, people just assumed I was the receptionist. At that time, the only females would be cleaners or receptionists,” Liz said.

“There was absolutely no women on the site or in the trade and very few on the consultancy side.”

She added: “It just wasn’t made for women, which sounds ridiculous, but in 2007, there weren’t female welfare facilities, only in the last few years you’ve been able to get protective clothing in female sizes, it was just for men previously.”

Speaking this International Women’s Day, the theme of which, ‘Break the Bias’ encourages people to challenge stereotyping, Liz has told of how she overcompensated during her early career to gain respect working in a male-dominated environment.

It was at a time when the gender pay gap - the difference in the average hourly wage of all men and women across a workforce - was starting to be called out.

Construction was one of the sectors with the biggest gap in wages, and since 2017, all large companies with more than 250 staff have been required to publish their gender pay gap report each year.

However, according to data collated by Building in 2020, women still earn a quarter less than men at the UK’s biggest construction firms.

Liz continued: "It was