The world has changed a great deal in the last twenty years, especially for women in the workplace. Sadly, within the construction industry there is still a vast gender imbalance problem, even after the industry has been trying to do something about it for years.
The figures are pretty damning. In April, constructionnews.co.uk reported that their analysis of the industry’s 100 biggest firms had revealed that women in the industry are still paid a third less than men on average. As for the number of women making a career in construction, estimated figures published in May 2018 by the Office for National Statistics highlighted that even though awareness of the problem has increased dramatically over the last 20 years there are still only 36,000 more women working in construction today than there were 20 years ago.
The simple fact is that despite the industry’s best efforts, the number of women working in the industry has stalled at around 12%. The industry’s lack of diversity therefore continues to come under the spotlight, but does it really matter that there are a lack of women in construction? Isn’t it a priority for an industry that faces more recruiting challenges than most to just get the right candidate for the role, regardless of gender.
Recruiting is about people and their skills and not about gender balance surely? Well, it seems that there is a real business case for gender diversity and in fact there is a growing body of evidence that highlights that companies with poor gender diversity may actually be missing an opportunity to advance their bottom line.
The recent McKinsey & Company’s Delivering through Diversity report, analysed more than 1,000 companies worldwide and significantly found that those businesses that had the most gender diverse executive teams, were 21% more likely to have above average profitability when directly compared with businesses with the least diverse boards. 21% certainly makes a compelling argument.
Although with so few women entering the construction industry, the number of women occupying senior positions is also going to be low too. With such clear benefits the glaring gender disparity within the construction industry needs to be addressed even further. Without doubt the most important change has to be the gender pay gap, especially if we have any chance of women ever truly seeing construction as an attractive career option.