Diversity and inclusion of women in the construction industry

Abstract

The construction industry has been growing for many years and is expected to continue expanding over the next decade. However, it has experienced a concurrent "widespread and significant shortage" in workers over the past two decades, specifically among project management and skilled positions. One of the most glaring disparities in the construction workforce is the industry's failure to recruit and retain women. Construction has long been considered a "masculine" profession and is still classified as a non-traditional occupation for women by the U.S. Department of Labor, which is reflected in historical employment statistics. Although increasingly more women have found employment in the construction industry since the 1980s, this growth is not substantial and the proportion of women in the industry has not meaningfully changed. The consequences of a construction labor shortage at a national level are a significant risk to economic growth. Thus, further exploration of how to effectively enhance women's inclusion in the construction industry is warranted. The primary objective of this dissertation research is to identify critical intervention points and opportunities for fostering the inclusion of women in the construction industry. This dissertation used three quantitative surveys as the primary data source and utilized a number of statistical techniques to achieve its objective. The first study describes the personal attributes of women in construction and organizational factors of their workplaces that encourage retention, or persistence, in the industry. The second study determines the extent to which different types of implicit gender bias occur within the construction workplace, while the third study examines gender bias within construction-related academic programs and its relationship to students' self-concept. This dissertation contributes to the overall body of knowledge by providing the first quantitative evidence of women's experiences of gender bias and persistence in the construction industry. The results of this dissertation can be used by academic programs and industry leaders to increase the number and proportion of women working in construction to meet current and projected workforce demands.