It has been well-documented that the construction industry has, for a long time, been a male-dominated sector. Women make up just 10-15% of construction industry employees, with these predominantly found in administrative, secretarial and sales positions, and just 1% of site operatives are women.

Building consultancy partner in our Bristol office and former National Chair of the Association of Women in Property, Jo Williams shares her views:

Why do you think the construction industry has fallen so far behind other industries in attracting and retaining women?

“There are small cracks in the glass ceiling, but without the women coming into the industry, and gaining some critical mass, the pay gaps will remain and those cracks in the glass wont get any bigger. We can see in some professions the statistics are better than others and I think this is down to the number of women starting to reach more senior roles. We need to continue to raise awareness of the gap and continue to push ourselves up the ladder.

The construction industry is dealing with an image problem. It’s not just about women but it struggles to attract professionally qualified men and ethnicities too into specialist, management and leadership roles. The industry tends to be reactive to its image for many years whereas other industries project a consistent attractive image which is in direct competition to ours. It’s no wonder that women don’t consider it when thinking about a career.

It takes time, even generations, to change attitudes and expectations. Women are not led to consider construction as a career and from a young age become set into other career goals and aspirations, or worse no career aspirations at all.

The efforts to promote STEM careers to school girls is starting to see change as these inspired girls come into the workforce but there are other professions that aren’t well known and still missing out on attracting the talent pool. We need to positively promote construction career opportunities to the next generation and provide them support and role models to encourage their choices and progression.

With the construction sector predominantly made up of men over 40, do you think the industry is still suffering from outdated and sexist views, which could be contributing to the low numbers of women employees?

There are still some old-fashioned thinkers in the industry, and these tend to be the older and more senior manager roles, but I also see this in the site-based trades too. When I first started my career, the pre-conceived sexist views were well established. There were hardly any other women on site and I was definitely a novelty. Not all of those “sexist” views were automatically aggressive or disrespectful though, and many older chaps were protective and extremely respectful. They just didn’t see the industry as a place for a woman.

Change takes time. And those holding the views need to want to change. Young people and women have the opportunity to re-educate those older views by their professionalism in the job and open communication.

What are the key things that someone working within the industry can do today to help promote inclusivity within their company?

Be a role model and support others. It can be a lonely place as the only woman in a team; but knowing there’s an achievable goal, and that you have someone to support you, is extremely empowering.

How can businesses support women who take a career break to focus on a new family, to ensure they are retained and kept up-to-date with business changes whilst they are away?

This relies in part on the culture of each individual business. Some businesses do this well, and that isn’t relatable to the size or structure of the business; but the culture of its leaders. Communication, honesty and transparency is missing in lots of businesses, unfortunately.
Some government regulation would help, but this isn’t the whole solution and we need to foster healthy businesses who respect all their people to achieve a transition to a support career breaks. And men can take career breaks too – its not just a women’s issue. When these breaks are seen as normal by the leadership then processes and other attitudes will start to fall into place.

Finally, which women in construction have inspired you the most, and why?

I didn’t have any women role models when I started my career. In fact some of the women I did know in those early days were “drawbridge queens” which only inspired me not to be like them! In my early career my best role model was a manager called Steve Brewer, whose equalist attitude, complete belief and support in my abilities and transparency inspired me to be the type of surveyor and leader that he was. To me it’s not about gender, but personality, that inspires me.

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