Shortage of Skills in the Construction Industry
The importance of construction industry in Australia cannot be overstated. The building sector in the year 2014 for instance, contributed to 6.5 percent of the total economic output in the country, including more than 280,000 businesses and figures of employment of 6.2 percent. This covers 10 percent of the total figure of employment in Australia in 2015 (Telford, 2019). Shortage of skills in the construction industry of Australia continues to go up and there is an urgent need plugging this gap. One strategy of plugging the gap is recruiting women in this sector. The sector does not have high numbers of women who participate and this will be one of the solutions to the shortage of skills. Unfortunately, the building industry has been identified to be less attractive women as a result of the attached stigma to the industry, for instance, sexism (United States. Women’s Bureau, 2016).
This paper examines the current challenges that women face in the construction industry of Australia to discover barriers that can be abolished in order to inspire women to get into the industry. Previous projects of research have discovered a number of barriers that might limit their entry, progression and Retention Of Women in the sector but as time changes; these challenges evolve therefore the need of deepening informative research that will discover the fundamental concerns of women in the sector. In addition, the research focuses specifically on women in professional duties i.e. duties like trades persons and other administrative duties are beyond this research’s scope (Gale, 2020).
For a long time, the construction industry has been always dominated by males. The workers recruitment in the sector has been consistent, with a noticeable tendency for firms to attract, employ and pick men. Justifiably, this has resulted to women being underrepresented significantly. Though, by the year 2025, the industry will witness at least a quarter of its workforce being women (Aigbavboa & Thwala, 2021). Professional bodies have made great efforts in encouraging more women in joining the sector in the recent times. As part of the scheme to widen the talent pool working in the construction sector, these bodies have even selected the demographic of ethnic females of Black and the Minority through showcases of females from the same backgrounds. Though, such initiatives receive some resistance still. This is partly as a result of trends of recruitment and the perceived image of the construction sector (Mirsky, 2018).
The building industry is perceived to be hostile masculine, dangerous and challenging in its environment. Unfortunately, the building sector fosters an image of male only, deep-rooted in a culture which undermines females. Within particular construction areas, the behavior of sexist towards women colleagues seems to be more normalized. As many as 40 percent of females in the building sector have confessed to being harassed or bullied by managers, whereas 30 percent confessed that they were too afraid to complain about the suffered treatment. (United States. Office of Construction Industry Services, 2019) Always, females will be exposed to sexual harassment forms, seen as a means of reasserting control by their male colleagues, refusal to adjust to a culture which allows females to manage teams in the sector. Shockingly, 51 percent of females admitted that they were poorly treated purely as a result of their gender (Dainty, 2018). It is vital to acknowledge that the raised issues in this case are not as a result of females not being capable of implementing jobs to which they are tasked to carry out, but purely as a result of their gender. On the basis of their gender, females have a belief that there are substantial barriers that stop them from staying in their duties and from rising above particular levels in the sector. The next part presents some theories of organizational complexity that will be applied in exploring empirical data later (Langford, 2017).
Barriers to Women’s Participation in the Construction Industry
The movement of females into management, which includes upper management levels, has been an essential topic of research globally. For instance, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 in the United States and the Equality Act of 2010 passages in the UK. Such debates and research have inspired the exclusion of gender-based discrimination (Smyth, 2017).
From the literature existing, it is recommended that discrimination of gender has reduced with an increase of women representation in professional and management positions. In addition, a more critical review shows that these developments are mainly at lower management levels and without positions of managerial professions. Barriers to the advancement of females into middle and upper levels of positions in management still exist. For instance, it is reported that the women representation in executive positions that are official in companies has deteriorated at averagely 14.5 percent from the year 2010 (Styhre, 2018). For senior management positions for women, it is reported that the women representation was represented by 21 percent in North America, 25 percent in Europe, 23 percent in Latin America and 32 percent for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Therefore, the development of ladders of career for females is still a concern in management, with upwardly movable aspirations and for firms that want greater diversity in managerial gender. Better managerial decision-making seems to be the most benefit mentioned on diversity of managerial gender. This opinion will be examined in the empirical phase of this research ( National Research Council, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, 2020). In precise, gender-diverse groups promise an information base in a broader perspective in decision making that groups that are homogeneous. It is of significance to inspire teams that are more of gender diversity as a number of scholars have noted that the experiences of diverse of women and men results to a better situations of decision making. More importantly, decision making that was poor was noted as the indication misunderstanding of organizational complexity. Therefore, a link needs to be drawn between unavailability of sources of a number of pool of knowledge and talents through organizational complexity and gender diversity (Gale A. W., 2018).
Having deliberated and showing the different sides of the construction sector, the next part will present two theories which are significantly demonstrating challenges that women face in the modern-day in the profession of construction sector.
The glass ceiling theory shows the challenges women experience when they try to grow within the industry. The theory finds difficulties that females face with unavailability of international promotion, therefore preventing progression of career (Australia. Construction Industry Development Agency, 2016). It can be defined as artificial, invisible barriers which stop qualified women from progressing within the organization to a point of reaching their potential. Originally, the term defined the point beyond which female executives and managers were not given promotions. Today, it is evidently clear that walls and ceilings exist all through the workplaces for women and minorities. For the scope of this research, race has not been focused on. The barriers are due to psychological and institutional practices, and limit the mobility and advancement opportunities of women of different ethnical and racial backgrounds (Gruber, 2015).
Gender Diversity in the Construction Industry
The glass wall theory shows the traditional split of gender in different sectors in the construction industry. The women segregation in secretarial or administrative roles compared to males production and manufacturing sector. The glass wall which stops the staff’s lateral movements has not been highlighted in this case since it is argued that the profession of construction does not move necessarily laterally in regard to roles (Ahmed, 2016). For instance, a quantity surveyor will not pursue to move to the role of structural engineering, since it is not their area of expertise. In addition, the roles of administration in the sector, such as office secretaries are usually occupied by females. in rare occasions, these people move into roles that are professional although they have to be trained for such particular roles in professional bodies or institutions like universities (Rodrigues, 2020).
Two or more women join the sector at administrative level role compared to men. This can be augmented on the basis that these roles not specifically being traditional roles of construction. Some of these duties are clerical while others are secretarial. On the next tier, i.e. professional roles, it is observed that more men compared to women enter the sector (Loosemore, 2019). This has been highlighted in the introduction part as the types of duties that professional bodies keep on inspiring females to join. Professional duties currently in the construction sector are occupied mainly by men, which is about 80 percent. The glass ceiling existence amongst current female building professionals will be investigated to have a better understanding on the challenges that currently exist in the construction sector. Besides the glass ceiling, females face the leaky pipeline whereby the career change in order to have a family break and other decisions that may be personal see them leaving the sector and then fight hard to re-enter (Bernhardt & Sonja, 2021).
The leaky pipeline defines the lack of females with ability to stay within the industry after acquiring education. It is admitted that once leaving the building sector temporarily, it becomes very hard to re-enter. Further, the theory shows issues which are around females all through their career, lack of internal promotion, poor work-life balance, lack of respect with an inclusion of cases of bad behavior that females are exposed to all through their time in the building sector. A significant condition that also would force females to permanently or temporarily leave the industry could also be as a result of abuse and harassment suffered by females in the place of work. With all these hoops that females have to go through, those that stay throughout until pension have been labeled rightfully as survivors (Australia. Construction Industry Development Agency, 2016).
Having known the presence of glass ceiling as a social phenomenon of several various communities as the actual condition rather than an illusion of females’ imagination, the real challenge is that men are not seeing it as an institutional barrier that women face. The conception is worth investigation in the context deliberated for collection of data and analysis for this research. Both the two theories, i.e. the leaky pipeline and the glass ceiling are noted as barriers which stop from progressing in their places of work (Dainty, People and Culture in Construction: A Reader, 2019). The glass ceiling is not actually what stops females from rising beyond particular organizational levels. Most females are voluntarily leaving their places of work before they hit the ceiling. The leaky pipeline theory is more precisely describing what is taking place. The theory, for this reason replaces the glass ceiling in the female workers in construction case and precisely in this research. So as to understand the barriers that women face in construction profession with respect to retention of employment, an in-depth comprehensive understanding of the faced issues is required. The method of research is presented in the next chapter.
Theories Demonstrating Challenges Faced by Women in the Construction Industry
A number of research projects have put into consideration large size samples in studying females in building sector. This is a very significant strategy and has been fit rightfully for the purpose of their research. This study seeks to understand deeply the concerns of female professionals in the building industry with the main focus on large scale building organizations. Small scale firms of construction have structures that are less complex and this simplifies somehow some of the challenges noted under the complexity of an organization like poor communication.
Interpretivism is considered as the best approach in case because it will ensure a better understanding of human behavior and crucial motivations of their activities. The research’s main aim is to get the all-inclusive women views that may have experienced complicated challenges when working in the professional duties in the construction sector. Their interpretation of the circumstances and events were very crucial in case a dialogue on better women treatment in the sector can succeed. This study sought to highpoint the factual realities of the female professionals in the organizations of construction face although their male colleagues may not be aware of the existence of those elements. Applying a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews were carried out within six female building professionals. A purposive approach of sampling was applied in identifying the interviewees. previous scholars have recognized the significance of information gathering in respect to perceptions of individuals, experiences and opinions collected with the application of semi-structured interviews since the researcher would have regulation of the topics in discussion and still have the ability of allowing the interviewee to share openly their thoughts on what they put into consideration as related or relevant issues. The semi-structured interviews were considered suitable in acquiring the in-depth facts.
From the critical literature review, these areas were acknowledged to be investigated, in the interview guide development:
- Daily sexism in the place of work
- Perception of the societies in the construction sector in image terms
- The gender pay gap
- Retention matters, including difficulties in maternity and issues in progression
- Impacts of education and ethical considerations awareness including confidentiality and anonymity of the interviewees
The organizations were all successful and large in the building sector. It can actually be argued that to some extent, they are the gold standards of Australia firms of construction that other firms of construction aspire in emulating. A number of duties and experience time of interviewees were also included in the research. All interviewees had roles of management. The managerial positions and the years of experience were chosen with the intention of getting the barriers faced by interviewees or may have had to overcome when they were in the industry. In addition, having roles of management meant that the interviewees had some control or power in their respective firms. One of the interviewees had the least work experience, which was between 4-5 years and this was her first duty in building sector. Her duty was not a technical building duty but was more aligned to management of diversity in the firm. As such, her duty may not be put in consideration as the traditional building duty. Having had a broad variation of experience in the sector and with other organizations, it was crucial not to limit the results from the interviewees to one firm. They had anecdotes and experience that covered across the whole sector and different timelines.
Conclusion
The interviewees had various reasons why they entered the building sector. Some of the reasons were that they simply wanted to contribute in environment building. Reasons for entering the sector seemed to be due to interests that were genuine. Though, they had expressed all that they faced challenges when they tried to get into the sector and more significantly, rising to their current duties. Interviewee number two described the sector as being an aggressive sector. Her response, unfortunately, demonstrated that she was not feeling as though she was part of the building world since she described that the sector belonged to the opposite gender. Interviewee number 3 referred also the industry as a man’s world. Number 4 believed that she was able only to get the job simply because she had somebody who was known to him in the firm. She entirely never believed that her educational qualification enabled her in gaining the opportunity. Another interviewee was clearly told that she was not being given the job in order to meet the gender equality rule. From these results and findings, it can be assumed that some females already may feel not enough while entering the place of work. Even though they may be capable of undertaking their roles, they might be overawed from the entry point into the sector and the condition may scare them all through their careers that are in case they will not leave. This then can lead to the females suffering from the syndrome of imposter, whereby individuals doubt their achievements and persistently fear being exposed as a fraud.
a clear unhappiness pattern emerged in regard to how interviewees felt at the workplace. They had a belief that there was lack of appreciation and unequal treatment from senior management. One interviewee felt that even though she had gone high enough to be a senior manager, she had a belief that senior managers exercised more power. Markedly, she was daunted by the character of other senior managers who were men whom she worked with. She was made to believe that when you work your way through the ranks, it was more crucial than having certificates of education. Another one said that women in the sector always feel controlled by men. In real, she acknowledged that unequal women treatment is an ancient practice that needs to be phased out.
Also, it was discovered that managers who are younger are very much welcoming to the two genders. Poor treatment noted by the interviewees pointed clearly at older male senior managers. Also, it was identified that females had a belief that they were outshined by their male counterparts of the same position as themselves. The interviewees held that the individuals who poorly treated them and other women at the working place did so as a way of mockery or simply thought that there was no much harm. Also, it was discovered that there was still sexual harassment. Amusingly, that seems to be a less concern for the interviewees. According to them though, they believed this behavior may not be changing with the old generation of men particularly, but once the generation wave retires from the industry, the behavior might go with them.
Conclusion
The challenges that females face in the building sector still exist and may be amongst the issues that limit the industry from plugging of the shortage of skills. The sector is one of the main contributors of Australia’s GDP and still there is no encouragement in evolving it better. Beyond the plugging the gap of skill, the sector has serious challenges of females being badly treated. This situation discourages females from joining the sector and also forces them to leave the industry without return. The industry needs the main overhaul in case it wants to do away with this harmful culture. Currently, females are concerned about taking breaks in the career for important situations like starting a family. It is in records that the Statutory Maternity Pay is not executed, and females can face dismissal in case they make a decision of taking their authorized break on maternity. Therefore, some females decide to use their annual leave in order to get children and get back to work, hence losing out on very crucial time that they could have had with their newborns. Practices of this kind make the sector unattractive to women and therefore steps that are crucial should be adopted in making the industry grow. The sector has been often perceived to be resisting change though this is one change which needs to be embraced. Particularly, the issue at hand is not to make it to be amongst the changes but one of the bad treatment and illogical exclusion of females who are able to significantly contribute to the sector. in addition, the female gender’s unfair treatment in the industry can make it unattractive for those males who believe in equality, and thus, not happy with the stigma that is associated with the sector, therefore, extra loss of new entries. Therefore, if women are fairly treated just like their male counterpart in the construction sector, they can really do better and flourish in the industry.
References
National Research Council, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. (2020). Advancing the Competitiveness and Efficiency of the U.S. Construction Industry. London : National Academies Press.
Ahmed, S. M. (2016). Collaboration and Integration in Construction, Engineering, Management and Technology. London: Springer Nature.
Aigbavboa, C., & Thwala, W. (2021). The Construction Industry in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. London: Springer.
Australia. Construction Industry Development Agency. (2016). Breaking the Norm: Women in the building professions. London : Construction Industry Development Agency.
Bernhardt, & Sonja. (2021). Women in IT in the New Social Era. Texas: IGI Global.
Dainty, A. (2018). Human Resource Management in Construction Projects. London : Routledge.
Dainty, A. (2019). People and Culture in Construction: A Reader. Texas: Routledge.
Gale, A. W. (2018). Managing Diversity and Equality in Construction: Initiatives and Practice. Texas: Routledge.
Gale, A. W. (2020). Women in Construction. Texas: University of Bath.
Gruber, J. (2015). In the Company of Men: Male Dominance and Sexual Harassment. Texas: UPNE.
Langford, D. (2017). Human Resources Management in Construction. Texas: Routledge.
Loosemore, M. (2019). Human Resource Management in Construction Projects. Texas: Taylor & Francis.
Mirsky, R. (2018). Professional Ethics for the Construction Industry. London: Routledge.
Rodrigues, J. C. (2020). Human Resource Development in the Construction Industry. London : National Institute of Construction Management and Research.
Smyth, H. (2017). Collaborative Relationships in Construction: Developing Frameworks and Networks. Texas: John Wiley & Sons.
Styhre, A. (2018). Managing Knowledge in the Construction Industry. London: Routledge.
Telford, T. (2019). Tomorrow’s Team: Women and Men in Construction. Texas: Thomas Telford.
United States. Office of Construction Industry Services. (2019). Annual Report – Office of Construction Industry Services. London: the University of Michigan.
United States. Women’s Bureau. (2016). Searching for a Job in the Construction Industry: Some Tips for Women. London : U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Secretary, Women’s Bureau.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
