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In the wake of the most recent labour force statistics released by the ONS, the construction industry must start doing more to keep women employed in the industry, sources have said.
The just-released latest statistics show that the number of women employed in the construction industry is 17% lower than 10 years ago. The figures show that, as of Jan-March 2016, there were 270,000 women working in construction, down from 326,000 in Jan-March 2006.
There was a decline in numbers of women in the industry beginning in 2009, which can be attributed somewhat to the recession. But as some leading female construction figures have pointed out, there is still a lot of work to be done.
Chrissi McCarthy, managing director for Construction Equality told Construction Manager: “On average women stay in the industry from 5-10 years and a third of women leave for family care, and many don’t come back. They often go to other industries.
“That’s an important point. I don’t know if we’re creating the environment that women want to, or feel okay to, return after a short break.”
She added: “Many women leave for other reasons, such as environmental, lack of progression, reasons that when you boil it back down again, are unconscious biases, micro transgressions.
“Where I think the problem starts to come in, is that not enough stay. But if you have women staying in the industry from 5-10 years then leaving, and younger women still coming in, numbers will plateau eventually.
ONS figures show a 17% drop in female employees since 2006
“If you lower that number coming in, which happened everywhere in the recession, then we can see reasons for further falls.”
She added: “Although there has been a concerned effort to attract women into this industry and start careers, which is great, I feel there is maybe too much emphasis on that, and we need to address the problem of keeping women within the industry when they’re here. Much more emphasis is need on this side of the business.”
Emma Nicholson FCIOB, director of Women in Sustainable Construction and Property, told CM she was surprised and disappointed by the statistics.
She said: “The construction industry needs to take urgent action to encourage women and retain women and the startling figures showing the decline of women entering the industry from the ONS proves this. Are we doing enough as an industry and are organisations doing enough to attract them and keep them once they are there employed?
“Over the last 5- 10 years there have been many women’s groups emerging from the National Association of Women in Construction, Women in Sustainable Construction and Property, Birds in Buildings, Voice at The Table, WIBSE.
“In addition, Women in Property has been running for over 25 years and there have been recent awards events, such as the Women in Construction Awards and Women in Construction and Engineering Awards. These groups and awards would not be present if there wasn’t a need to support women in all stages of their career in our industry.”
