Analysing Gender Issues in the Australian Construction Industry through the Lens of Empowerment

Abstract

Gender equality at work in male-dominated industries is conditioned by intrinsic systemic issues which established policies have, to a significant extent, failed to address, as women’s participation remains under-represented. This study argues for the reappraisal of the issue through a different lens and carries out a systematic and thematic review of the literature on women in construction in Australia through a women’s empowerment framework. Despite its usual application in gender inequality at work in development studies, the concept of empowerment lacks attention in the context of developed countries, particularly regarding the construction industry. Empowerment has been proved a useful overarching framework to analyse personal, relational, and environmental factors affecting women’s ability to be or do. In the examined studies, there is significant focus on external barriers to women in construction, such ‘organisational practices’ (environmental), ‘support’ and ‘others’ attitudes and behaviour’ (relational). There is, however, limited attention to more active stances of power, such as one’s attitude (personal), control and capacity, in shifting power dynamics. The paper draws seven major findings, covering personal, relational and environmental dimensions, supported and supplemented by some international studies, and suggests the way forward for empowering women in construction.

Identifying Leadership Competencies for Construction 4.0

“…These four domains are cognitive, interpersonal, business, and strategic. The methodological approach is illustrated in Figure 1 [39].…”

“…These four domains are cognitive, interpersonal, business, and strategic. The methodological approach is illustrated in Figure 1 [39]. The first step of this study is to define the searching keywords and the searching database.…”

Developing Effective Interventions for Gender Equality in UK Construction Project Organisations

“…An effective intervention to avoid unplanned additional costs would be to allocate gender-inclusive facilities budgets at the initial stage of the project (Regis et al, 2019). Differences in the physical capabilities of men and women relating to strength can be reduced through the introduction of new technologies and equipment (Wang et al, 2021).…”

“…In addition to increasing overall job satisfaction, self-esteem workshops provide the opportunity for women to learn to manage conflicts and become less sensitive to discrimination, and male dominance, in male-dominated work environments (Wang et al, 2021). Training programmes (such as programme to promote women's employment) are proven to increase female participation in male-dominated sectors (Peñalvo-López and Cárcel-Carrasco, 2019).…”

Development of the Diversity Concept for the Construction Sector: A Bibliometric Analysis

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