After significant improvement, numbers of women entering construction have started to stagnate. What are the reasons for this and what can we do to improve?

Getting more women into construction has been a long-term ambition for the construction industry. Even though there has been a lot of work done on this issue, recent data has shown that the numbers of women in the construction sector have remained pretty much the same – around 13% participation with only a negligible increase in the last 8 years. In addition, only about 9% of new apprentices are women; a figure which highlights the work still to be done when trying for more equitable gender participation in the future

There are a number of factors for this disparity and a lot of ongoing work is being done to address the issues at play. This is evident even at a micro level as the industry has been incentivised to create bespoke clothing options for female workers employed onsite – there’s now a range of appropriately sized clothing for women to wear including high visibility jackets, boots and hard-wearing trousers. However, there’s a lot more work to be done to attract females into the construction industry.

One of the most significant factors in female recruitment is around perception. It is clear from survey date commissioned by organisations like Keepmoat that the majority of women do not see a role for themselves in construction. Furthermore, they are also unaware of how many women are already in construction and how diverse their roles are.

The Keepmoat survey showed that 56% of respondents were surprised to learn that women are represented at executive, manager and director level in construction. On hearing of these opportunities, 72% said that the industry needed to do more to highlight them. After completing the survey, 45% of young women said they were more interested in a construction career compared to only 13% before.

However, the numbers remain relatively low in terms of other labour sectors. There are challenges at all levels of the industry – the representation of women in top roles in construction reveal the work still to be achieved. Only 16% of women have C-Level roles whilst only 3% of companies have a female construction manager.

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