In my travels, I have found that women can do any job that men can, including framing homes and manufacturing components. But the ratio of women in the construction industry is abysmal. This is partially caused by the attitudes and mental blocks of men in leadership positions, specifically what they think they need from employees, such as physical requirements. Also, too many men do not have a truly healthy understanding of how to make this industry attractive in relation to the basic needs and desires of women to bring more into the industry. There is always an exception to every rule, but let’s start with a general understanding of women’s main motivators and how we can fill the ranks with highly skilled women. Here is a clue: women generally do not think about and have the same priorities as men, which is a good thing.
Women Do Not Have the Same Priorities as Men
For most women, family (kids) comes first, not their job. Everything in life, including work, is secondary to the family’s well-being. What does this mean for you, the employer? Well, if you insist on 50-hour work weeks and a rigid schedule, you can rule out most women. Men have traditionally sacrificed time with their family to pay the bills, whereas child rearing has been prioritized by women; regardless of political correctness, women have been and will always be focused on the immediate well-being of their kids and family. Therefore, any employer who needs a greater pool of potential employees needs to keep this in mind when trying to attract women into his or her workforce. Insisting on long and rigid hours that do not allow mothers to pick up and drop off their kids from school or go to an unexpected doctor’s appointment means many women will not even consider your company for employment.
Women are Generally More Loyal and Tend Toward Long-Term Employment
You can google plenty of studies for the actual statistics that support this statement, but it comes down how women view the world and their work environment compared to men. A man will leave a company mainly due to his ego and financial needs. In other words, a man is more willing to work with a new employer than a woman. Women have a greater fear of the unknown and prefer to remain with a known group, and among the friendships they have created in their existing company. A small wage increase is not normally worth the risk of jumping ship to another company for most women, but to men, it is not a problem. This risk aversion creates less wage pressure on the company and is partly responsible for the perceived wage gaps between women and men. Studies have shown that regardless of gender long-term loyalty towards a company results in a lower overall pay than those who periodically change companies.
Women are Natural Communicators and Teammates
When stressed, women tend to want to express their feelings and desires to alleviate their frustrations, whereas men tend to go silent and have been conditioned from childhood to soldier on. This is not an issue of wrong or right; it is simply the way gender-based coping skills are hardwired into each of us. Because of women’s tendency to want to verbalize what is on their minds, they have been groomed from childhood to be generally more considerate of how they speak to anyone and to reduce conflicts. Men’s egos get in the way; men are always competitive with everyone, and they therefore do not have this innate reaction to being considerate or even knowing when to be more open and communicate to avoid conflict. This is also why women are generally more willing to follow the specific processes required to perform a certain task that a company sets forth for its employees. So, when methodologies need to be adhered to, put a woman in charge and watch how she keeps everyone in line and how she verbalizes when methodologies are not being followed. Good lord, I sometimes wonder how women can put up with our shenanigans. Like how we always think we are special and how rules don’t always apply to us; case in point, male salesmen. When it comes to following rules, male salespeople in the construction industry can simply be the worst.
Innate Basic Skills Women Tend to Perform Better
Research by behavior scientists has supported that women are better at some innate basic skills than men. Research on multitasking and repetitive task completion has shown that women are the clear winners in these two categories. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen women outperform men in the component manufacturing environment. Out on the manufacturing floor, women tend to outperform men in many areas. The same can be stated for many other areas of the construction industry.
Safe and Welcoming Work Environment
A warning from a previous consultation. Client: “Todd, do you mean to tell me you want me to hire and expose women to that environment out in our shop?” Let me just say that the foul language and behavior used there is not exactly something you may want your wife or daughter to be exposed to daily. My reply: “Do you mean the environment that you have allowed and which you are responsible for?” For some reason, that comment ended that conversation. I think this is self-evident. Every company in our industry needs to create an atmosphere and work environment in which any woman would feel comfortable working. Women must—not should but must— have a work environment that they feel safe and welcoming.
Words of Caution for Women
Ladies, from the bottom of my heart, I cannot emphasize enough that, even if you think you know about the competitive traits of men, it may not have ever been laid out before you clearly. Women tend to view the world as what they believe is supposed to be fair, meaning less conflict and more cooperation. Men, however, see life as a never-ending competition: no rules apply within a no-limitations world. Men, for the most part, never think about what is fair; their focus is on winning. Some of the most mundane things can trigger a man’s ego and need to fight, and you may have no clue why a man behaves that way. Believe it or not, this is not an issue of right or wrong, and this will never change, no matter how much you or anyone may want it to. Understand this basic tenant, and you will be able to cope with this competitiveness in a healthy way.
Final Words About Women in the Construction Industry
Women are in every working area and at every managerial level within the construction industry. In fact, multiple companies, including one of the larger companies with multi-location lumberyards, are managed and owned by women. Too few women are employed in this industry, and this is not a healthy practice. To attract more women, we as an industry must first understand the basic underlying problems causing this discrepancy. For women who are joining or are thinking of joining the construction industry, welcome, welcome, welcome! We need you—very much so.
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