The Retention of Women in the UK Construction Industry
This dissertation was written as part of a BSc (Hons) in Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying, to explore the barriers, initiatives and policies to women's retention in construction.
Abstract
Despite the increasing supply of female graduates from construction related degrees almost in parity with the number of males from the focus on recruitment, there is still a lack of women represented in the construction workforce upon graduation which are retained. It has been found there is a high drop-out rate in the first few years for young women in the construction industry. There has been increasing awareness on the issue of the low number of female construction professionals and numerous initiatives have been introduced to encourage representation. This dissertation highlights the initiatives and policies in place which aid the retention of early stage women in construction. Significant contributors to the retention of early stage women included mentoring, flexible working and training which increased motivation to remain in the industry, but the culture was a significant barrier to retention. The findings from a qualitative approach enabled recommendations for improving the retention of early stage women, which could be applied to all types of companies in the construction industry.
Download the full version of the dissertation here
--Monisha Sandhu 19:16, 29 Jul 2020 (BST)
