Lessons construction can learn from other sectors

The construction industry is traditionally considered a white, maledominated industry. The UK construction industry is at its busiest for a decade and is suffering from skill shortages in both craft and manual trades, and at the professional level. The issue regarding the lack of women in construction has become more prominent recently, attracting government and industry-wide attention due to this potential skill shortage facing the industry. To meet these targets the industry cannot rely on recruiting the traditional male- dominated workforce. Therefore the UK government is examining ways to encourage women into traditionally male-dominated jobs. Since then a number of initiatives have been introduced promoting construction careers to women; however they have yet to achieve the desired effect. The main aim of this paper is to investigate how the construction industry can successfully recruit and retain professional women by looking at what lessons can be learnt from other sectors such as medicine. Hence this paper looks into other sectors, in particular the medical sector and how it has become an accessible career for women. It also focuses on the culture of other sectors to establish the influence this has over the employment of female professionals

Women in construction: A study on leadership

The women participation rate in construction sector both in academia and industry is very low, particularly at senior management level. The statistical analyses of western countries reveal that while the numbers of women entering management positions continues to increase, women remain under-represented in senior executive positions. It is important to attract and retain professional women with good leadership qualification and skills in the senior positions in order to maintain a good standard and professionalism within the construction sector. In this context, this paper will examine the literature relating to the educational and executive leadership in construction associated with Women. Focus will be given on the reasons behind the under-representation of women both at educational and executive leadership levels within the construction sector. The study also examines the barriers faced by women entering senior executive position

Leadership styles of women managers in the UK construction industry

This paper is part of an ongoing doctoral study about exploring the contribution of women managers towards the construction industry. UK construction is typically portrayed as a male dominated industry. Women are highly under-represented particularly at the managerial and technical sectors of the construction industry. This research intends to explore the contribution women managers could bring to the construction industry. Exploring the benefits women could bring to construction will help to recruit more women workforce to construction industry which in turn will help to address the skills shortages in the industry by bringing in a wide range of skills and talents. Women’s presence in managerial workforce is growing and continues to motivate research on the leadership styles typically exhibited by women to determine if women have their own ways of leading. Further leadership is considered as an important quality for those who occupy managerial positions in organisations. In this context this paper takes the leadership styles exhibited by women managers in construction industry as the primary unit of analysis. Thus this research fall under three major knowledge domains namely gender, leadership and construction. In order to ensure the comprehensiveness and completeness of this study, an expert knowledge capturing exercise has been undertaken. This paper shares the captured expert opinions about the identified knowledge domains

Employability of women managers in higher education sector: a study on their leadership qualities

The teaching profession both in this country and internationally is, with few exceptions, dominated by women as it has traditionally been seen as a ‘suitable’ job for women. However, a look at the statistics reveals that despite the large number of women in the profession, they are greatly under-represented in positions of management in higher education (HE). Thus this under-representation of women continues to be a matter of some concern. The background of this paper identifies the status of women managers within the higher education sector. The leadership styles typically adopted by women managers are then discussed. These styles are taken into further analysis in order to find out whether any such styles are of use in terms of filling the leadership gaps in higher education. In this context, this paper examines the literature relating to gender, leadership styles and higher education in order to explore how the leadership qualities of women managers will have a contribution towards the higher education sector