It’s clear there’s no shortage of impressive women in the building industry — as evidenced by the hundreds of submissions Construction Dive received for its Construction Champions program this year — but poor leadership may be driving them out, a new report found. One potential solution is to provide a clear pathway for career advancement, and more broadly, to create a workplace where people want to stay and grow.
Construction is hungry for labor, and women could help fill that gap. The Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the industry must recruit about half a million new workers this year, and that shortage has pushed construction to be more inclusive, said Rose Fathers, director of business services at Building Skills New York. The New York City nonprofit trains construction workers and connects them to employers.
“There's so much pressure from the top to get things done,” Fathers said. “As long as we keep having that pressure, people are going to get hired and it does not matter who that person necessarily is, as long as they have the right skillset for the job.”
Still, women make up only about 11% of U.S. construction workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite comprising about half of the overall labor pool. There are even fewer women on the jobsite. Although industry leaders tend to focus on recruitment, there may be a more significant roadblock to increasing the share of women in construction.
Sixty-eight percent of women polled in a new survey say poor leadership is pushing them out of the industry, according to a survey conducted by the National Center for Construction Education and Research and Ambition Theory, a Denver-based group that provides professional coaching and leadership training for women in construction.
Women want to advance their careers in construction, the report found, but the pathway is often unclear. Of the 775 women in construction surveyed, 87% said they want career growth opportunities, yet fewer than half indicated their companies offered them leadership programs tailored to their needs. For those who do participate in leadership training, 42% said it adequately prepares them for leadership roles.
“Promotion criteria are often ambiguous, and access to career-defining, high-profile projects remains limited, leaving women few opportunities to showcase their leadership potential,” according to the report, which was shared with Construction Dive.
Other factors causing women to leave the industry include:
- Lack of career advancement opportunities.
- Unequal pay or benefits compared to male colleagues.
- Lack of mentorship or sponsorship.
- Inflexible work policies.
- Lack of recognition or support for contributions.
About seven in 10 respondents said they felt they had been interrupted or spoken over more often than others or they had been mistaken for someone in a more junior position. Three in four women said that their judgment had been questioned in their area of expertise.
Improvements made and planned
Building Skills has seen increased activity and interest from women pursuing careers in the field, said Tatanisia Lumley, operations manager for the nonprofit.
“We are now seeing a peaked interest in advanced skills training,” Lumley said. “A lot more women are seeing visual aids and posters and getting more access to seeing construction around them. And when they see another woman actually geared up and doing the work, I think that's been a motivating force for a lot of the women who have crossed our paths.”
Despite that growth, Building Skills’ numbers reflect the national and New York City average: About 9% of placed participants in 2024 were women.
So what can be done to retain women in construction? NCCER and Ambition Theory’s survey found that when employees feel supported in their career growth, they are more likely to stay.
Although programs like employee resource groups or mentorship programs may be somewhat effective, the report found that the majority of women in the industry don’t find them impactful enough to improve their career prospects.
Instead, the study indicates that sponsorship may be the way forward. About one-third of women reported participating in sponsorships, which are a step above mentorship programs. Sponsors provide actual advocacy for career development and advancement, according to the study.
For example, the majority of men and women with sponsors reported higher satisfaction with their career progress and were more likely to envision a long-term future with their current employer, per a study published in the National Library of Medicine and cited in the report.
“Expanding opportunities for women in construction isn’t a diversity initiative — it’s a business imperative that directly impacts productivity, project success and the industry’s ability to compete,” according to the NCCER/Ambition Theory report. “Without deliberate efforts to build pathways for all leaders to thrive, the industry risks losing the talent it needs.”
