Oo, B L; Liu, X and Lim, B T H (2022) The experiences of tradeswomen in the Australian construction industry. International Journal of Construction Management, 22(8), pp. 1408-1419. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
While women are an untapped resource to meet the workforce demand for both professional roles and skilled tradesmen in the construction industry worldwide, the presence of tradeswomen in the industry remains extremely low. This research explores the experiences of tradeswomen in the Australian construction industry by examining their career choice factors, career barriers and job satisfaction. Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire distributed via two tradeswomen support networks. The results show that the tradeswomen’s choices to work in construction trades were significantly affected by the opportunities for personal development via job tasks, personal interests and self-motivation. While their experience with a list of career barriers was also rather positive, they had adopted a mixed of proactive strategies for overcoming the barriers. The results also show that most respondents had a high level of overall job satisfaction that is positively associated with their income level. The findings provide a much-needed insight into the experiences of tradeswomen to inform any initiatives aimed at (i) promoting and recruiting women into construction trades, and (ii) improving working lives of tradeswomen in order to mitigate skills shortages in the industry.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Australia; career barrier; career choice; job satisfaction; tradeswomen |
| Index terms: | strategy, survey, motivation, shortages, career, questionnaire, Australia, job satisfaction, construction industry, income, personal development, presence, women |
| Subjects: | sociology, industry analysis, management, professional development, Geography, psychology, economic analysis, environmental science, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here