Occupational Health and Safety Challenges in Construction Industry: A Gender-Based Analysis

The construction industry is historically a male-dominant sector. Since 2000, only about ten percent of the construction workers have been women, which means that they are consistently underrepresented. The structure of organization, nature, and environment of the sector possess a range of barriers to women. As a result, the objective of this study was to determine the difficulties faced by female construction workers and classify them into categories of family-related, colleague-related, organizational, health and safety challenges, and individual challenges. A thorough review of previous contributions to this topic was conducted to discover the challenges to women that have been identified by other researchers. Interviews with nine women active in the construction industry were conducted to collect their viewpoints and classify their challenges, and 22 barriers were identified, of which the most important were found to be gender discrimination, work-life balance, stress, and sexual harassment. In addition, the lack of flexible work options, childcare programs, and paid leaves (e.g., maternity leave) create invisible challenges that narrow women's professional opportunities. The outcomes of this study will be helpful to construction employers and decision-makers in government as they adopt strategies and develop policies to help women advance in the construction sector.