After 12 years of working in a large construction company, Gemma* knows all the challenges that come with being a woman in one of Australia’s most male-dominated industries.
“You find some men are very confused by it, they don’t necessarily trust the work that you’re putting out. And you get the other side, where they all just want to treat you like their daughter, they want to protect you,” she says.
But Gemma, who worked on construction sites before moving into an office role with the company, says the experience had largely been a positive one. Until recently.
“Last year, I was offered a new national role, which was huge for me … [I was told] if you’re interested, it’s yours,” she says.
Soon after these conversations, Gemma found out she was pregnant and notified a senior leader in the company.
“[The senior leader] said, ‘how long do you plan on taking off?’ I said, ‘well, our company procedures say that I’m entitled to 18 weeks, so I’d be taking at least that’ … And he said, ‘I don’t think we can accommodate that’,” Gemma says.
In a later conversation with this man, Gemma says she was told the promotion offer was “revoked” as the maternity leave would be “too disruptive to the company.”
Further discussions with him then led to talk of a compromise.
“I said, ‘how long would you consider it appropriate for me to take off? What would you think is appropriate?’ And he said, ‘four to six weeks.’ I just laughed at him, and then cried,” Gemma says.
Gemma says she discussed the matter with another senior person in the company — this time a woman — only to be told “be careful what you’re doing, it sounds like you’re just burning bridges.”
Shocked by these interactions, Gemma formally took the matter to her company’s HR department. Before long, the promotion was reoffered to her, she accepted it and an internal investigation into the episode is now underway.
“I was really disappointed … that we could still be employing people like this and people can still have this kind of view,” she says.
And advocates say Gemma’s story is just one part of an industry-wide problem.
‘They’re going to stay away in droves’
Construction is one of Australia’s top job-generating industries, with more than a million people employed in positions ranging from labourers to engineers to lawyers.
But it’s also our second most male-dominated (behind mining). Women make up just 18 per cent of the overall workforce and among trade roles, women make up just 2 per cent.
Kristine Scheul, the national chairperson of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), says in such a lopsided industry, gender discrimination remains a persistent problem.
“What we’re seeing and what I’m hearing is that there is still conscious [gender discrimination] … This disturbs me,” she tells ABC RN’s Big Ideas.
As one example, Ms Scheul points out that some Australian construction sites don’t have women’s toilets.
“[Others have] women’s toilets or showers but they don’t lock … It’s things like that, where if women do not feel safe coming to work or do not feel safe on site, they’re going to stay away in droves.”
‘Steeped in a very, very old mindset’
Ms Scheul points to the “rigid, immovable” culture within the construction industry as one of the biggest barriers to more women being involved.
“Australian construction culture is still so steeped in a very, very old mindset — the culture that man equals the breadwinner, men’s jobs are in trades,” she says.
“[The thought is] we’ve been doing this for 300 years, this is how we do it.”
Ms Scheul says another big issue is the lack of women in leadership positions, with women making up just 15 per cent of key management roles, 11 per cent of director roles and 3 per cent of CEOs.
“Who’s making decisions, who’s setting the culture, who’s setting the aspirations for the organisation? It’s the leadership. And if we don’t have enough women up there, that culture is never going to change.”
This lack of women in leadership positions also contributes to the industry’s yawning gender pay gap of 26 per cent, which Ms Scheul calls “unconscionable in 2021.”
Yet some construction companies are trying for a more balanced workforce.
Ahead of time and budget
Andre Noonan is quick to admit the construction industry has a gender problem.
The chief operating officer at infrastructure company ACCIONA Australia and New Zealand says there is “no doubt” that gender bias exists within this industry.
“That is beyond any question … That blokey culture which has been prevalent and is still prevalent in pockets [of the industry] is not a good aspect,” he says.
“[But] it makes absolutely no sense and it is not sustainable as a business to continue to look at only 50 per cent of society, [especially] when we have a skills shortage.”
So ACCIONA decided that for a recent construction project at a girls school in Melbourne, it would employ a workforce made up of 50 per cent women.
“We wanted to break the paradigm,” Mr Noonan says.
With the 50:50 workforce, the project finished ahead of schedule and ahead of budget.
“It’s very unusual for us to finish ahead of time and ahead of budget. So that was an excellent outcome,” Mr Noonan says.
Paula Gerber, who established NAWIC 25 years ago and now works at Monash University’s faculty of law, says she’s not surprised by this outcome.
“[The success of the ACCIONA project] is not coincidental — that can happen when you have so many women on site, because the amount of negative conflict reduces,” she says.
“[Research shows] if you put more women on construction sites, it changes things. Communication changes. Cooperation and collaboration increase.”
Mandates or quotas?
But after seeing little progress over decades, Professor Gerber says enough is enough.
“I think the time for talking is over. We need to smash down the concrete walls that are keeping women out of the industry,” she says.
Professor Gerber says the industry needs “a critical mass of women” because “the culture is not going to change when we’ve just got a few women who are coming in, one or two on a site.”
“Research from Norway shows that 40 per cent is the critical mass — when you get 40 per cent of women [in a workforce], that changes the culture … [So] I think we need to start talking about mandates or quotas,” she says.
“[For example], we have a Local Jobs First Act in Victoria that’s been in place since 2003. It says government projects have to prioritise local businesses. Why can’t we translate that into women as well?”
“Why can’t we say, on government projects, you are going to have to demonstrate that you have women, not in tokenistic positions, not an isolated number?”
A powerful tool
Victoria’s Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner Niki Vincent also says gender-specific guidelines in government procurement can bring about real change.
“Each year, governments spend billions of dollars on procurement … [Procurement guidelines] are one of the most powerful tools that governments have got to accelerate gender-inclusive economic growth,” Dr Vincent says.
“A lot of stakeholders have said to me, some parts of the industry just won’t change until they’re forced.”
And ACCIONA’s Mr Noonan says companies like his would not be averse to the idea.
“I’m not only comfortable [with the idea], but just to be very clear, this is not unusual,” he says.
“Thresholds [for some government projects] are already in place and mandated … [Around Australia] there are thresholds for Aboriginal participation or local participation or skills set participation.”
But for Dr Vincent, there also needs to be more of a society-wide effort at breaking gender stereotypes, including everyone from parents to educators to leadership in the construction industry.
“We have this stereotyped thinking about men and women from the moment children are born,” she says.
“Construction is one of the ‘last bastions’ … where change needs to happen in this regard.”
It’s a point echoed by Gemma.
“We’re obviously very late to the game — the construction industry is behind in this space,” she says.
“We’re trying to turn a very big ship. And, culturally, we’re not there yet.”
*Name has been changed to protect privacy
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