women are increasingly expected to play a larger construction industry role, says report

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women currently make up around 10.3 percent of the national construction workforce.

While that percentage is an improvement over the low single-digits of two decades ago, experts believe the numbers will only increase in the decades ahead, particularly if the demand for new projects remains strong.

In fact, more than 275,000 new women workers have joined the construction workforce in the last 8 years—a 38 percent jump.

According to a report published earlier this year by the website Big Rentz, women currently make up 14 percent of staff executive positions in construction. In addition, some 13 percent of all construction firms in the U.S. are owned by women, representing a significant 64 percent growth rate since 2014.

Writing for the Dallas Morning News, business reporter Mitchell Schnurman noted that major construction firms like the McCarthy Building Companies, are “actively recruiting and promoting women.”

Continued Schnurman: “That’s partly to address a deepening labor shortage, partly to bring more diversity to corporate thinking and client interactions, and partly because women are so badly under-represented.”

Overall, that addition of 275,000 new women workers has contributed to what is now a nearly one million total woman workforce in the field, eclipsing a pre-Great Recession high of around 950,000.
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Despite such progress, the Big Rentz report indicated that there remains a pay gap between women and men construction workers, with some 73 percent of women, in a survey, indicating that they thought they were passed over for advancement due to their gender.

​By Garry Boulard

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