Share of Women in Construction Reaches Highest Point in 20 Years

The share of women represented in the construction industry is growing. According to data from the National Association of Home Builders, there are now 1.34 million women in the construction industry. While this represents only 11.2% of the entire workforce, it is the highest share of women in construction in the past 20 years.

Most women in the construction industry work in office and administrative roles. Sales and office occupations have the highest share of female workers, with 65.7% of women in these jobs, specifically 437,000 women in office and administrative work and 39,000 women in sales roles. Additionally, there are 521,000 women in management roles, although this figure only makes up about 18% of management roles in the entire construction industry.

While construction and maintenance occupations account for the largest number of employees in construction and are where additional workers are most needed, women comprise only 4% (307,000) of such occupations. Additional steps should be taken to attract female workers into these high-demand occupations. Other occupation groups within the industry such as production, transportation, and material moving occupations, and service occupations employed only around 22,000 female workers.