Women Workforce in Construction during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

Changes and challenges in employment are inevitable under the measures enacted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Early evidence suggests that the pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men. Focussing on women workforce in construction, this exploratory study examines the challenges associated with changes in their job situations, the adopted strategies in addressing the challenges and their opinions on employment situation of women workforce during the pandemic. Results of a content analysis show that the top ranked challenges are: (i) overworked; (ii) working space; (iii) social interactions; (iv) collaboration; and (v) parenting. The most cited strategies in addressing these challenges are: (i) increased visual communication; (ii) a dedicated workspace; (iii) self-scheduling; (iv) flexible working arrangements; and (v) breaking out work time and personal time. The evidence is suggestive that most challenges are interrelated, and the strategies adopted by the respondents are multi-level and interdependent. The results also show that the most mentioned opinion is the increased caring and domestic responsibilities among women workforce. Under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, these findings are critical in informing employing organizations’ human resource management challenges to better support their female employees during pandemic time and beyond.

Modelling the critical challenges of quality assurance of cross-border construction logistics and supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…C1 depicts the difficulty of being physically present on the operation site to collaborate and seek information on the quality of cross-border projects. The collaboration process in QA has been impeded by the pandemic mitigation measures and the fear of getting infected (Oo et al. , 2021; Rankohi et al.…”

“…This then also leads to low work efficiency, which may affect the quality of projects (Pamidimukkala et al. , 2021; Oo et al. , 2021).…”

“…C1 depicts the difficulty of being physically present on the operation site to collaborate and seek information on the quality of cross-border projects. The collaboration process in QA has been impeded by the pandemic mitigation measures and the fear of getting infected (Oo et al, 2021;Rankohi et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2023). However, this stimulates organisations to devise innovative ways to collaborate and communicate with experts and workers and supervise and inspect works/services from remote locations.…”

“…This leads to heavy workloads on workers, which stresses workers on the sites, especially when they are to perform more for extra prize awards. This then also leads to low work efficiency, which may affect the quality of projects (Pamidimukkala et al, 2021;Oo et al, 2021). Working with face/nose masks may not always create a safe environment, as experts/workers may sometimes feel uncomfortable wearing the masks.…”

What Was the Covid-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Human Resource Management and Work? An Integrative Literature Review

“…While the impacts were experienced universally, specific reactions are contingent upon factors such as cultural contexts, labor legislation, social class, family circumstances, and gender. (Caligiuri et al, 2020;Ferreira & Reis, 2021;Oo et al, 2021;Raišienė et al, 2021;Zhong et al, 2021).…”