Prof Jane English
Associate Professor, Head of Department, Professional Communication Studies and Services Department (PCS), Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa.
Bringing about substantial change in gender composition of engineering and technology fields: lessons from the construction sector (download presentation here 
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Topic C: Sex and gender knowledge, improving people’s lives
English’s work in the past eight years encompasses communication, gender and the construction industry: the fields being intrinsically entwined and based in the government’s drive to change the balance of gender in the workplace. In exploring these issues, she has worked mainly in the construction industry.
However, English is also increasingly researching within the Faculty of Engineering and Building Environment (UCT) as the student body represents a core of the future managers in industry and thus issues of communication and gender (including related areas such as Health and Safety, and HIV/AIDS) are relevant. As head of the Professional Communication Studies, her task is to ensure that technical and scientific research is communicated in a way that a non-expert can understand it. Dr English holds a PhD, Built & Natural Environment (Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland) for which she had a NRF grant within Sustainable Livelihoods: Eradication of Poverty through Developing women in the skilled workforce and an MPhil, Construction Economics and Management (University of Cape Town). Dr English was ILO funded to present at the Tripartite Meeting on the Construction Industry in the 21st Century, Geneva, 2002, on labour in construction and was commissioned to write a Working Paper. Prior to joining UCT, she was: Research Editor: Chamber of Mines’ Research Organisation, and Company Editor - Syfrets; Melton Publications; Southern Life Association; and Books of Africa Publishers. Her website has links to academic papers and conference presentations ; consulting and creative outputs; and comments from course evaluations.