From an international perspective, there are several issues that present even more challenge when it comes to women and equality in construction works. For one, there are much more men that work full time as opposed to part time. Statistics indicate that there are 31% more male full-time employees across all industries. Even in these jobs, the wage gap falls approximately 17% between men and women holding the same positions in organizations. These statistics affect all industries. Looking at the construction industry, the underlying processes and function that have seen such a disparity in equality for employees continue to undermine the value of women in construction.
Gender stereotypes have long been the reason that undermines cultural and social evolution. Statistics on the progress that has been made since the amendment of the Civil Right Act of 1978 indicate that law has seen the percentage of women practicing since rising by a 19% margin (Graft-Johnson, Sara, Gleed, & Brkljac, 2009). Correctional institution officers record just under 16% increase in the women taking up the profession. Dentists and Physicians have recorded an 18% and 19% growth respectively in the share that women have in these professions (Graft-Johnson, Sara, Gleed, & Brkljac, 2009). The construction industry has remained very discriminative. Since 1978 only 0.2 more shares have been seen in female construction trades and related jobs. Given this disparity, it may be important to look into the possible measures that can be taken to improve access to high paying jobs for women in the construction industry (Graft-Johnson, Sara, Gleed, & Brkljac, 2009).
Gender stereotypes evolution essay
Gender role stereotyping of women has been the cause of discrimination in the crafting of construction related industries that diminishes the ability to work efficiently as well as their male counterparts. This stereotypes have the inclination to the thought that men are superior to women. Consequently, allocating them to junior position across all the spheres of the society which eventually has been reflected in the construction projects management. The women are also responsible for the sexist attitudes towards them in the construction industry given their complacency and submission to the inferior role, and also applying for secondary and clerical positions. A survey carried out in 2013 looking into the demographics of women in the different occupations in the construction industry sampled a population with 78% of the participants being women who were household bread weaners. The survey sampled all careers that are factored in by a construction project management (electrical engineering, architecture, accounting, transportation, environmental conscious constructors, and survey careers) these are opportunities open to people who are interested. The female employees who contribute to the earlier mentioned growth do not appear in the construction project management teams rather, they fill in the assistant’s role.
Sexism at work
While the overt sexism is a blatant expression of misogyny, the form of sexism that is dominant in the construction and construction management lines of operation is covert racism. It is masked with stereotypic terms such as gender roles. The sexist approach to nurturing of women in the society at a young age has been a primary inhibiting factor for women into the labor market (Price, 1983). It causes ripple effects in the construction industry given some of the positions or the jobs available and the flooded labor market. For one to fit in a position, they have to be well academically qualified according to the scale of the construction project, qualifications are more demanding as the scale of the project escalates. The notable gap in of participation by women is because there are no enough women who meet the requirements. If they meet the requirements, they are on other projects in other industries. Construction-related jobs are male dominated fields which is reflected at primal entry points such as the demographics of students in colleges, the percentages of males to females are 90% to 10% respectively. In the 11.6% of Growth, 69.1% of the women in Secretariat potions, 42.5% of the women in administrative and management positions, unskilled laborers at 31.2%. Skilled artisans at 19.9%, female supervisors are 17.3% of the total population and semiskilled operators 16.2%. As illustrated in the job distribution of the females, most of the women hold secretariat positions while women in management positions only stand at a 42%. While this is an extremely wide margin, this leads to the unbalance in the number of women who participate in the industry. Notwithstanding the notably low number of female students in the school, the consequent implication in the number of permanent females drops to 7% while permanent male employees stand at 93%.
The growth in the construction industry over the last decade has registered a 12% growth and an annual growth of 1.3%. Contrary to the anticipated similar growth of women participation in the industry, the participants are relatively the same despite the increase in their total number and the parallel growth of the industry’s contribution to the economy. The informal sector construction programs annually provide an 8.9% employment of the entire countries working force. This translates to the informal sector providing up to 80% of housing for the working class. Thus government roughly spends 14% of budget on development while the construction industry contributes 4.6% to the gross domestic product. The contribution of the industry is highly significant as well as the government’s investment in the construction industry (Price, 1983). Sexist attitudes towards the involvement of females in the industry translate to exclusion of a significant factor in the countries demographics, which manifests itself women flooding other related job markets which are not as rewarding as the later, and equally untapped talent that would be applied in the construction industry.
