Creating equality in the construction industry: an agenda for change for women and ethnic minorities

Within the UK, construction has an unenviable status as being the industry with the lowest representation of women and ethnic minority employees. Despite considerable efforts to diversify the industry's labor force, this has had little tangible effect on the numbers of these non-traditional entrants. Empirical studies that have explored aspects of women's and ethnic minorities' employment have tended to deal with the experiences of these under-represented groups separately. In contrast, this paper uses the findings from two research studies to compare women and ethnic minority employees' experiences of gaining employment and working within the industry. Both studies suggest the construction workplace presents a challenging and hostile environment for non-traditional entrants, and women and ethnic minority employees face both similar and different challenges and attitudinal barriers. Discriminatory behaviour perpetrated by the dominant white male workforce is commonplace, as are informal recruitment practices, exclusive networks and a competitive and adversarial culture. By comparing and analyzing the results and recommendations from the two studies, the paper identifies where action is required to lead to a more balanced and socially representative workforce in the future. The similarity of the recommendations put forward by these studies suggests that there would be an advantage in developing a more holistic approach towards managing diversity in the sector. It is argued that addressing a broad range of equal opportunities in an integrated and strategic manner would enhance opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, and for the workforce as a whole.