Why a Culture Taskforce Alone won’t get more Women into the Construction Industry

Article on Sourceable, November 7th, 2022, written by WSW’s Founding Director, Amanda Rose.

With only 12 percent of women making up its workforce, it’s no secret that the construction industry is a boy’s club.

The real story is that despite their best efforts, neither government nor industry can shift the stubbornly entrenched gender ratio. Even in the face of a higher-than-average earnings potential and a critical shortage of skilled workers, a career in construction fails to have widespread appeal to women, resulting in a serious imbalance that is steadily getting worse.

The current lack of qualified workers is so acute it’s estimated that by 2023 there’ll be 105,000 jobs that won’t be filled. To further compound the issue, forecasts by IHS Markit show total real construction industry spending is expected to grow by 3.5 percent in 2022 to reach 4.2 percent by 2024, meaning that one of Australia’s biggest employers will continue to suffer from a lack of skilled labour without some form of serious intervention.