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At a key point in her career, Louise Williamson dared to seize the biggest prize going for a construction professional – a seat on the main board – and in so doing risked failure both as a mother to two children and as a company director.

She got the prize. She's now group director for risk management at Birse, in charge of improving standards in everything from safety to environmental protection. If a corporate killing law ever sees the light of day, she's the one who'll go to prison if a prosecution succeeds.

She was also the first woman on Birse's main board, but she very nearly didn't get there. After her second child was born she faced a serious choice: be a part-time working mother or keep the faith and succeed as both engineer and a mum.

Williamson wanted to build from the moment she began watching the Humber Bridge take shape through the classroom windows at Hull High School for Girls. Her family nurtured her ambition to such an extent that she had no idea civil engineering was a male-dominated profession until she noticed that she was the only female in her class at City University, London.

It didn't faze her one bit. She loved the work, and moved up the ranks at Birse until she bumped her head on the glass ceiling.

"It was okay as site engineer or site agent but when I hit middle management, I noticed I was beginning to work for guys who were younger and less experienced than me," she said.

I had no role models but was convinced I was going to do it

LOUISE WILLIAMSON

Decision time came in 1996 during her second maternity leave. She'd been in limbo - caring for a new-born and a toddler while her husband worked full-time, all the while mulling over memories of being inexplicably passed over in the industry she loved. Then she decided. Still on leave, she applied for a regional engineering manager's post, the sort of senior role she'd been unsuccessful in getting before. At the same time, she applied for a new, fast-track management programme for women at Birse.

She succeeded in winning both places, and that was that, except she now had to sweat for her prize. On top of getting to grips with her responsibilities as Birse's South West regional engineering manager, working alongside the regional director and commercial manager, she was also immersed in a rigorous management coaching programme, which entailed two-day stints away from home once a fortnight and plenty of homework.

The hard work paid off: she was appointed to the board in 1998.

Williamson was lucky in that her critical decision coincided with a move in Birse to break the glass ceiling. She credits the company for its pioneering approach. At the time the board had decided they needed more senior women in the company to defuse the machismo around the top table, and introduce more varied management styles to the company.

"I think it's quite brave for a team of strong personalities, all white and male, to admit they could improve by somebody else being there," she said.