Barriers Preventing Women from Enrolling in Construction Management Programs

The construction industry does not attract significant numbers of women to its labor force. However, due to potential expected growth in the field, construction companies will need more women to meet their labor needs. Much research has been done on women in the construction industry and factors preventing them from entering the industry, however, this article examines the academic side and ask what factors are preventing more women from choosing construction management as a major in college. We undertook this study by contacting all of the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) and asking questions regarding their programs in an attempt to discover any correlations that would provide information on approaches to attract more women to college-level construction management programs. Unfortunately, we only found a few small positive correlations between average enrollment of women and number of women faculty, availability of women support groups, and graduation rates of women. We believe the biggest factors acting as barriers to more women pursuing construction management as a career are the perceptions and stereotypes of the industry and that the industry needs to focus on changing those perceptions.