The experiences of tradeswomen in the Australian construction industry

Abstract

While women are an untapped resource to meet the workforce demand for both professional roles and skilled tradesmen in the construction industry worldwide, the presence of tradeswomen in the industry remains extremely low. This research explores the experiences of tradeswomen in the Australian construction industry by examining their career choice factors, career barriers and job satisfaction. Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire distributed via two tradeswomen support networks. The results show that the tradeswomen’s choices to work in construction trades were significantly affected by the opportunities for personal development via job tasks, personal interests and self-motivation. While their experience with a list of career barriers was also rather positive, they had adopted a mixed of proactive strategies for overcoming the barriers. The results also show that most respondents had a high level of overall job satisfaction that is positively associated with their income level. The findings provide a much-needed insight into the experiences of tradeswomen to inform any initiatives aimed at (i) promoting and recruiting women into construction trades, and (ii) improving working lives of tradeswomen in order to mitigate skills shortages in the industry.

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