The construction industry is finally getting a much-needed makeover, and it’s women wearing hard hats and steel-toe boots who are ready to drive the change.
With barriers and stereotypes still firmly in place, initiatives like the Awesome Women in Construction (AWIC) Roadshow Snapshot are embarking on bold journeys to change perceptions and knock down doors for women eager to step into construction careers traditionally seen as a ‘man’s job’.
Now in its second year, the AWIC Roadshow travels around Australia giving female students the opportunity to engage with various sectors of the construction industry. It aims to build up female participation numbers within the construction industry across regional Australia – a mission delivered with the determination of a demolition team working on a deadline.
Currently, women make up just 13 per cent of all construction roles and less than three per cent of trade-specific positions, painting a stark picture of gender disparity within the sector.
And while more women are studying construction roles than ever before, fewer than half of female apprentices go on to complete their training and become fully licensed tradies.
But with a 500,000-skilled-worker gap looming, the industry is facing increased pressure to do more to embrace the untapped potential of Australia’s unfound ‘lady tradies’ to meet its growing demands.
Driving the change
Packed with a trailer full of construction career advice and tradie inspiration, the AWIC roadshow tours its way through regional parts of Australia to help showcase the industry to thousands of young women across schools, TAFEs, and other institutions.
The program provides site visits, factory tours, and showroom sessions to girls a hands-on look at the exciting and often overlooked opportunities available in the sector.
By highlighting non-traditional roles and challenging entrenched biases, AWIC founder and CEO Amanda Bulow says she hopes to show that a construction career future is a bright path for those women willing to rethink the blueprint.
“At the core of the Roadshow is our commitment to offering immersive experiences that go beyond the traditional classroom setting,” Bulow says.
“For many young people, construction isn’t even on the radar as a career path.
“When people think of construction, they often only consider trades. But there are so many roles—surveyors, project managers, environmental scientists – that offer diverse and exciting opportunities for women.”
Roadshow part of a wider job
While the Roadshow is inspiring change, Bulow says there’s still more work to be done on construction sites across the country to help demolish sexism in the industry.
“To improve gender equality in the industry, we all need to start in our own backyard, our homes and our workplaces,” she says.
“(For example) calling out discriminatory jokes and bad behaviour and changing the language on websites, when we advertise for a job and in our everyday life.
“Tradies, for example, could say to ‘call the office manager’ rather than ‘give the wife a call and she will sort it out’. Shifting the language we use will go a long way.”
