Women work; especially in the construction industry. What we mean by this isn’t necessarily that there are plenty of women in the industry, but rather that the proof of the pudding – the latest statistics from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) indicate that the latest growth of employment in construction came more from women than men. And this is despite women accounting for less than 14% of those employed in the industry.
At the same time as construction is enjoying this increased female representation, the contracting industry experienced a decrease in contractor availability and an increase in the rate of pay in the same month (February 2014). This is likely because of a skills shortage, which we think could be alleviated by attracting more women to the sector.
In general contracting terms, women are well represented in many key industries, but in certain sectors there is a bit of a dearth, the most noteworthy being construction.
This might seem to be a contradiction considering that last month’s increase in employment numbers came from women, but the reality is that the roles that they occupied tended to be in sales, marketing or other administrative functions. Where they can provide real additional value, and help plug the widespread skills shortage, ins any trade or any construction role.
The problem is of course that there is still a lot of gender stereotyping, lack of awareness and apprenticeships / training opportunities to support more women getting into the industry; albeit this cuts both ways and is not just a bloke-centred bias. A recent Equal Opportunities Commission report celebrated the fact that 80% of school-age girls said they would be interested in learning to do a non-traditional job; however, of these, only 12% were interested in construction. Of course, there are still the prejudices that exist when it comes to hiring a female carpenter or plumber. There is plenty of evidence that goes beyond the anecdotal that supports both the chauvinism and lack of female welfare that exists within the industry.
Perhaps if we had significantly more women construction contractors more would be encouraged to overcome some of the barriers to this employment conundrum. More women means more role models to inspire more young girls to join the industry, and let’s face it, means that the male contingent will get used to having female colleagues, allowing construction to catch up with other sectors that have a demographic mix that reflects modern society.
Equally, the media has a role to play in depicting more women in the trade on TV and in magazines. Master craftspeople are glamorous, their ability to design and built things of beauty should be celebrated and showcased. In fairness there is some progress in this area in the form of Expert People which has launched its new TV advert that includes a female painter. Which is a start, because there is no easy solution to encouraging more women do work in construction and disengage from our blokey past to ensure a gender-neutral future.
