The bumpy ride on the road to gender equity for women in construction
A report released in February by Dalberg, in partnership with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and BuildHer, shows that only three per cent of construction artisans in Kenya are women.
What you need to know:
- Strategies to overcome barriers include: resocialisation; enrolment of more women in Stem subjects; long-term partnership with technical training institutes; and on-the-job training.
- There should also be sustained gender audits and policies on childcare facilities, flexible work arrangements and comfortable transport for labourers.
Monday last week was marked by the inaugural Women in Construction Conference, hosted by the Ministry of Roads and Transport and the President’s Women’s Rights Advisor, Harriette Chiggai. Themed Female Led, Female Built, Female Powered, the conference focused on increasing the proportion of women in the construction industry.
Currently, only 3.0 per cent of artisans, 7.3 per cent of engineers, 15.5 per cent of contractors, 17 per cent of quantity surveyors and 12 per cent of architects are women.
This conference mimics the global Women in Construction Week, pioneered by Barbara Werther and Barbara Wagner in 2015 in Washington DC. It is fashioned from the Women in Construction of Fort Worth founded in 1953 by 16 women in the industry in Texas, USA, in recognition of their low numbers, hence the need for support to survive and grow professionally.
Dearth of women in the construction industry results from the low numbers pursuing scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (Stem) subjects, as well as gender stereotypes about careers. Of the latter, when women fail Stem, it is considered a self-fulfilling prophecy from what Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson (1995) label as “stereotype threat”, a fear that generates high levels of anxiety counterproductive to performance.
Women in the industry have few mentors and are victims of networking challenges and masculine work environments. The roads subsector in Kenya exemplifies the reality. Here, women constitute about 6.0–8.0 per cent of the total workforce. Furthermore, they feature in stereotyped roles such as secretaries, trip checkers, store keepers, human resources staff, cooks and cleaners.
Surveying, driving, operation of heavy machinery, mechanics, welding, carpentry, electrical works, masonry and supervision are virtually exclusive to men. This pattern is informed by the notion that construction work is men’s natural domain. The result is that jobs and incomes from the sub-sector primarily go to men.
Various factors contribute to women’s marginalisation. Home-work balance is one such factor. Road construction work requires absence from home for a large part of the day, and even migration as the road progresses. Women experience the complication of having to combine the work with domestic responsibilities.
Sexual harassment
Moreover, the typical husband fears that the wife’s proximity to other men could lead to extramarital affairs. Sexual harassment and exploitation of female workers is also quite common.
A number of practical factors also alienate women. Consider the way road construction workers are transported atop dirty, open and overloaded trucks in which close physical contact with male colleagues is inevitable, ending in sexual harassment by default.
The typical overall for construction workers is also designed for the male body, not female physiology. Sanitation facilities pay little consideration to women’s biological functions and privacy. The worksites hardly have baby-care facilities. In fact, women are discouraged from carrying along their babies because of safety concerns.
In many instances, the treatment women receive is sexist and demeaning. For instance, female electricians on fieldwork with male colleagues are often consigned to domestic care for the latter despite their training and competence.
Female site architects and engineers also often face the mistaken identity syndrome of treatment as misplaced men characterised in being referred to as “Sir” by labourers assuming that this is a generic honorific.
Women contractors are also disadvantaged. First, they are discouraged from tendering by endemic corruption. Second, they have less access to information on available opportunities because of networks that are not well developed.
Third, many lack the finances to fulfil the bond requirements, are intimidated by men and even overcharged for hired equipment.
Fourth is a tendency to recycle (male) contractors rather than open up to female entrants. Subsequently, the 30 per cent Access to Government Procurement Opportunities quota is not realised.
Men’s historical domination of the sector has earned them substantial experience, which makes them more competitive. They also define the sectoral culture, hence women who come in feel alien and suffer from what Rosabeth Moss Kanter, in her Critical Mass Theory, refers to as tokenism stresses and loneliness among peers.
This is related to the imposter syndrome of self-doubt about whether they are in the right profession. In the end, women adopt hard core tendencies to survive or otherwise look for alternative employment with realistic career advancement prospects and where their identities are recognised.
Strategies to overcome the barriers include: resocialisation; enrolment of more women in Stem subjects; long-term partnership with technical training institutes; on-the-job training; affirmative recruitment and retention; redesign of construction work places and policies; and gender sensitisation for the industry.
There should also be sustained gender audits and policies on childcare facilities, flexible work arrangements and comfortable transport for labourers. Measures should also be taken to build the financial capacity of women’s enterprises, affirmatively award contracts and mentor female contractors to compete beyond reserved tenders.
The writer is an international gender and development consultant and scholar ([email protected]).
