INSIGHTS
The Big Construction Diversity Challenge
6 Feb 2026
5 BIG barriers: These blocks are still keeping women out of construction.
Women applying to apprenticeship positions surged by two-thirds in 2023-24, and when flexible roles are offered, 56% more women apply. The message is loud and clear: talent is knocking on the door.
The construction industry is on the verge of something transformative. Women are applying to apprenticeship positions in record numbers, bringing fresh skills, energy, and perspectives into the industry. Even more promising, as many as 66% of young women in the UK are open to, or actively considering, a career in construction, according to a Redrow Apprenticeship Report (2024). The industry is, slowly but surely, diversifying.
Yet, while recruitment efforts are succeeding in getting women through the front door, certain barriers still block the path to real success. These aren't minor hurdles: they're systemic challenges that limit opportunity, retention, and career progression for women. They also carry real costs for a sector facing acute skills shortages and ambitious growth targets.
The numbers tell two conflicting stories. Record applications suggest surging interest, yet women occupy just 1% of skilled trade roles. Between the classroom and the construction site, something is systematically failing. This isn't about ambition or ability - it's about what happens when enthusiasm meets an infrastructure that wasn't built to support it.
At The Big Construction Diversity Challenge, we believe that every barrier also presents an opportunity to improve the industry. By fostering flexibility, inclusivity, and innovation, we can create adaptive, resilient, and high-performing workplaces for all. And right now, there's a golden opportunity to turn strong recruitment into lasting careers.
In this post, we break down five BIG obstacles keeping women from contributing to construction - and show how forward-thinking companies can turn these challenges into new opportunities for their business.
Addressing these barriers is where the real building begins…
Rigid routines
One of the most prominent barriers preventing women from entering construction is flexible working. The cost? A leaky talent pipeline that continues to drain businesses…
Construction's resistance to flexible working standards currently keeps it firmly behind other industries - and to its own detriment. According to the UK Government’s BEIS DATA, women make up 75% of requests for adaptable schedules. Yet only 10% of job vacancies in construction, and just 2% of frontline roles, are offering it (Timewise, 2020).
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Global Outlook Report, lack of flexibility around working hours is one of the top three reasons women cite for voluntarily leaving their employer.
The fact that demand is so clearly there but remains unmet signals an industry unwilling to innovate and evolve. For women, this flexibility is crucial for balancing caregiving pressures, career breaks, and earning a fair wage. According to GOV.UK, flexible working is also a crucial way of reducing this industry’s gender pay gap.
The impact is clear: when flexibility is offered, 56% more women apply for roles. These are not marginal gains - they represent untapped talent that could address skills shortages and strengthen teams. (Timewise, 2020)
To welcome and support women into new roles, the industry must adapt and restructure to cater to more diverse needs. Flexibility doesn't mean lowering standards. It's about smart scheduling: compressed working weeks, staggered shifts, and role adjustments that allow skilled professionals to contribute fully.
And it doesn't just benefit women. Older workers, carers, and employees recovering from injury also need flexibility to remain in, or return to, work. Companies offering this are better positioned to attract and retain talent, reaching candidates they would otherwise miss.
The takeaway? People shouldn't be constrained by rigid schedules. Flexible working is an essential inclusion measure - and critical to unlocking talent.
Lack of representation
Cultural barriers persist across the board. However, a lack of diversity at the leadership level exacerbates these issues. When people can’t see themselves reflected, the message is clear: this path isn’t for you…
Across female leadership in construction, experts all agree that a chronic absence of visible women in senior roles perpetuates the cycle of exclusion. Without role models demonstrating what's possible, aspiring professionals struggle to envision their own success. The result? A self-reinforcing pattern where low representation discourages entry.
“I think it's important more women enter the sector because we need to move away from the old narrative that the construction industry is just for men. In order to encourage more women to enter the sector we need role models, visible role models. It's like observer bias – when a young female apprentice sees another woman on a construction site it shows what can be achieved. We have to try and change that bias.” Carly Hughes, Immerse Safety (UK), Construction Anglia (2025)
The figures are concerning. According to research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), women hold fewer than 14% of senior leadership roles across the construction sector, with even smaller percentages in executive positions (2023). This is the landscape at a senior level, but it’s a gap which creates ripple effects. 38% of female construction workers report never having a female manager throughout their entire careers. And 49% say this absence has directly held back their career. (Ramstad, 2020)
Without visible role models demonstrating that success is achievable, women struggle to see a path forward. This prevents new hires from joining and perpetuates homogeneous cultures. The irony? Even with increased interest among young women, the lack of visible pathways to leadership ensures that any interest quickly evaporates.
The cost extends far beyond numbers. Every woman who leaves takes with her skills, experience, and potential. This “leaky pipeline” loses individual talent, granted. However, it also reinforces a culture gap that drives many new hires away. And here's the fundamental truth: women don't just want to work in construction; they want to succeed and advance. Without seeing that success is possible, they'll look elsewhere.
The takeaway? People can't be what they can't see. By encouraging diverse leadership, companies not only attract talent but retain it, multiply it, and ensure it has a future.
One way of encouraging new hires is by making your inclusive culture visible.
By entering a team in The Big Construction Diversity Challenge, you can show prospective hires you care and want everyone to succeed.
Think BIG.
Show the industry you’re building a future where everyone thrives.
Pay gaps and blocked paths
Think gender pay gaps are a thing of the past? Construction has the worst in the UK - and the reason isn't what you think.
Women in construction earn up to a third less than men, with an average pay gap of 23% among major firms. But this headline figure masks a structural problem: occupational segregation. The highest-earning roles, i.e., skilled trades such as electricians, plumbers, and carpenters, remain 99% male.
Women are systematically excluded from the positions offering financial security, whilst these trades face critical shortages. But here's the real irony: women want these jobs. According to Trade-Up’s independent survey of 2,087 UK adults, reported by PBC Today, 23% of women indicated openness to skilled trades roles. Women starting construction apprenticeships surged 62% from 2018-19 to 2023-24. And yet they still represent only 1% of these positions.
This combination of lower pay, occupational segregation, and absent leadership first creates a ceiling on career progression but is also a barrier to building a workforce that construction desperately needs. Companies that create transparent pathways into skilled trades and build visible female leadership unlock talent that others don’t.
The takeaway? Breaking occupational segregation isn't just equity - it's an infrastructural approach that benefits the entire industry.
Exclusion by design
The construction industry spends millions recruiting talent it's designed to reject. That contradiction is now collapsing the workforce it can't afford to lose.
47% of women leave construction due to a male-dominated culture. 30% cite gender discrimination. 22% point to inadequate maternity rights and pay. 38% leave because they see no pathway forward without senior female role models. (Randstad, 2020) These aren't isolated complaints - they're structural failures driving a mass exodus of talent the industry claims it can't afford to lose.
This is what exclusion looks like in practice: women are shut out of informal networks where real decisions are made. Persistent “lads’ culture” treats professionalism as optional. Hostile banter is disguised as harmless joking. Unfair task allocation keeps women in support roles rather than skill-building ones. 72% of women report experiencing these gender discriminations at work. (Randstad, 2020) It's not just about a few bad experiences - it's the daily experience of working life that constantly signals that women don't belong.
The cost? Women often leave before they can fully contribute, taking their skills, fresh perspectives, and problem-solving capacity with them. The industry ends up with a workforce that's less diverse, less innovative, and less resilient - when it needs the exact opposite.
The approach is systematic yet simple: remove bias from hiring through the use of blind CVs and gender-neutral job advertisements. Make professionalism non-negotiable across all levels. Build mentorship programmes that connect women to decision-makers. Support genuine progression during pregnancy and parental leave, not just statutory compliance.
The takeaway? Exclusionary culture isn't just driving women out - it's blocking the industry from solving its own talent crisis. Prioritising inclusion will unlock the workforce that construction is already paying to recruit.
Proof culture can change
Some construction firms are proving that exclusion isn't inevitable - it's a design choice.
Livgreen (Bristol-based retrofit construction)
Achievement:
Increased female representation in the Senior Leadership Team from 0% to 40% in one year
What they did:
Implemented blind CVs (removing names and dates, focusing on skills only)
Used gender-neutral job advertisements
Removed candidate identities from hiring managers during shortlisting
Results:
40% female representation at the Senior Leadership level within 12 months
Systematic bias reduction through process redesign
The PPE problem
Construction sites across the UK still fail to accommodate women's most fundamental needs. From appropriate PPE to adequate bathrooms, the industry's failure to meet minimum standards is a metaphor for its deep exclusionary culture.
For many women, construction sites aren’t just exclusionary in culture - they're physically unaccommodating. A survey carried out by NAWIC Yorkshire (2023) showed that 60% of employers do not provide PPE specifically designed for women, forcing female workers into ill-fitting boots, oversized high-vis trousers, and harnesses that compromise comfort and safety. 42% of those surveyed reported negative effects on their career due to ill-fitting PPE. Being unable to provide female workers with the fundamentals is perhaps the most literal barrier, discouraging them from doing the work and making them feel literally unsafe.
Facilities tell the same story. Lockable changing rooms, proper toilets, and other essential amenities for women are often missing or inadequate. These aren't minor inconveniences - they're chronic exclusion disguised as oversight. And they signal to new hires that a woman's presence isn’t planned for.
The solutions exist. Gender-appropriate PPE is increasingly available, and providing proper facilities is straightforward. Yet the industry's failure to implement these basics creates a self-perpetuating problem: women can't enter or stay in the industry, so sites remain designed for men only. Companies that break this cycle demonstrate that inclusion means more than rhetoric - it means infrastructure that acknowledges everyone belongs on site.
The takeaway? Ill-fitting equipment and missing facilities shouldn't determine who can work safely. Meeting people’s essential needs is the minimum standard for any employer, not to mention a legal requirement.
From the field
“From having to create makeshift insoles in uncomfortable footwear, having to deal with stomach cramps from wearing high visibility trousers designed for men, and losing oversized boots in muddy fields, I'm one of many women in the construction industry to have an issue with the personal protective equipment I've been given.” Katy Robinson, UK's Most Influential Woman in Construction 2025, Leader of Women’s Inclusive PPE Campaign, NAWIC Yorkshire Campaign Leader. CIC, 2023
From barriers to business breakthroughs
The good news is that addressing these barriers comes with key operational benefits. The companies that embrace flexible working, fair pay and properly fitted equipment will be the more flexible ones - and able to welcome more talent. While a basic gesture, actively considering the needs of a more diverse range of hires shows them that they will be supported in the long term.
Change doesn’t have to be daunting or difficult. Small, practical steps can create lasting impact and help build a more inclusive and resilient future in this industry - unlocking the talent that’s already waiting at the door.
At The Big Construction Diversity Challenge, we help you turn this awareness into action, making your diverse teams feel empowered and recognised. Women are just one of the groups ready to contribute, grow, and lead in this field.
Let’s keep the momentum going
Because when people feel seen, supported, and valued, they don’t just stay. They help your business and your industry thrive.
Think BIG.
Coming soon! Follow us on social media for our future article “EDI made easy: Making your business culture more inclusive in 6 simple steps” outlining realistic, low-cost actions that any organisation can implement immediately, from structured mentoring and flexible working arrangements to inclusive communication practices and meaningful feedback mechanisms.
“I have attempted things I would never have done. If more people did things like this, it would give them the confidence to go further in their careers.” BRDC 2024, Carolyn Davy, Coyles UK.
