Due to the ongoing lack of female representation within the UK construction industry, which is said to be due to the many challenges and barriers that they face, this study intended to find out what motivated those who did join irrespective of the challenges, whilst exploring what gender bias exists at school age. In order to do this a review of challenges and barriers that exist for females working within the UK construction industry was undertaken, whilst exploring what barriers affect females joining the industry. It was also imperative to investigate what gender bias, in school age children exists regarding construction. By doing this would create an understanding of what more can be done to encourage more females to join the industry and highlight opportunities for educational institutions and construction organisations to encourage more females into the sector. A mixed method approach was adopted for this study. First a critical literature investigation was carried out that supported the design of two questionnaires that were distributed to two groups of participants. One, distributed to young females aged 16 and attending mainstream school, would aid in obtaining relevant and current data from females in their final year of compulsory education, and thus at the vital stage of choosing future career and educational paths. The second was distributed to females currently or recently working within the UK construction industry and held a selection criterion that specifies that their job roles include at least 50% site exposure.
The findings of this dissertation showed that not only did gender bias exist at school age towards the construction industry for those females who have recently worked within the sector, but also within mainstream education and adolescents today. This was also found to be the case with those who they are in direct contact with, as part of careers fairs and college open days etc. It was also suggested that by increasing exposure to the construction industry throughout early years and into secondary education may increase interest rates of females to join the sector. This was alongside relating skills and subjects to construction to widen career prospects, tailoring information, advertisements, and recruitment relating to construction to females, and increasing confidence in young females. The challenges females face when working within the construction industry were also found to align with previous research, and thus reinforcing the issues as being prevalent in the industry as it stands today.
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