Purpose This study examines how workplace cultures, organisational policies, and cultural perceptions affect career sustainability and gender inclusion in Ghana's construction industry. In order to further Sustainable Development Goals 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), it aims to determine the factors that facilitate and hinder women's career advancement and evaluate how national frameworks differ from regional practices. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative survey design was employed, collecting data from 120 professionals across contracting firms, consultancies, and public agencies in Ghana. Using purposive sampling, a structured questionnaire captured perceptions on policies, enablers, barriers, and cultural factors. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, one-sample t-tests, correlation, and regression analysis to identify significant patterns and relationships. Findings The findings highlight both vertical and horizontal segregation, showing that women are still under-represented in site-based and leadership roles despite a youthful and highly educated workforce. Professional networks and individual resiliency are more important for career advancement than organisational support. Gender bias, hostile work environments, and exclusion from unofficial networks are examples of critical barriers that are made worse by lax enforcement of policies and a lack of commitment from leaders. Despite the effectiveness of maternity leave, other institutional supports like sponsorship, mentorship, and clear career pathways are still lacking. Ghana's progress is recognised, but it falls short of regional standards, according to comparative analysis, highlighting the necessity of systemic changes. Research limitations/implications Several limitations should be acknowledged. First, the cross-sectional design captures perceptions at a single point in time and does not allow causal inference. Second, reliance on self-reported data may introduce response bias, particularly in relation to sensitive issues such as discrimination or harassment. Third, purposive sampling, while necessary to ensure adequate female representation, limits generalisability beyond the sampled organisations. Fourth, although the regression model identified gender as a significant predictor of hostile culture perception, a substantial proportion of variance remains unexplained, suggesting the influence of additional organisational and contextual factors not captured in this study. Future research may employ longitudinal and multi-level designs to deepen understanding of institutional and organisational dynamics over time. Originality/value This study makes three original contributions to the field of gender inclusion scholarship: (1) Establishing a tri-level association framework empirically, which quantifies how institutional enforcement failures (weak leadership commitment, r = −0.51; poor reporting mechanisms, r = −0.47) are significantly associated with hostile workplace culture; (2) exposing a “hollow policy paradox” in which formal maternity provisions (M = 3.71) coexist with systematic deficiencies in enforcement (M = 2.08), sponsorship (M = 2.79), and career pathways (M = 2.68), proving that policy existence policy effectiveness; (3) identifying gender as the main demographic predictor of hostile culture perception (ß = 0.32, p 0.001), independent of seniority, experience, or specialisation, offering statistical evidence that workplace barriers are essentially gendered rather than role-specific. Individual resilience tactics, organisational enabler deficiencies, and institutional enforcement gaps are synthesised into a testable predictive relationship by the integrated multi-level framework, which has immediate implications for the advancement of SDGs 5 and 8 in developing economies.
Wahab et al. (Thu,) studied this question.